Crashing Gracefully: Caleb L’Etoile Sets Fire to the Finish Line with “Kerosene”

Caleb L’Etoile’s Kerosene is a cinematic crescendo that brings his unfolding, politically charged album to a stunning close. It begins like a slow-burn thriller, with panting percussion laying a heartbeat beneath restrained urgency. But don’t get too comfortable. The track soon detonates into a beautifully chaotic mix of jagged guitars, impassioned vocals, and keys that shimmer like embers in the wreckage.

What makes Kerosene hit especially hard is its emotional volatility—one moment you’re holding your breath in the quiet, the next you’re tumbling through sonic flames. This is protest rock that doesn’t lecture; it feels. You can hear echoes of mewithoutYou’s unhinged poetry, the raw, angular textures of early Modest Mouse, and the sweeping grandeur of Destroyer, but none of it feels borrowed. The vocals, both literally and artistically, is front and center, wounded, weary, and relentlessly human.

There’s an almost apocalyptic energy here, like watching a plane nosedive in slow motion, except you can’t look away because it’s so damn beautiful. Kerosene is a gutsy, gorgeously unfiltered piece of music that doesn’t just end an album, it ignites it. Caleb L’Etoile isn’t playing it safe. He’s lighting a match and watching it burn, and we’re all lucky to witness the fire.