Julia Wolf feels the tension with new album ‘PRESSURE’

Recommended tracks: “Loser,” “In My Room,” “Jennifer’s Body”
Artists you may like: Ethel Cain, Nessa Barrett, Sombr

Julia Wolf‘s sophomore album, PRESSURE, is yours to listen to today, May 23rd, 2025. This project reflects the recent emotions Wolf has been made to feel within her growing career. In this project, she gets rawer, grittier, and heavier between emo, shoegaze, and more. PRESSURE is a captivating exploration of duality, where darkness collides with light, and piercing pain gives way to relief.

Julia is a Long Island-born and Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter. Her genre-fluid music serves as an expressive safe space, allowing her to explore her emotions freely. Vulnerability has always been a hallmark of her work, and with this project, she aims to be more honest than ever and “lay it all out.” The album kicked off when she released her first single from PRESSURE last year, “In My Room.” The single is an emotional ballad expressing the yearning she has for companionship—in her own original way. As Wolf puts it,

“The song is really about the obsessive state I can get in when the one person who I want to see me is not seeing me. It just drives me insane internally and gets me thinking really crazy thoughts.”

The album opens with a chaotic burst on the track “Kill You Off.” It has a whirlwind of sounds that takes you from bouncing D’n’B to wailing metal. To accompany this buildup, she begins the track by lulling her lyrics, but by the end she protests loudly about this particular person. This representation shows just how much she wants to get this person out of her life.

Next, Wolf follows the themes of comparison in a new form. On her song “Pearl,” she rebukes a copycat artist: “You’re such an actress pretending you still have this / Your sh*t is average, on the low you can’t get past this.” The track marks a breakthrough for Wolf, revealing the quiet confidence that fuels her artistry, a striking shift from someone who once felt too shy to speak up among her peers. Her track “Jennifer’s Body” looks at things through a different lens—one of comparison, pushing back against societal beauty standards, while also challenging her existing insecurities around love. Driven by heavy riffs and soaring melodies, the raw and vulnerable “Jennifer’s Body” takes its name from Diablo Cody’s cult-favorite black comedy. Its sing-along chorus strikes a chord with anyone familiar with the trap of self-comparison.

The production of “Loser” engulfs you into the album and proves Wolf’s genre-bending abilities. It opens with an eerie guitar riff that evolves into an emo, head-banging rhythm before dropping into a trap-inspired bass pulse. The lyrics capture the feeling of being hung up on someone, and hating yourself for it. We continue to glide through PRESSURE with tracks like “Fingernails,” “FYP,” “Limewire,” and “For The Girls.”

The album closes with “Sunshine State” and “You’ve Lost A Lot Of Blood.” “Sunshine State” gives a slower, pop-rock vibe—something less common throughout this album. This is one of the few songs on PRESSURE that touches on the triumphs of relationships. Following this is her final song, “You’ve Lost A Lot Of Blood.” This track is carried by the beautiful harmonization between Wolf’s breathy yet powerful vocals and the trickling guitar riffs. Lyrically, it’s one of her most vulnerable songs, and is a bold move in her artistic evolution. She reflects on personal struggles, singing: “I’ve got reasons for the way that I am.”

As Wolf has just released PRESSURE and gets ready to launch her headlining tour, she’s a mix of nerves and excitement—eager to bare her most personal thoughts to a growing audience that has undoubtedly felt the same. By transforming that universal pressure into creative fuel, Wolf delivers her most striking work yet: a fearless artist fully stepping into her own. Tickets to all dates of Julia Wolf’s tour can be found here.