At the outset of last year, Fuzzysurf ended a self-imposed hiatus by releasing Chameleons, an ambitious, genre-jumping, and loosely conceptual double LP consisting of 20 sonically sprawling tracks that combined to form one of our favorite Milwaukee records of 2025. Well, we’ve recently learned the album technically wasn’t the release that ended the surf-tinged indie outfit’s extended break. It simply skipped to the front of the line.
On Monday, August 31, Fuzzysurf will release Black Licorice, a 10-song follow-up to Chameleons that’s also kinda-sorta its predecessor. Confused yet? Allow us to explain. You see, many of the songs listeners will encounter on the forthcoming album were actually born as far back as 2022, and some were even previously released as standalone singles (“Shoulder To Cry On”) and predictably high-caliber music videos (“Sheep Shed” and “Sucky”). As the album, which was initially intended to be the chaser for Fuzzysurf’s 2020 album Sweet Tooth, was gradually coming together, the band’s lineup and the personal lives of individual members were experiencing some major changes, which put things on hold.
By the time a new rhythm section was shown the ropes and singer Sean Lehner acclimated to fatherhood, artistic attention shifted to new material destined for Chameleons. Thankfully, once that was out in the world, Fuzzysurf also recognized they had some great material waiting for them on the cutting room floor. Some of those early ’20s songs were reworked, other new songs were written in full by the band in its current roster, and Black Licorice was completed.
The new record signals a return to form for Fuzzysurf and, in some ways, it literally is a case of them returning to music they’ve already released in other formats. The catchy lyrics, memorable melodies, and punchy power-pop instrumentation longtime Fuzzysurf listeners know, love, and only heard select samples of on Chameleons are back in full force here. Offerings like “Nobody’s Fool”—which the band is graciously allowing Milwaukee Record to debut exclusively in advance of the new album’s release—are prime examples of Fuzzysurf being Fuzzysurf in the best way possible, as chunky bass and guitar fight to overtake a deluge of splashing cymbals and Lehner’s bellows of betrayal. Gear up for the release of Black Licorice (an album more than four years in the making!) and stream “Nobody’s Fool” below.