Tracklist

After two years off the road, Arlie returns with Someone You Can Believe In (Dec 11, 2025)—a storybook album in which heartbreak prompts a spiritual quest for clarity in a world of constant noise. Built like a radio drama, fully produced dialogue chapters bind the songs into a single story as Arlie wrestles with divine silence, human suffering, and the nerve to trust his own voice again. The record marks a full-circle return to the obsessive, handmade approach behind his earliest bedroom recordings—“big fat mouth” and “didya think”—which launched Nathaniel Banks’s Arlie project from a Vanderbilt dorm room in 2017. Those tracks spread organically, drew Atlantic Records’ attention, and led to national festivals and tours around the debut EP WAIT. But the industry support did not come without a cost. “A&Rs and managers discouraged the very self-trust that got me signed,” Banks recalls. After a 2019 breaking point, he began rebuilding trust in art and life. He made his 2022 LP Break the Curse while still fragile, then exited the major-label system in 2023 and recommitted to a self-directed practice. That summer at Lollapalooza, a devil character seized his handmade cardboard wings mid-song; Arlie answered by crowdsurfing the finale—proving he could fly without the devil's help. Back to the stripped-down setup that started it all—the junior-size Yamaha acoustic, the sunburst Mexican Strat, late-night vocal layering—Banks treats the bedroom not as nostalgia but as a deliberate constraint which allows his creative spirit to expand. The result is a story-driven Arlie record that prizes patience over scroll, craft over spectacle, and intimacy over algorithm. In an era of instant consumption, Someone You Can Believe In asks for deep listening, where details reward attention and meaning reveals itself slowly. The “Arlie and the Orb” tour runs Sept 26–Oct 28, bringing the story to life with a new L.A.-based band. He won't be wearing wings this time, but Arlie will be airborne.