Written by Akshath Verma
2026 has been a big year for Nate Amos, otherwise known as This Is Lorelei. From the release of Holo Boy in December 2025, to the biggest names in Indie covering his music, Nate Amos has been everywhere. To understand the prominence of his songwriting in these circles we just have to look at the tracklist from Holoboy.
Holoboy is a collection of This Is Lorelei songs that has been re-recorded, with each track being off of its own unique project. This list for these songs is:
- “I Can’t Fall” (originally on OK N8, 2020)
- “But You Just Woke Me Up” (originally on Move Around, 2019)
- “Dreams Away” (originally on This Is Lorelai (2012-2016), 2016)
- “SF & GG” (originally on Money Right Now, 2021)
- “My Friend 2” (originally on Love is Everywhere, 2021)
- “Name the Band” (originally on Jimmy Buffett Tape, 2019)
- “This is a Joke” (originally on EP #20, 2021)
- “Mouth Man” (originally on Falls Like Water Falls, 2022)
- “Money Right Now” (originally on Money Right Now, 2021)
- “Holo Boy” (Title Track) [1, 2, 3]
The most noticeable difference is in the quality of production. Nate Amos talks about his recording process being akin to someone who likes to journal, just getting the ideas out by recording as quickly as possible. You can clearly hear the spike in production quality if you compare This is a Joke (Ep #20) vs This is a Joke (Holoboy). The track from Holoboy features a guitar solo, with electronic elements in the intro, as well as a keen attention to the singing and voice production, whereas the older version could have been straight from his voice memos.
His discography is very dense, so he had quite a bit of music to pick from to re-record. His philosophy with song writing also guided his selections. He didn’t want to overthink it while still surprising audiences with his selection.
The opening track, “I Can’t Fall”, has incredible changes from the previously recorded version, featuring a pitched down voice, and a vocal melody that is octaves below the original. In an NPR interview he details how his perception on vocal production has changed.
“But especially with this album, because I’ve been performing as This Is Lorelei more and more, which was never really a thing until the last couple years, I’ve gotten a little more comfortable presenting my own voice in an unaltered way.”
– Nate Amos for NPR
The album follows his debut, Box For Buddy Box For Star, which was an incredibly well received album and just recently had a deluxe version released. The deluxe has a star studded cast such as Jeff Tweedy, Hayley Williams, Snail Mail and more. Songs like “Where’s your Love Now” have been covered by Indie’s golden boy Cameron Winter, or “Dancing in the Club” covered by Mj Lenderman. His vast discography has hinted at his potential to be a prominent songwriter of our generation, but these last two years have solidified it.
As a fan of Box for Buddy, Box for Star, I was incredibly pleased with Holoboy and some of the connecting themes throughout the songs. All of the songs had a sense of humour to them, and are charming in their own ways. His singing in lower octaves also makes the album feel effortless and relaxed, like a buddy making a joke about a shitty situation. One of the most endearing lines for me was “Wipe my eyes, like I’m trying to forget everything I did last night” from the track Dreams Away.
Tracks like This is a Joke has some amazing one liners as well, depicting a tired character trying his best. “I thought you were gone, and now you’re like coming back again” in the context of this song has to do with problems that he thinks he drives away but they come back around to get him anyway! Another line from the same song that I love is “I wonder if my brother thinks I’m good or if I’m too far gone.”
Introspection like this, combined with his sense of humour is what makes this album. These songs deserved the extra attention, and the re-recorded tracks on Holoboy show the difference that production quality can make to a project.