Runnner - A Welcome Kind of Weakness

2025 • RUN FOR COVER RECORDS • INDIE / FOLK / EMO

94/100

It’s been a long time coming for Runnner’s new release A Welcome Kind of Weakness, which is not to say songwriter Noah Weinman hasn’t been busy. Since like dying stars, we’re reaching out in 2023, he also dropped a pair of instrumental ambient albums in 2024—records that Weinman has admitted he almost enjoys making more than his “main” output.

“I could make like a million vibey tracks, it’s so fun for me. The moment I have to sing on a track… that is the most work, getting a good vocal take," Noah joked during his recent Indie Basketball Podcast episode.

But now, leading up to AWKOW, we’ve had singles rolling out for what feels like forever, almost a year’s worth of breadcrumbs leading to the full album. And many of these tracks are older than their release dates suggest. “Spackle” premiered at a Yellow House Session two years ago. We first heard “Untitled October Song” at Half Court Sessions in March of 2024. That session also revealed something I didn’t know about Noah: his love of basketball, and the fact that he once dealt with a serious injury playing it. That motif of fragility and recovery seeps into the record, starting right from the opener “Achilles And.” It’s a song that feels specific and autobiographical, but also universal, about needing others, being helpless, and stacking heartbreak on top of physical weakness. It’s the kind of track that sets the emotional tone while also pointing at the album title itself.

Sonically, this is Runnner in widescreen. Weinman threads the needle between indie folk and emo, a tightrope he walks alongside peers like Slaughter Beach, Dog and Hovvdy. There are lush layers, anthemic guitars that hold notes for miles, and a sense of fullness that never quite tips into excess. The big moments come on songs like “Spackle,” “Chamomile,” and “Split,” each built around ringing guitars that make quiet confessions feel stadium-sized. Then there’s “Claritin,” with its droning guitar hook that refuses to leave my head. It’s been lodged there since I first heard it, the kind of simple but devastatingly effective musical shape Weinman excels at.

Longtime Runnner fans will recognize the palette—acoustic guitars, slide guitar, the occasional banjo (though maybe less here than before)—but the ambient side projects clearly left a mark. Delayed effects and atmospheric touches creep into the margins, making these tracks feel more expansive. It’s not that he reinvented himself, but rather folded his alternative side into the core sound, giving AWKOW that dreamy glow.

And while seven of the album’s eleven tracks have trickled out over the past 18 months (or even longer, depending how you count those early debuts), the record never feels stale. If anything, hearing these songs together in sequence makes them stronger. There’s cohesion here, a throughline of yearning and resilience that ties the singles to the new material. And crucially, the four songs that hadn’t surfaced yet? They hold their own. No filler, no “oh that must be why they didn’t release this earlier.” Just more highlights, more proof that Weinman’s songwriting is sharper than ever.
So it doesn’t matter if you’re a singles-only listener or a full-album purist (like myself). Runnner’s latest is both: a collection of songs that shine individually and also bloom in context. A Welcome Kind of Weakness feels like exactly what its title suggests—a record that acknowledges fragility but makes something beautiful out of it.

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