Mild West – “French Exit”

Mild West are a four-piece indie rock band out of Bristol, and their new single “French Exit” dropped on 20th May 2026. If you haven’t come across them yet, they pull heavily from 90s American alternative rock, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., that whole world, but they’re not just doing a retro thing. They’ve updated it enough that it sounds current.

“French Exit” is a good example of that. The track is tight. It doesn’t drag, it doesn’t overstay itself, and it hits hard without feeling like they’re trying too hard to prove anything. The garage rock textures are there, a bit fuzzy, a bit rough around the edges, but the songwriting underneath is genuinely catchy. That combination is harder to pull off than it sounds. A lot of bands go heavy on the grit and lose the hook, or they nail the hook and sand off anything interesting. Mild West manages both.

The band operates under this idea of “Stay Mild”, which sounds like it should be underwhelming but actually describes their approach pretty well. It’s about control. The energy on this track is real, but it’s not chaotic. There’s a confidence to how the song moves, like they knew exactly what they wanted it to be and went and made it. For a band building momentum in the Bristol scene, “French Exit” is a solid statement. Give it a listen, and make sure you follow Mild West on social media so you don’t miss what they put out next.