Hrishikesh Hirway announces debut album, In the Last Hour of Light, and shares new single featuring Iron & Wine

In the Last Hour of Light sees Hirway depart from under the moniker The One AM Radio for his first full-length studio work, under which he has released four studio albums, in addition to composing work for films and television, while also hosting the podcast and Netflix series Song Exploder. "Stray Dogs", a folk song inspired by the first time Hirway ever saw stray dogs in the wild and the parallels that he drew with running with his own pack of friends, arrives as the first look into the new record.

Discussing the origins of the song, Hirway explains: "I wrote this song in 2023, a few days before going to Blue Rock Studio, in Wimberley, Texas for a week-long songwriting retreat. I was so worried about squandering the opportunity by getting there and running out of ideas for songs that I reached out to people to ask for prompts that I could use if I got stuck. One person I reached out to was Sam Beam, from Iron & Wine. He offered the prompt 'describe a street you grew up on from the point of view of a stray dog.'" Hirway says. "Because of his hand in its origin, I asked Sam if he would sing on the song, with his characteristic layered harmonies. His vocals, to me, are the sound of my friends: joyful, reckless, racing, and beautiful."

In the Last Hour of Light, produced by Phil Weinrobe (Big Thief, Adrianne Lenker), serves as a memoir about letting go, with the songs emerging after the death of Hirway's mother.

The songs build upon the foundations set in his 2022 EP Rooms I Used to Call My Own, and although it is a collection of songs under his own name, he is joined by a range of collaborators in addition to Iron & Wine, including Shahzad Ismaily, Ken Pomeroy, Mike Haldeman, Joshua Crumbly, Oliver Hill, Sean Mullins, and Cole Kamen-Green, Dustin O’Halloran, Jon Natches (of The War On Drugs), Daniel Hart, Melina Duterte (of Jay Som), El Kempner (of Palehound), with co-writers on the songs including Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenne Lily, Jenny Owen Youngs, John Mark Nelson, Ken Pomeroy, Uwade, and TOMI.