Throughout her career, WILLOW has exploded boundaries between genres and styles, creating a discography that’s full of left turns. With her second album of 2026, she pushes herself into new lyrical territory; The Thread, she’s said, is an album of devotionals, interrogations of the spiritual world and her spiritual self. WILLOW’s risk-taking is well-suited to this concept; her musical leaps of faith are well-matched to the reaching toward the divine that she sings about. Opening with “She’s My Religion,” a propulsive track where an acoustic guitar and a choir’s gasps complement the forceful percussion, The Thread finds WILLOW and producer Chris Greatti (who also worked on 2022’s and 2024’s empathogen) experimenting with sound and structure. On the title track, sprightly verses open up into a giant chorus that has the anthemic feel of WILLOW’s more rock-oriented work before the music drops out, putting WILLOW’s acrobatic voice on full display. “Talk on the Hill” balances on a strutting groove and insistent guitars, with WILLOW occasionally arcing her voice into the top of its upper register; the excitedly curious “Crush on Eternity” veers between crashing alt-rock and stacked vocals that are nearly unadorned. “The Present Moment,” where her vocals dart around a firm beat and flinty guitars, underlines her message of searching for community and compassion. “We don’t got a lot of time, yeah/This is why I can’t take it lightly,” she sings in a speedy fashion. Over the course of her career, WILLOW has balanced the playful with the serious, resulting in a singular body of work that’s as unpredictable as it is exhilarating—and The Thread is another example of her ever-evolving artistry.