PROTAGONIST,

the sophomore album by Eliza Spear, is a fitting one: the story may be hers, but anyone can imagine themselves in the role of the hero when they listen. Where other songwriters might settle for easy cliches, she reaches instead for the sorts of vulnerable truths that can bridge the divide between her and the listener. Her melodies have a way of drawing you in: first low and conversational, like a friend offering secrets into your ear, then soaring and triumphant, calling you to follow on the journey she’s started.

All of PROTAGONIST stems from a particularly intense period of her life, and she interweaves them into a song cycle of sorts: an image or idea introduced on one track might surface again on another, given complex new resonance by its shifted surroundings and the passage of time.

The album is full of gleaming synthesizers, body-moving drum machine rhythms, and hooks big enough to shout in a stadium. Where some songwriters might sacrifice subtlety in favor of such big-tent appeal, Spear has retained all the writerly nuance of her earlier work and then some. She combines the intimacy of the singer-songwriter canon with the immediacy of the best pop.

Spear is fond of presenting her music in unconventional spaces, where she can forge more powerful connections with listeners than the typical divide between artist and audience allows. The New York Protagonist Living Room Tour is exactly what it sounds like—Spear brings her arena-ready hooks to the vulnerability and closeness of intimate living rooms, capturing the spirit of the album’s most personal moments. The Protagonist Project, a concept created by Spear, invites curious passersby to experience the lost art of live music discovery through private, three-minute concerts in unexpected venues.

The Protagonist Festival Series represents perhaps the largest of the album’s spin-off ventures. Happening monthly in diverse art spaces across New York, the festival features an eclectic mix of songwriters, poets, comics, and street vendors, all curated to reflect the same themes of truth, growth, and resilience that shape the album. A fierce advocate for both in-person experiences and the depth long-form content can offer in an era dominated by short-form consumption, Spear shares the stage with artists from all walks of life. These mini-festivals, marketed through affirmations placed around the city encouraging people to see themselves as protagonists, blend just the right amount of excitement to thrill a traveler while staying rooted in the album's ethos—grief that is vast enough to be set in an arena yet intimate enough to bring people together.