Retirement Party Released New EP ‘Nothing To Hear Without A Sound’

After a brief hiatus and a lineup reset, songwriter Avery Springer returns as Retirement Party with new EP Nothing To Hear Without A Sound, out now. 

Tracked at Type One Studios with engineer/producer Simon Small (The Front Bottoms, Pool Kids), the four-song EP kicks off Retirement Party’s “adult chapter”: hook-forward, fuzz-bright indie rock that turns second-guesses into sing-alongs. From the hard-charging EP opener “Sixth Sense” to the intimate and earnest closer “Moving Forward,” Nothing To Hear Without A Sound is an irresistibly catchy re-entry that bridges the band’s DIY roots with a sharper, full-spectrum sound. 

“While all of these songs stem from different times in my life, the common thread that brings them together is the anxiety of time passing and life changing,” says Springer. “It felt natural pulling these songs together and finishing them as a group. Unexpectedly, revisiting and completing them together has given this worry a sense of closure.”

Pulling from ideas sketched at different points in the band’s life and finished under Springer’s current vision, Nothing To Hear Without A Sound is the project’s first release without the original lineup behind cult-favorite LPs Somewhat Literate and Runaway Dog. Springer steps fully into architect mode here, writing and tracking everything but Sam Brown’s drums, channeling the project’s punchy emo DNA into tighter arrangements, cleaner lines, and bolder dynamics. The result feels unmistakably like Retirement Party – just older, wiser, and turned up a notch.

Retirement Party began in a freshman-year bedroom when Avery Springer, then 18 and new to Chicago, decided to bottle every anxious thought inside a fuzz-pedal tornado. The raw EP Strictly Speaking (2017) caught DIY ears, while 2018’s debut LP Somewhat Literate and 2020 follow-up Runaway Dog earned praise for their guitar-forward hooks and candid lyricism. After relentless touring with Mom Jeans, The Get Up Kids, and Pet Symmetry, the band pressed pause in 2022 as members peeled off, pandemic fatigue lingered, and Springer started law school.

Now Springer is clocking back in, solo but sharper, for the project’s “adult chapter.” Nothing To Hear Without A Sound, out August 28, is both a comeback and a personal reboot: four songs drafted at different moments of the band’s life, finished entirely under Springer’s current vision. Pushing beyond her old comfort zone of vocals and rhythm guitar, she wrote and tracked every instrument except drums. The result fuses the jagged emo exuberance of early Retirement Party with tighter arrangements, lyrical self-reckonings, and a widened melodic streak that hints at where the project can go next.