Geese, Getting Killed

“THERE'S A BOMB IN MY CAR." Had these words been uttered by anyone other than Cameron Winter, there would likely be room for alarm, but the Geese frontman is well known for screeching deafening lyrics like these. Winter repeats this line a mere fifteen times throughout their new album’s opening track “Trinidad,” each with more bite to both shock and excite listeners. In Getting Killed, Geese delivers absurdly enchanting lyrics and bombastic instrumentation with sincerity. It is a record measured in its zaniness and uncompromising in its need to be genuine and singular.

The NYC rock band released their fourth studio album just over a month ago on September 26th. Given the breakout success of their previous record 3D Country, the sheer hype around this release was intoxicating. Some felt nothing could top their last work, while others put their hope in the capability of the young rockers. Winter, having released his debut solo album Heavy Metal at the end of 2024, has since honed his songwriting and vocal abilities, bringing a more polished intention to Geese. In the brief time since its release, Getting Killed has already been labeled as one of the best records of the year, and unsurprisingly so.

The first single debuted from this project was “Taxes,” a bright and airy track-turned-powerful conviction of self-appointed freedom. The drums, played by Max Bassin, jog alongside Emily Green’s sweet, jangly guitar, flourishing to the very end. Crystal clear vocals from Winter are key to this entire album, allowing listeners to understand what is being uttered but keeping its meaning mostly up for interpretation.

“100 Horses,” the final single from Getting Killed, is a proper rock track that keeps a galloping beat while dishing up punchline-ridden lyrics like the tumultuously startling line: “there is only dance music in times of war.” Consistently cunning lyricism like this leaves listeners gawking and grinning in wonder before playing the songs again and again to learn all their words. The reserved “Husbands” comes in with a similarly steady tempo, only slower. This track is full of plucked strings, jangling bells, and a guitar melody akin to a singing voice. Winter’s vocals are once again in the forefront and stacked harmonies grow with palpable power as the song goes on.

The title track “Getting Killed” follows mightily right out the gate. Beginning with crashing drums and a sampled Ukrainian choir, Winter comes in to complete the unusually harmonious collection of sounds. He grows to screaming out the lyrics in pure overwhelm. The song then enters a drawn-back percussive section where Winter, in a desperate mantra, repeats, “I’m getting killed by a pretty good life.” He seems to be coming to terms with this existential dilemma, repeating it in hopes of better grasping it. In reckoning with his own intense emotions, Winter is inadvertently summing up parts of what the human experience is, which others struggle to do. This is precisely what makes him, and Geese, so alluring.

“Islands of Men” opens with a choppy, rhythmic start. The thumping, melodic bassline from Dominic DiGesu can almost be felt more than it is heard. This track is believed to speak to Green’s prolonged struggle with gender identity, as Winter urges that “You can’t keep running away/ From what is real and what is fake.” This song jams out a bit, likely exemplifying her journey in questioning. At one point, all sounds fade away, elements are slowly added back until a grand blossoming is made, and then a final relief, like a conclusion was found and peace is now had.

Getting Killed wouldn’t be a Geese project without some yearning. The bouncing frogginess of “Cobra” fits the vocals flawlessly. There are lullabyish keys and hymnal-like melodies Winter is known for crooning out. One of the most stinging lyrical moments on the record comes from “Half Real”:

I’ve got half a mind

To just pay for the lobotomy

And tell ‘em, “Get rid of the bad times

And get rid of the good times too

I’ve got no more thinking to do”

He is once again touching on a feeling we have all felt before but finds the words to say it even more piercingly. This track cuts off and leaves listeners unsatisfied by its abrupt end, but that is exactly reaffirming what was being said. “Au Pays Du Cocaine” follows “Half Real” and begs for a love to stay. Lyrical repetition once again spells disbelief and a want for things to work out. Haunting lyrics of love lost and unabashed begging reverberate through this trio of songs.

From there, we move into one of the heavier tracks on the record, “Bow Down.” Clapping and jingling perk listeners’ ears up, while its words are metaphorical and penetrating. The album finishes out with “Long Island City Here I Come,” which gives more biblical imagery and wrestles with finding a place to belong in life, through all its pain and happiness. “I have no idea where I’m going/ Here I come”, an equally resolved and unsettled ending.

Getting Killed overflows with a rhythm that expands to become gloriously inescapable. The choices to be zany, which Winter said were “dialed down by 30%” compared to 3D Country, are tasteful. Everything that happens in sound and lyric on this record feels deliberately selected. Like all of Geese’s previous albums, they’ve continued, with Getting Killed, in making punchy music that is refreshingly enthralling. These gifted 23-year-olds have a fearlessness that only their age and true talent can grant them, making their sound that much more riveting. Geese are defining an entire generation and genre of their own, and audiences everywhere are aching for more.

Getting Killed, the fourth studio album from Geese was released on September 26th, 2025, via Partisan Records.