Susanna Hoffs mines the past for new LP The List

When you spend decades telling stories to those closest to you, there comes a point where those narratives need a new voice—and for Susanna Hoffs, that moment is finally arriving in music. The co-founder and frontwoman of the Bangles is set to release The List, her first album of original material in more than a decade, on September 18th via her own Baroque Folk label.

This isn’t just a collection of songs; it’s a deep dive into memories of love, heartbreak, family, and the complex process of reinvention. Recorded live in Hoffs’ long-time Los Angeles home, the album is steeped in intimacy, weaving together personal history with some of the most compelling musical collaborations of the modern era.

The title itself is a charming nod to Hoffs’ past. It comes from an actual list she kept in the late 1980s—a faded page torn from a Filofax detailing the names of every man she had ever dated. As she told the Los Angeles Times, it was like a dating profile but pre-internet, a simple accounting of her life while doing her homework.

From this list sprung some of the album’s most poignant tracks. The lead single, “Casablanca,” revisits another unforgettable chapter: an impromptu encounter with Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir during a Bangles tour stop in New Orleans back in 1988. After meeting at a Neville Brothers crawfish boil and wandering through the French Quarter, Hoffs recalled being trailed by a sea of Deadheads, realizing it was Weir. The song itself grew from that shared memory and a rewatch of the classic film, becoming a meditation on unfinished romances suspended in time.

The collaborative process behind The List mirrored the honesty found in the music. Producer CJ Camerieri, known for working with giants like Bon Iver and Paul Simon, created an environment where the songs emerged organically. Each writing session began around Hoffs’ kitchen table with coffee and yellow legal pads, filled not just with notes but with stories. As camerieri shared, they would recount life experiences until they found the perfect musical expression.

Hoffs brought the warmth of hospitality to the studio, noting that her main contribution before the music started was simply being a hostess to all the creative minds gathered around her. It was this intimate atmosphere that allowed the resulting songs to feel so uniquely personal.

The album concludes with “What Are Wings For,” a track co-written with Camerieri and Edie Brickell, which serves as a declaration of artistic freedom for the protagonist in Hoffs’ bestselling 2023 novel, This Bird Has Flown. It is a beautiful anthem about finally finding the confidence to embrace one’s own voice.

Before the release, Hoffs will take The List on the road with collaborators including Dan Wilson, Rufus Wainwright, and Spencer Zahn, including a sold-out five-night residency at New York’s Café Carlyle. It promises to be an unforgettable journey through love, history, and the beautiful complexity of becoming.