Torres

Mackenzie Scott records as Torres, channeling unfiltered singing and perceptive words to convey the bravery inherent in total emotional exposure. Issued independently under her own name in 2013, the opening album revealed an aptitude for fusing theatricality with closeness, an approach she honed across later works. Sprinter gained a harder rock dimension in 2015, Silver Tongue from 2020 gained folk and electronic shading, and the widely praised Thirstier merged those threads under expansive production sheen the following year. Outspoken self-reflection defined What an Enormous Room in 2024, allowing Torres to uncover additional angles on confessional craft.

Scott grew up in Macon, Georgia, where she began dedicated vocal work during high school through school musicals, church performances, and guitar study. In 2009 she relocated as a teenager to Nashville for studies at Belmont University. Before completing her degree she tracked her first collection, the self-titled Torres—a nod to her grandfather’s surname—at Tony Joe White’s studio in Franklin, Tennessee. Scott and fellow Belmont graduate Ryan McFadden co-produced the January 2013 release. Although the album generated no commercial traction, music critics commended the maturity of her songwriting. After extensive road work that included support slots for Hamilton Leithauser and Sharon Van Etten, she contributed to Van Etten’s 2014 album Are We There.

Scott later settled in Brooklyn and traveled to Dorset, England, to record the volatile follow-up Sprinter with producer Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey, Marianne Faithfull). Partisan Records issued the May 2015 set, which reached number 20 on the Heatseekers Albums chart. Bolstered by strong notices, she joined the British independent 4AD, which released her third album in September 2017. Drawing from the prose of Lorrie Moore and Ta-Nehisi Coates, Three Futures reunited Ellis and Torres in a celebration of physical joy. Despite favorable reviews the record underperformed commercially, prompting 4AD to end the arrangement in April 2018.

After a period away from recording, Scott joined Merge in 2019. The self-produced Silver Tongue arrived in January 2020, emphasizing a more introspective facet of her sound. That year she also released the standalone single “Too Big for the Glory Hole” and Live in Berlin, captured at the final concert she and her band performed before the COVID-19 global pandemic. The touring hiatus provided time to write new material, which she tracked at Middle Farm Studios in Devon, U.K., alongside co-producers Ellis and Peter Miles. Thirstier emerged in July 2021, amplifying Torres’ palette through an exuberant mix of rock, folk, and electronic textures. The following September, Scott began her sixth album. Recorded in North Carolina and co-produced by Sarah Jaffe, What an Enormous Room arrived in January 2024, weaving references to Laurie Anderson, Nirvana, and ABBA throughout its reflective yet kinetic songs.