The Lazy Eyes

Cheesy Love Songs, the years-in-the-making second album by Sydney four-piece The Lazy Eyes feels like a love letter to the classic pop form. It feels breezy, but that effortlessness was hard won: Arriving four years after their debut, the recording process saw The Lazy Eyes take stock of their work to ensure that whatever came next would make good on the promise of their debut. The result is both ornate and carefree, a gorgeous showcase for four of Australia’s best performers and songwriters.

Making the album, the band—Itay Shachar, Harvey Geraghty, Noah Martin and Leon Karagic—were inspired by the minimalist approach of Rick Rubin, which allowed the collection of songs they had chosen to record to shine without embellishment. This is evident in the songs, which sit firmly in a lineage that includes Sparklehorse, Amy Winehouse and The Beach Boys.

The Lazy Eyes started their career with a bang, playing shows across the world and receiving support from 6 Music, Matt Wilkinson and Triple J. After forming in high school and gigging around Sydney for the better part of their teenage years, they broke through with two EPs released in 2020 and 2021 and SongBook, released in 2022, which has since amassed millions of streams.

Cheesy Love Songs showcases the band at their most pop; a follow-up, in the works, is set to showcase the group’s penchant for heavier, more freeform songwriting—now with the newfound confidence of having their second album under the belt. Making Cheesy Love Songs represented a necessary struggle: Time to go back-to-basics, work out who The Lazy Eyes are in 2026, and return stronger than before.