There’s a moment on “The Little Mess You Made“, the debut single from Finneas and Ashe’s newly formed band The Favors, where the illusion of harmony breaks into a barely contained storm. It’s not subtle. It’s not shy. And it’s certainly not the kind of reunion you’d expect from two artists best known for heart-on-sleeve balladry. But maybe that’s the point.
Finneas and Ashe have always had chemistry — the kind of rare, frictional tension that made “Till Forever Falls Apart” feel like two people clinging to a memory mid-freefall. That song was cinematic. This one? It’s a scene from the sequel where things go gloriously sideways.
“The Little Mess You Made” drops with a confident snarl, drawing a clear line between what was and what is now. Drenched in ‘70s gold — think layered harmonies à la Fleetwood Mac, tambourines hitting like accusations, and acoustic guitars cutting through like a knife through polyester — the track sounds vintage, but the venom is fresh.
There’s something thrilling about hearing Finneas, the Grammy-winning architect behind some of Billie Eilish’s most brooding textures, trade slick minimalism for Laurel Canyon maximalism. His fingerprints are all over this, but so are Ashe’s — her voice, expressive and ever on the verge of breaking, grounds the track in emotional realism. Together, they’re not just playing retro dress-up; they’re using the past as a launchpad to tear into each other with melody.
The band name — The Favors — almost feels sarcastic in this context. The song is a reminder that favors come with strings, and sometimes those strings get tangled in your throat. It’s a relationship autopsy dressed up in AM radio shimmer.
What’s most promising is how “The Little Mess You Made“ doesn’t feel like a novelty. It doesn’t scream “side project.” This is a real band, with real stakes, and if this is the first chapter of The Dream (due out September 19 via Darkroom Records), we might be in for a record that’s as volatile as it is timeless.
If “The Little Mess You Made” is their way of introducing The Favors, it’s a bold, unsentimental handshake. There’s tension, there’s grit, and there’s enough vintage soul to make you wonder if Carole King ever wrote diss tracks.