Opener 'Love Ruins Everything' plants that flag front and centre, layering an almost 80s dance-pop vibe and a jazzy brass section over the band's now trademark choral harmony and lyrical vulnerability. Elsewhere, 'Someone You Love' has the cinematic appeal of a Breakfast Club-esque, coming-of-age soundtrack feature, while 'Right in Front of Me' digs into the rockier edge of Americana, creating a track impossible not to move to. 

Where 'All for Something' was arguably a band making more obvious choices – using softer tones and more organic instrumentation to convey their messages – 'Keepers' takes its cues from the more subversive side of pop music as daring storytelling contrasts with a more diverse, enticing soundscape. 

If you were looking for a way to encapsulate the album's heart and soul, look no further than the shimmering three song run of 'Towel', 'Belt Loop', and 'Pattern of a Person'; the first an Afrobeat admittance of giving up in a relationship, the second a sexy, sultry foray into the rebound following a breakup, and the third a gut-wrenching introspective on familial trauma. It feels apt that a band with a track called 'Malleable' have become so adaptable and so open to new artistic challenges.

Talking about 'Belt Loop', Maya Rae explains that, while it came together quickly, it was nonetheless a daunting tale to tell. "I had gone through this pretty intense breakup, and this was kind of my first experience with somebody new after that breakup. I think as soon as I showed it to The Habs, they were like, 'This is so cool'." 

She continues: "It's a part of us that I feel like we hadn't really showed. The other music we've put out in the past has been very gentle and about, like, more pure things; we didn't really get into the nitty-gritty of our lives. With 'Belt Loop', that was definitely a scary thing for me to show. I don't like to be such an 'outward girl', but it's sort of empowering for me to sing and for other people to know that this is a part of my life."

None of this is to say that Tiny Habits have completely abandoned their debut sound, one which gained them fans including James Taylor, Sarah McLachlan, and The 1975's Matty Healy, who lends his immediately recognisable vocal to 'Anything He Was'.

"He came to see us open for James Taylor in LA," Maya says in a mind-blowingly nonchalant way, "and he just sent us a message like, 'I'm such a big fan, if you ever want to work together let me know'. We had the song finished, but we thought we'd take a shot in the dark and he immediately texted back, 'Of course!'"

"[Matty's] the most artist person I've ever met," Cinya states, after doing a remarkably accurate enactment of his English accent.

Judah nods, refraining from joining in with the impressions: "Yeah, he's amazing; he's very generous, he's really funny. He really does just have an artist's brain, like you take something away from everything he says."

The bravely bare moments from the debut that won these famous fans, such as the alarmingly relatable 'Wishes', bleed into 'Keepers' in the form of tracks like 'Fragile, Too' and 'Survivor's Guilt', both of which allow Cinya's breathy vocal to re-centre the record before all three voices come back together with truly transcendent results.

It is 'Pattern of a Person', though, that really underlines the growth that the band has made in every aspect of their songwriting over the last two years. A brutally beautiful portrayal of a broken home, completed by home tapes of a child pouring his love for his mother out for the world to hear, it is a track which inspires shivers down your spine and tears in your eyes. Judah's vocal is dangerously close to breaking throughout as he pleads to be the last in his line to feel this pain.

Thinking back to when the song was written, Judah says: "I remember I went to a wedding in 2024, and I brought a guitar because we'd planned a writing retreat in Maui, I think. I didn't think I would pick it up all weekend, but the night before the wedding, I wrote 'Pattern of a Person'.

"I was like, 'Oh, okay, do you guys like this?', because the intention was to wait until we were all together to write more, but I just felt so inspired in that moment that I couldn't let it go past."

Cinya had a similar experience when writing her most vulnerable moments on the record. "I think most of the slower ones were started by probably alone. I started 'Survivors Guilt' in a hotel room, and then I was like, 'Oh, we should probably finish this', so I just went downstairs to Maya and Judah's room, and we finished it. 

"And 'Fragile, Too' I wrote when we were staying in an Airbnb in Los Angeles, when we were on tour with Sarah McLachlan. We were in this hockey arena, and I was randomly playing it when our manager was like, 'This song needs a bridge', so I was in, like, the hockey arena shower with the lights off, and then it clicked. It was so funny, but it made sense; it was really sweet."

Nevertheless, it is when the three parts of Tiny Habits come together that they are most invincible. Before they are musicians and bandmates, they are fierce, fierce friends, something which heavily inspired the album's title.

"We're kind of each other's keepers," Cinya posits, "I know all of Maya and Judah's secrets; we all know each other so well. 

"Also, it's the memories and songs and images that you keep with you your whole life that sort of steer you in whatever direction you end up going, so it just felt like there were too many reasons to not use it."

We catch the band around a month out from the album's release, but it would be remiss not to ask about what they envisage in their future, especially given the exponential rise the band have showcased in the two years between albums.

Understandably, though, they're unshakingly invested in this current album cycle, focusing wholeheartedly on extracting every ounce of joy and pride they can from what is a tour de force of a second record.

"I guess we don't really know to be honest," Maya admits. "I think we loved exploring this record and the new avenues it took us down. So, I feel like we'll continue to do that: pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone."

"There are so many genres we love," Cinya adds, "that it's impossible to say now. I mean, we love folk, we love pop, but we also listen to rap, to country – maybe we'll do a country rap album next!" For the record, we tried to talk them out of this, so if that is the basis of their third album, it's not on us.

If any talk of the 'difficult second album' penetrated the Tiny Habits camp during the making of this album, it will undoubtedly be banished from their vocabulary once the record reaches the ears of audiences globally. No matter what comes next, the trio are more than happy to keep going with the flow, changing with the times as they ebb into whatever their next chapter holds.

"I mean, this might be lame," Maya worriedly prefaces, "but honestly, I just want to keep doing this forever. Whatever happens with the album kind of doesn't matter to me so long as it allows us to keep singing together and making music together. I just want to keep hanging out with my best friends, doing what I love. Yeah, that's it."

As Celtic-inspired closer 'Lonely Is A Sad Song' fades out, you're left with the gnawing feeling that this is a band that could turn their hand to anything and make it gorgeous. The sweeping breadth and unctuous depth of 'Keepers' points to a band harnessing all their talent and trauma and turning it into something special. But seriously, guys, leave the country rap alone, okay?

Taken from the September 2026 issue of Dork. Tiny Habits' album 'Keepers' is out 28th August.