Mary Strand comes back with a title track from her second album that hits hard, exactly like you’d hope from someone who nearly died twice and decided to stop holding back. Mary’s voice is direct and tough, saying what needs to be said about taking control of your own life in 2025.
The anger here is real, but so is the hope underneath it. Her band The Garage plays with the kind of edge that Joan Jett and The Pretenders had, but this sounds like now, not then. When you almost lose everything, you figure out what matters, and you can hear that in how Strand puts these songs together. She’s not trying to make you feel good or give you simple solutions. She wrote this while recovering in a hospital bed, and that comes across. “Costa Rica” grabs you and doesn’t let go.
If you want to keep up with Mary Strand and see where she goes next with her music, make sure you follow her on Instagram because that’s where she posts about new songs, shows, and all the real stories about how these tracks came together.
