Following up an album solely focused on death and the afterlife, emo and alt-rock artist Jake Vera will be releasing his new record, Lost, tomorrow, October 17th, 2025.
Hailing from Dallas, Texas, Vera delivers his heartfelt rock energy with a goal of bringing modern rock music back into the mainstream. And with Lost, he hopes to do his part in making that change.
The new album is preceded by Vera's July single, "Time." This track is gently nightmarish, combining floating, drawn-own melodies with lyrics about wanting to be saved from eternal damnation. The song's title refers to traveling back in time to fix the sins of the past and avoid the final judgement of the future. It also contains a clear desire to experience abstract, transcendent meaning in which Vera's soul "takes flight." The listener is bathed in this desire through the hazy walls of guitar, and the song is reminiscent of metal in the way it expresses a sense of foreboding doom in both the vocals and instrumentation.
Vera's other single, "Divide," is a collaboration with the more electronic-based songwriter Iman Kumar Mukherjee, though a different, more subtle version is to be released on the new album.
The song takes Vera's brooding lyricism and vocal chops into the pop-sphere. Whereas a guitar would have made for a more melancholic sound, the punching drums and airy hits of keyboard make for something more dream-like. The alternate album version of this single rests within the same more guitar-based soundscape of the rest of the LP. The contrast is stark, yet fitting as a presentation of two sides of the same emo-rock coin.
Another reverb-heavy rager on the record is "Burn." This notable track is classic emo all the way. It checks every box, from the heavy guitar tones to the lyricism about intense relational desire. Vera sings "You can shape me how you like," as if he was clay and his lover was melding him into who he needs to be.
The second half of the LP features a greater presence of acoustic guitar in many of the arrangements, even ending with two completely acoustic versions of previous tracks. The closer is the song "Forsaken (acoustic version)," which returns to the themes of apocalypse and purification Vera explored in "Time." These acoustic versions are worthwhile on their own, showcasing a sound that, while less hard-hitting, gives a lot more space for Vera's words of destruction and renewal. The song is almost mythological, being highly personal yet sounding prophetic at the same time.
On Lost, Jake Vera is burning with the desire for redemption, hoping to be reborn. In the meantime, he's keeping modern rock music alive a little longer, too.
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