Small Talk is Chicago duo Whitney’s fourth and unequivocally best and most affecting album. After a decade of being roommates and bandmates, first in Smith Westerns and then inWhitney, Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek entered the studio in the Summer of 2024 sans-producer, with assorted pals dropping in to add parts.

The result is 11 incandescent songs that delight on two levels. There are instant classicWhitney songs here, tunes that tug at the same heartfelt melodic strings they’ve always pulled, and still other moments that speak to how much room they gave themselves to evolve.