Bilders 
A few years back, Sophomore Lounge released an essential compendium of Bill Direen works; introduction or retrospective, depending on how you come to it. No matter if that was your first taste of a welcome reminder, it sparked a new love of Direen, but the man himself has rarely settled down to stare back in satisfaction. The 2020s have brought a renewed vision of Bilders, Direen’s most recent incarnation, and following quickly on last year’s Dustbin of Empathy, last year wrought the looming, lacerating, Neverlasting. With a lineup that carries over from Dustbin (a rarity in Direen’s tenure) the new album features members of Lambchop, Porn Orchard, and BBQ Killers. Direen’s always been a barometer of the world’s failure to comfort it’s creatures, and as 2025 kept no horror from the headlines, Direen helps steer the listener through the demise of decency, democracy, serenity, and sanity. Though, being an elder statesmen of the age of atrocity, Direen faces it with a stoicism rather than shock or alarm.
With the measured intensity of Leonard Cohen’s late-period laments, Direen crafts an album from the perspective of one who’s been embroiled since he was born, a punk who has never settled even when the volume is turned down. If anything, Direen’s calm composure is more unsettling on Neverlasting. Horror is born of horror, the embers were laid and await, always willing to light new tinder. Direen’s working to navigate the flames to the best of his abilities; a camera eye and poet’s pen always absorbing and reflecting the light and heat back at the listener. This past year has seen him embraced on a grander scale as well, receiving Laureate award in NZ for his contribution to music and arts, an honor that seeks to put into perspective the many years he’s spent at the in the fray. What ties the tales together on Neverlasting, hell, through all of Direen’s work, is his sense of empathy. As much as others are ready to rebuke, Bill’s ready to receive — the damned, the disheveled, the disinherited, the downtrodden — Bill’s got space for them all. We could do well to listen to Direen.
Support the artist. Buy it HERE.