Orange

White Fence — 2026

“Orange isn’t just a comeback album; it’s planting a new flag, marking new territory, it’s Presley once again staking his claim as being amongst the most talented and exciting artists of his generation”

Seven years is a long time to wait for a new album from Tim Presley and White Fence, but let’s be perfectly honest with each other: it’s been twelve years since Presley put out a top-to-bottom classic. For the Recently Found Innocent was an absolute revelation. It fulfilled all the promises of the preceding White Fence albums and took the music to another level, and was a modern indie masterpiece, a benchmark of the new San Francisco sound that is still being used to measure the greatness of all the music coming from the scene today. However, in the world of Indie rock, twelve years is a lifetime, in fact, if you go back and look at our Blazing Top 50 from 2014, you’re going to see albums from a few artists that are still going pretty strong, some that have settled into a groove of putting out an album every few years like they are just checking off a box, and you are going to see bands who have stopped recording completely for one reason or another. What is rarer to see is an artist who, in 2014, hit an absolute peak, and then slowly slid down the mountaintop with each successive release until finally being on the verge of being nearly forgotten in 2026. You check in on them with every new release but get a little sad when you hear the albums. I realize that very few artists stay great forever, but some do, and some are even somehow able to reclaim some of that old magic and climb another peak, and that is why you keep checking in on them. White Fence is one of those bands you keep checking in on, because their peak was so high and so great that if they were even able to climb halfway back up the mountain, it would make for one kickass rock record. Well, I have great news for you, Orange, the new album by White Fence is one of those records that climbs all the way back up the mountain, and peers down at the valley below, and makes you realize that you can’t get to the top of another mountain if you haven’t come all the way down from the first mountain.

But Orange isn’t just a comeback album; it’s planting a new flag, marking new territory, it’s Presley once again staking his claim as being amongst the most talented and exciting artists of his generation. The music on the album is once again built on the jangle of his guitars, a sound heavily influenced by The Byrds or Love, exactly the sort of sound he did away with after 2014. Just as he did with Innocent, Presley has brought in his old friend and collaborator, Ty Segall, to man the production chair and to play the drums on Orange. The pairing of these two has always produced inspired results, dating back to the 2012 album Hair, which helped elevate interest in both artists. On Orange, Segall’s drumming pushes Presley’s playing to new spiraling heights; the songs here are not meandering experiments but wonderfully crafted rock and roll with hooks galore, two artists in a room creating magic. But have no fear, there are still enough rough edges to make the music a challenge to hold onto, which is the way it should be, right?

The album opener “That’s Where The Money Goes (Seen From The Celestial Realm)” features a few interesting lyrics that, intentional or not, really seem to serve as the album’s underlying theme.

“I didn’t know my wings came with demands. If they burn, I’ll always have my hands”

Perhaps Presley felt he was flying too close to the sun and let his wings catch fire, sending him tumbling down from the mountain top, until he crashed. Eventually, he decided to pick up his guitar back up and just play and sing, not worrying about flaming out, just playing like he always could. Reaching that conclusion must have been a revelation for him. As an artist, you should always strive to keep reaching for something new, but the danger of that is that you can reach too far. With Orange, Presley is pulling it back in a little, not overextending his reach for something that far exceeds his grasp, but reaching for something a little closer, but still just a fingertip away. Another key line is “My love doesn’t want to stay in frame”, here Presley is acknowledging that his muse doesn’t stay in one spot, it’s constantly moving, restless even, and can lead him down false paths or send him in wrong directions, but that is part of his journey. Themes of love, loss, addiction, and rebirth run throughout the album, and nowhere is this more evident than on “Unread Books”, a slow, sad song built not on jangly guitar but on the synths of La Luz’s Alice Sandahl. There isn’t a song on the album that is less than very good, and most would fall into the great category.

Imagine Syd Barrett leading The Soft Boys instead of Robyn Hitchcock, or The Byrds with Tom Verlaine on guitar and you are getting close to the sound that White Fence has on Orange.

Orange is the sound of an artist climbing out from the dark and entering a new period of creative light. Presley has once again embraced jangle and melody on his terms, not because the industry demanded it, but because he felt it was time. From the vantage point atop this new mountain, Presley can once again see not just where he is going, but also where he has been, and as he surveys this new landscape, he has the satisfaction of knowing he did it on his own terms.