Album Review: “Like You Never Left” by One Outta Ten
By Rowyn Belt
One Outta Ten has released their best work yet this first quarter of 2026 with the album Like You Never Left. Leading single Two of Cups headed this release, with nearly a year between the start of this era and the album release. This album explores “all the good, bad, and ugly a relationship can contain,” the band mentioned, and was released right in time for Valentine’s Day. The music in this release, as explained by the band, is about knowing what it’s like when people love and leave. This album explores difficult emotions and allows us to dwell on them for just a second too long. Standouts in this album include the instrumental opening Kenopsia, Orpheus, and Distant Stars (Withstand).
The introduction to the album opens the book gently, with ambient rock opening up Kenopsia. Kenopsia is an uncommon word, used to describe the eerie experience of a once busy place, like a school hallway, being empty. As the song becomes more involved, it seems to carry the narrative presented by the title and the album; staying just long enough to find out what happens next. Though short and lyric-less, this track still carries a lot of weight within the album itself.
Orpheus opens with a very laid back guitar, feeling very stylistically similar to The Backseat Lovers’ album When We Were Friends. The refrain lyrics, “Don’t look back, loosen your grip on the shattered glass. Don’t look back, like Orpheus stuck in the past,” speak volumes to today’s overbearing focus on nostalgia and memories. The question is asked, “Was it love or coddled anxiety?” which brings forward this focal point again. The insecurity in our own emotion is captured perfectly in this track.
Third to last song, Distant Stars (Withstand) pulls in a much more traditional alternative rock sound. With a very kick-heavy drum sound, rhythm guitar playing low power chords, and a twinkly guitar line taking place over verses, this tune mixes every good part of our favorite alternative and indie bands. The band uses a half-time feel in the choruses to push the atmospheric vibe of several other sections of the album, and sings the last chorus over a double-time instrumental. Ending the tune with the word “kenopsia,” the song fazes out with a gritty guitar and a little bit of feedback, truly feeding into the unsettling feeling of the sound once present dying out.
Like You Never Left explores so many stages of relationships and life within its 13 songs, and creates a space of comfort and reality within its lyrics and instrumentation. Allowing for the rush of the world to take the backseat, it focuses much more heavily on the individual experience of life and celebrates the emotions that make us human. One Outta Ten held onto the nostalgic values of the indie rock genre, keeping glowing guitar parts and DIY-esque production prevalent in their modern take on self exploration. While holding onto these virtues, the band created a masterpiece and gave it to their fans when they needed it most.
