The Golden Heart Protector marks the first bit of music Glaspy has shared since last year’s EP The Sun Doesn’t Think (ATO), which followed her critically acclaimed 2023 album Echo The Diamond which drew attention from the likes of The New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone, among many others. That LP emerged from a deliberate stripping-away of artifice to reveal life for all its harsh truths and ineffable beauty. Like the precious gem of its title, the result is an object of startling luminosity, one capable of cutting through the most elaborately constructed façades. The albums’ singles “Act Natural,” “Memories,” and “Get Back” saw support from The New York Times, NPR, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Spin, and others. “Act Natural” reached the top 20 at AAA Radio, marking Glaspy’s highest chart position of her career. The album was labeled a “notable release of the week” by both NPR and American Songwriter and Pitchfork included it in their “8 New Albums You Should Listen To” list around release and The New York Times’ Jon Pareles included “Memories” in his in Best Songs of 2023 list noting “Over a waltz of simple guitar chords, Margaret Glaspy blurts out unvarnished grief in a torn voice, bereft yet struggling to go on.”

Originally from the Northern California town of Red Bluff, Glaspy began writing songs at age 15 and quickly developed a style marked by raw sensitivity and razor-sharp insight. She began her solo career with the self-released Homeschool EP in July 2012. After signing to ATO Records in 2015, she released a 7-inch in early 2016 featuring “You and I” and “Somebody to Anybody”—songs that would later appear on her debut full-length Emotions and Math, a bold and bracing album that introduced her as a major new voice in indie rock.