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Apr 06, 2026 By Caleb Campbell

Brooklyn-based indie singer/songwriter Kyle Morgan has been writing and recording for over a decade, beginning first under the moniker Starcrossed Lovers before releasing his debut solo album, Younger At Most Everything, in 2022. Those early records found Morgan settling into a pastoral folk and Americana-tinged style, but Morgan’s latest work also has hints of a nervy indie rock undercurrent and a penchant for full-bodied pop hooks, with added dimension courtesy of his collaborators. For his forthcoming sophomore solo LP, Ghost of a Problem, Morgan paired with engineer and producer Ryan Dieringer, who helped flesh out the record alongside Morgan on guitar and piano, Sean Cronin on bass, and Rachel Housle on drums.

Earlier this year, Morgan shared the album’s lead single, “Where to Start,” and today he’s back with another new track, “Paper Towel Ballad,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Paper Towel Ballad” leans into Morgan’s winsome instrumental tones and tuneful pop melodies, letting his vocals lilt atop a bed of sun-kissed guitars and effortlessly breezy grooves. Morgan shows off the same preternatural talent for songcraft that runs beneath vintage AM-pop revivalists like The Lemon Twigs, adorning the track in playful key changes and stacked vocal harmonies.

Meanwhile, Morgan contrasts the bright elliptical melodies with an anxious lyrical element as he runs through the internal monologue that come as part of living with OCD, turning the repeating chorus into an unpleasant compulsive reminder: “Pulled a paper towel out of the paper towel dispenser / Another fluttered to the floor beside the toilet / Pulled out two more paper towels to get the one that had fallen / But before I could, I changed my mind because I didn’t / Want to wash my hands again / I didn’t want to wash my hands again / I didn’t want to wash my hands again.”

Morgan says of the track, “I like to say this song is brought to you by Prozac. While many of my songs bear an indirect relation to a lifelong struggle with OCD, I’ve never written about it as explicitly as I do in ‘Paper Towel Ballad’. The song deals whimsically with what has been a source of profound distress and heartbreak, a condition made all the more insufferable by virtue of the absurdity of its content: paper towels, toilets, hand soap, etc. The bridge, ‘won’t you stay here with me’, is a self-directed plea not to abandon myself in the midst of fear.”

Check out the track and accompanying track below. Ghost of a Problem is out everywhere on May 22nd.