Transmitter is Max Clarke’s fourth full-length record as Cut Worms, produced by Jeff Tweedy at Wilco’s Loft studio in Chicago. Cut Worms It’s a record with a clear origin story: the first signs of Transmitter came when Cut Worms were on the road supporting Wilco in the summer of 2024, and at the end of that tour, Tweedy invited the band to record at the storied Loft, with sessions commencing that fall. Cut Worms
The album’s themes are rooted in a creeping modern unease. These are places shaped by the myth of self-reliance, where people sold the idea of connection through technology have been reduced to quiet transmitters — data points bought and sold, manipulated and measured, their lives distorted through the very networks meant to unite them. Cut Worms
Across its ten tracks, Clarke draws on a wide emotional and sonic range. “Evil Twin” wrestles with bitter disappointment, its talky guitars recalling the jangling heartache of The Replacements and The Go-Betweens, while “Windows on the World” leans toward the future with a melancholy that drifts somewhere between Elliott Smith and Miracle Legion. Cut Worms The closing track, “Dream,” brings things back to an intimate plane — Clarke alone at the piano, tender and unresolved, pondering the fate of dreams and the risk of falling short. Cut Worms
At its core, the album is a meditation on what we owe each other. Transmitter finds Clarke writing with the conviction of someone who’s made peace with uncertainty — songs that reckon with the cost of comfort and return to the idea that beauty, connection, and love are not luxuries but necessities for survival. Cut Worms
Released March 13, 2026, on Jagjaguwar, the album runs just over 36 minutes. AllMusic It’s a tight, purposeful listen — and arguably Clarke’s most resonant work yet.