Adult Mom were quiet for a few years there. Stevie Knipe’s DIY indie-pop group released a one-off single and a Taylor Swift cover in 2022, and there was nothing for a few more years. There’s a good reason for that hiatus: Knipe was going through intensive cancer treatment. Next month, Adult Mom will return with the new album Natural Causes; we’ve posted early tracks “Door Is Your Hand” and “Crystal.” Today, they share the new song “Benadryl,” an absolutely devastating account of Knipe’s experience with chemotherapy.

On “Benadryl,” Stevie Knipe sings over a spare backing of acoustic guitar and French horn, and they sing about thinking that maybe you’re about to die in a drab medical office. It’s truly heavy: “For the first of the six weeks, I felt like I could barely speak/ What would I say anyay?” Can you imagine going through that and then singing about it and putting it out there for the world to hear? That is an act of real courage.

In a press release, Knipe says, “‘Benadryl’ is a song about going through chemotherapy when I first got diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021. I wanted the writing and production to reflect the distinct isolation that comes from cancer treatment and illness, and how little by little, things start to feel a little bit brighter, and then dark again.” Listen below.

Natural Causes is out 5/9 on Epitaph.