Arrows of Athena rekindle a kinetic kind of connection with ‘Abandoned Love’

The cinematic Boston alt-rock duo unleashes a sonic seducer of a
new single out now on Belhaven Records

NOW PLAYING: Listen to ‘Abandoned Love’ on all major platforms

First new music since last year’s debut album ‘The Ghost Archives’ 

Listen to ‘The Ghost Archives’ on Spotify

Nominated for New Artist of the Year in the 2024 New England Music Awards 

BOSTON, MA [November 7, 2025] – Sometimes the strongest and most personal emotional connections are truly felt when there’s sizable physical distance between two people. When Jac-Lyn Gibson was at Nashua’s Monza Studio recording studio earlier this year, working on new music for Arrows of Athena with longtime co-conspirator Scott Lerner, she thought about her beloved husband and how he was currently traveling a lot for his day job. Life and all its societal demands pulled him away from her, their family, and the foundation that they built together. And somehow, he felt as if he was right there in the room with her. 

That kind of bond forms the nucleus of the cinematic duo’s new single, a shimmering jolt of noisy, hyper-charged electronic alt-rock called “Abandoned Love,” set for release on Friday, November 7 on the band’s own Belhaven Records. 

“Abandoned Love,” which explodes at the seams of primal human emotion and co-dependency, is the first from Arrows of Athena since the 2024 release of debut album The Ghost Archives, which delivered the songwriting team of Gibson (vocals and lyrics) and Lerner (guitar, bass, synths, and recording) to listeners, blogs, and radio shows around the world. 

With a renewed focus and evolution of what the project means to them, both personally and as a cohesive unit, “Abandoned Love” and all its glitzy ambition picks up right at the prior beat. At its white-hot core, it’s a song about connection; a love song for modern-day chaos, a celebration of an intimate relationship in impersonal times, and how the bond that we share with the one we love is often enough to weather all of life’s never-ending storms and stresses. 

“The concept of our busy lives and coming home to one another at the end of the day just spilled out of me,” says Gibson “I think it’s a great testament to how love, although sometimes abandoned, can conquer all.” 

“Abandoned Love” is also a spiritual successor to the band’s debut single, “Reckless Heart,” and much like how that electronica banger helped set a sonic tone The Ghost Archives, this new sonic seducer  is the first dose of Arrows of Athena’s forthcoming sophomore album Daydreaming, set for release sometime in early 2026. 

“During the first listen to the new music, Scott and I were aligned right from the start that ‘Abandoned Love’ had to be our single,” Gibson adds. “It felt like a great follow up musically to ‘Reckless Heart’ so I played on the idea of it being a sequel to that story; committed love, the ebbs and flows of marriage and just the universal yearning for connection as a marriage evolves.” 

As both Lerner and Gibson’s respective marriages evolve, so does Arrows of Athena.  

The pair have been sharing a musical vision and creative chemistry for a few decades now, when they first were in Boston rock band Pure Fiction back in the long-gone 2000s. After the band’s split, Lerner moved on to play in indie stalwarts the Crushing Low, while Gibson high-tailed it to New Jersey with her immediate family. 

During the pandemic, a new songwriting urge began to shimmer, and as Lerner began building a home studio in the aforementioned Monza, he started compiling demos that felt slightly outside his usual musical territories. Hearing that Gibson returned to Boston after a few years away, he reached out to see if she wanted to lay down some vocals on a new project. Arrows of Athena was born.  

What first emerged was The Ghost Archives, a stirring debut record of polished, magnetic compositions that flashed a strobe-lit sound that’s unlike most of what is coming out of New England these days. Lerner was especially focused on crafting new sounds that were different from his past work, with an emphasis on more driving beats and basslines, where expansive and noisy soundscapes were juxtaposed by a glossy core where pop and alt-rock intersect. 

In the time since, Arrows of Athena have quickly cultivated a distinctive style of ‘90s-inspired electronic rock and roll on their own terms, taking its moniker from a nod to female strength and wisdom and bridging usually disparate ends of the pop and alternative spectrum for an illuminated sound of big dance beats, heavy riffs, and melodic intensity. The lyrics are introspective, raw, and reflective of the things we deal with daily in a chaotic and hostile era. 

“When I listen to our debut album the rush of emotions all comes back to me,” Gibson reveals. “Twenty years had passed since I put pen to paper and a lot had happened in our lives. It felt very cathartic to create The Ghost Archives with Scott and was more of a healing journey for both of us. Now that we got through that chapter of pain, we are ready to tell a different story. The follow up album seemed like a natural progression and really signifies the evolving sound and style of Arrows.”  

Ready to build upon the foundation set with the debut album, Daydreaming eagerly explores some new sonic territory for the band, though it all comes off precisely like Arrows of Athena, its sound echoing from the brain to the heart and back again, forging a dance beat along the way to soundtrack our every move.  

“We never seem to be hemmed in by a specific style or vibe,” Lerner admits. “We’ll write a harder edge song and then something more laid back and softer. We do love synths and dance beats, but there are a lot more guitars on this one overall. Not by design, it just evolved that way. We thought ‘Abandoned Love’ set up the overall theme of the new album.”

While that narrative will play out over time, “Abandoned Love” not only sets a striking tone for what’s to come, but also acts as a bridge from the first album and into this new era for the duo. And that includes the possibility of a debut live show coming to fruition sometime around when the new album drops, with Lerner’s old bandmates in the Crushing Low, amongst others, helping round out the sound live on stage.  

