Greg Freeman: All Set The Bone [Album Review]

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Greg Freeman – All Set The Bone

All Set The Bone

Greg Freeman — 2026

ReleasedOctober 8
Label Transgressive Records/Canvasback Music
Produced By John Congleton
Runtime67 min / 13 tracks

Album Review
Greg Freeman • All Set The Bone • Sprawling Indie Rock

“All Set The Bone gives Greg Freeman’s guitars, stories, and rough edges room to stretch out, resulting in his biggest and best record yet.”

With each record, Greg Freeman has been growing as an artist, but All Set The Bone feels like a real step forward. Freeman left Burlington, gave up odd jobs like cemetery landscaping and restaurant work, and headed west while committing himself to music full-time. That upheaval seems to have followed him into these songs. “Cahokia” opens with the knockout line, “Time to join the world you fucked up,” while “Totaled” comes crashing in with an attacking guitar that recalls The Replacements or even Modest Mouse at their early indie youthfulness. From there, Freeman rarely takes the obvious route and the record refuses to play by modern rules. In an age of AI singles and TikTok bursts, these 13 tracks average over five minutes and leave room for guitars to sprawl, horns and violin to crash the party, and tempos to suddenly shift. Songs get room to wander and then explode. “Hail Mary” spends two minutes sounding like a band casually warming up before it suddenly erupts into a huge rocker for the back three. Working with John Congleton in Los Angeles helps give all of this double LP some shape without cleaning it up. Freeman’s creaky voice remains right in the middle of everything, singing about unsettled characters, from a voter drowning in credit card debt to a whole town of bent necks, and sounding 100% real through all of it. At 67 minutes, All Set The Bone is a lot of record, but that is exactly what makes it so good. Freeman has made something big, unpredictable, and completely unconcerned with getting to the point quickly. Freeman says every album should scare you, but All Set The Bone sounds fearless. It is easily his best.

Pivotal Tracks

“Cahokia”
A fantastic opener that pairs Freeman’s sharpest writing with a slow-building arrangement, immediately establishing the record’s uneasy mood and buckling you in for the ride.
“Loser’s Prize”
Freeman turns romantic uncertainty into something bigger and stranger, while the band gives every shift enough room to hit harder. There is an Old 97’s swagger to it that I really like.
“Hail Mary”
His longtime love of Fugazi and Unwound shows most here, as the track finishes with jagged math rock chords that snap against a thick wall of post hardcore distortion.

Artists with Similar Fire

MJ Lenderman
Both artists understand how loose, slightly battered indie rock works very well with sharp writing and unexpected emotional weight.
Jeff Tweedy
Freeman shares Tweedy’s knack for pairing a weathered voice and sharply observed writing with songs that can wander, stretch out, and find beauty in their rough edges.
Kevin Morby
Both write sprawling, distinctly American indie rock where vivid pictures sit inside arrangements with room to grow, shift, and occasionally get beautifully unruly. Freeman is noisier here for sure, but both are great storytellers.

The Fire Note Rating: 4.5

The Fire Note Spin
4.5 out of 5

Review History: Burnover (2025)

I grew up on Pacific Northwest basement shows, made playlists when I should’ve been sleeping, and still can’t shake my love for shoegaze haze, indie pop honesty, and messy singer/songwriter anthems.

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