New Music: Avery Friedman – Finger Painting

Finger Painting alone is ample proof that Avery Friedman’s New Thing album should deservedly find itself on many of 2025’s ‘Best Album’ lists.

It also signals that Friedman herself is certain to be an important voice over the next few years if New Thing’s raw honesty and subtle colours garner her the attention she deserves.

Where previous single and album title track New Thing feels autumnal, Finger Painting comes across as having springtime aura about it. Not so much in the passing of time, but a time of growth, renewal, and leaving darker times behind.

Creation is at the heart of the song, be it art or possibly a relationship in its early flowering but from a queer perspective, and as the song grows, you can feel yourself part of that experience, willing it to bloom.

Finger Painting, and the album as a whole, comes across as a kind of therapy. Not just focusing on finding a resolution to difficult life experiences, but a way of adding order and a degree of sense, as emotions, memories, and achievements are placed in a non-chronological but cohesive order.

Its fusion of lo-fi rock and folk – one that’s a reoccurring theme throughout the album – amplifies the vulnerability and growing resilience that drives the evolution of the story at the heart of Finger Painting, delivered in a vocal performance that fans of Adrianne Lenker, Squirrel Flower, and Babehoven are certain to adore.

The album is obviously very special for Friedman, as it appears to function not just as a milestone in her creative and personal journey, but also almost as a way of moving on from and finding peace with some of the experiences and emotions outlined within its songs.

“New Thing is a conduit for emotions too frenetic to hold on your own. This record is a collection of the first songs I’ve ever written, after many years of orbiting the music world but denying myself my own musicianship,” says Friedman.

“Many of these tracks were born of anxiety—from my turning to a guitar to externalize (and organize) a sense of chaos that otherwise felt trapped inside me.”
“We recorded the bulk of it with a live band as a means to maintain the raw energy at the center of the record. What results is a time capsule for a year of intense personal expansion in my life—and the layers of warmth, wonder, sensitivity, and sharpness that come with growing.”

New Thing is out now via Audio Antihero. It’s available in cassette and digital formats on Bandcamp, where you can also pre-order a limited-edition version on clear sky-blue vinyl.

The album can be heard on YouTube Music and Spotify. For other listening alternatives, be sure to check out Avery Friedman on Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky, and Facebook.