If Los Angeles is where dreamers run, what happens to the dreams that get away? Some of them, certainly, end up in Austin, Texas. “I never felt at home in my home,” Matt Kivel explains in the opening words of his memoiristic new album, Escape From L.A. The 11 autobiographical tracks trace the songwriter’s juvenility in the Golden State, synthesizers and soft-spoken storytelling drifting peacefully through snares brushed with sea breeze and palm-dappled Rhodes melodies. Kivel flits through a reverie of a past like a hummingbird, moving forward and backward indiscriminately, revealing violent ironies and soft-lipped confessions of his own memories before dipping back in time to his parents’ initial migration to the land of “Robert Redford.” Dusk-tinted tones come into sunsoaked relief on guitar-forward “A Little Mark” and “Barbara’s Ocean.” Like all the best tributes to the City of Angels, Kivel’s scrapbook LP is playfully evocative. “We could’ve been Vampire Weekend,” he declares, laying into a guitar lick indicative of the Ivy League indie band, who Kivel’s own group, Princeton, supported in the Aughts. Through audience-facing self-reflection, frank imagery, and a nod to the Everly Brothers, Kivel explores home with complicated clarity only accessible from a distance.

This article appears in January 2 • 2026.

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Caroline is the Music and Culture staff writer and reporter, covering, well, music, books, and visual art for the Chronicle. She came to Austin by way of Portland, Oregon, drawn by the music scene and the warm weather.