Alex Sampson dropped the full tracklist for his Growing Pains EP on Thursday, putting a June 5, 2026 release date on the calendar and opening pre-saves at the same time.
The project runs eight tracks: the title track, Misery, Wash You Off (Rain In California), There She Goes, How Lucky Am I?, Not Even Gone, L.I.L.Y., and Thank You For Loving Me. Sampson shared the list on Instagram and kept the caption brief. “More announcements coming soon,” he wrote, along with a hug emoji to close it out.
Eight tracks is a considered length for an EP. It leaves room to build an emotional arc without stretching into filler territory. Sampson clearly has a vision for how this thing fits together.
The tracklist alone tells a story. Not a single note has played yet. Misery, Not Even Gone, and Wash You Off signal right away where this project lives emotionally. It’s somewhere in the territory of heartbreak, distance, and the slow work of getting over something. The third track even has a rain reference built into its full title, Wash You Off (Rain In California). That detail seems deliberate.
How Lucky Am I? and Thank You For Loving Me land somewhere warmer and more grateful. That balance between longing and gratitude is hard to pull off in a short project. Getting it right across eight tracks takes real care.
L.I.L.Y. is the one that’s going to have people guessing. Acronym titles carry stories behind them. Sampson hasn’t offered any explanation yet. That’s probably by design.
There She Goes rounds out the list. It’s a phrase that can carry admiration, longing, or both at once. It all depends on where you’re sitting emotionally.
Sampson has spent years building a devoted following through emotionally direct songwriting and a smooth, R&B-leaning sound. His songs open up on repeated listens. Play them twice and the details hit differently. That quality suits a project called Growing Pains well.
Growing pains aren’t dramatic. They’re slow and sometimes invisible. The stretch, the moments that cost something, the lessons you only understand in hindsight. This sounds like it could be Sampson’s most personal work to date.
The announcement drew close to 9,000 likes on Instagram. For a tracklist post with no audio or video attached, that’s a meaningful number. His audience isn’t waiting for a preview to get excited.
Sampson teased more announcements before June 5. A lead single feels like the logical next step. Nothing has been confirmed yet beyond the tracklist and the release date.
Pre-saves are live now. June 5 is a few weeks out, and the rollout is clearly just getting started.