“We’re still primarily a duo in the studio, but we put a live band together and that will likely influence future releases,” he notes. “We started this out as a recording project, but the live elements seem to worm their way in.” 

Until Arrows of Athena take the stage for the first time, the recorded music they put out into the world is enough to act as an aural compass for the ins and outs of our day. It’s a relatable, emotive, and attention-grabbing effort from a still-new project emerging into its own and ready to take hold of its sound. “Abandoned Love” is more than a single; it’s a missive, a declaration, a reminder. And an invitation – to hold the ones we love close, so they can feel us when they need to be far away. 

It certainly helps that it’s a fucking banger, too.   

“I think ‘Abandoned Love’ just sounds like us,” Gibson adds. “It has the rock edge, with my love for a good pop hook, some sexy lyrics – that I hope won’t embarrass my kids! – and a dancey beat. What could go wrong?!”   

Arrows of Athena are:

Scott Lerner: Guitars, bass, synths, and recording

Jac-Lyn Gibson: Vocals, lyrics, and visuals

‘Abandoned Love’ production credits:

Written by Scott Lerner and Jac-Lyn Gibson 

Recorded at Monza Studio in Nashua, New Hampshire

Produced by Scott Lerner and Jac-Lyn Gibson 

Engineered by Scott Lerner

Press photos by Karla Lopresti 

Artwork designed by Jac-Lyn Gibson

© Belhaven Records 2025

‘Abandoned Love’ single artwork:

Arrows of Athena short bio:

Arrows of Athena is a cinematic alt-rock and alt-pop duo based in Boston. Composed of Scott Lerner (guitar, bass, synths, drum programming) and Jac-Lyn Gibson (vocals), the project began when the two friends decided to make music together again after 15 years apart. Their rekindled chemistry was instant, and the first batch of songs recorded just after the pandemic would go on to shape debut album The Ghost Archives, released in April 2024 release via Belhaven Records. The record was preceded by a pair of singles – ethereal debut effort “Fade Away” and the propulsive “Reckless Heart” – which both showcase the band’s dramatic, panoramic sound: a kaleidoscopic pop and rock spectrum of big dance beats, heavy riffs, and melodic intensity. With each song swirling in a kinetic sense of love, loss, and yearning, Lerner's guitar riffage, coupled with synth dynamics and punchy bass and drums, is paired with Gibson's beautiful, and at times soulful, vocals for a fresh sonic palette that is both powerful and unique. New single “Abandoned Love” is set for November 2025 release, and sets a dramatic tone for the duo’s sophomore album due out in early 2026.

Media praise for Arrows of Athena:

“...of note.” _Stereogum

“Electrifying.” _Pure M Zine

“Emphatic.” _She Makes Music

“I’m quite sure that Arrows Of Athena are huge fans of former Swedish glam and glitter pop duo Roxette. The bliss and blitz at play on ‘Reckless Heart’ is sonically similar. Sizzling guitars, battering drums/bass grooves, sensuous vocals and a peppy chorus combine here for a power pop pearl that flames lustrously. Orchestral melodiousness, fiery ‘90s spirit, and musical. An invigorating joyride.” _Turn Up The Volume

“There are some tracks you hear and for some reason or another they instantly hit. It’s the timbre of the singer’s wail sometimes or maybe the guitar tones or just an overall vibe. In the case of ‘Reckless Heart’ from Arrows Of Athena it’s all of that and everything else under the sun that we couldn’t think to say.” _Rock And Roll Fables 

“[Arrows of Athena] attracts in a way that bands playing this kind of music can. It rocks hard enough, it manages to blend in a pop element and has a seductive sounding singer. In a very self-assured way Arrows of Athena manages to combine the likes of ABC with Garbage. It always rains on the look of love, something like that.” _WoNoBlog

“[‘Reckless Heart’] specifically sounds like late 90's Boston as the alt-rock scene started to edge its way into the world of pop, although we never would have admitted that back then. To me it sounds like if Letters to Cleo’s Go! had gone a little deeper into the world of pop music. ‘Reckless Heart’ still has a harder, almost industrial edge to a guitar than pop music would typically have, and it’s this dichotomy of sounds that makes Arrows of Athena such an intriguing band.” _If It’s Too Loud

“‘Reckless Heart’ is a remarkably radio and arena rock friendly anthem built around classic grunge song structures — quieter verse, loud hook, loud chorus, quieter verse, repeat — that quickly establishes the Boston outfit’s sound, a slick and sleek synthesis of Sisters of Mercy-like post-punk, ‘80s arena metal and synth pop serving as a lush and dynamic bed for Gibson’s effortlessly soulful, self-assured delivery.” _The Joy of Violent Movement

“‘Insanity’ is the opener of AOA’s notable guitar-pop juiced debut LP The Ghost Archives that came out in April. It’s both a haunting and evocative burst with a poignant impact as if they want to channel their sorrow and pain, following the loss of a beloved one, with a liberating cryout. If I didn’t know better, I would have been certain that Garbage‘s wonderful Shirley Manson is the vocalist.” _Turn Up The Volume

“We were simply mesmerized by ‘Reckless Heart’, the opening riff really caught our ears, and once the vocals and melody came together, we were absolutely hooked – brilliant.” _The Whole Kameese

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