The Nashville based art-pop duo, Okey Dokey is comprised of Aaron Martin and Johnny Fisher, who are both by all accounts, highly-collaborative, opened minded songwriters and musicians. Even their own personal creative history portends to a rare level of ego-less fluidity—Martin and Fisher previously wrote together in Sol Cat only to circle back to each other again around 2016. When they realized they sired a nice vibe from a songwriting standpoint they, in their own words, “brought in around 20 friends from other projects to either perform or record with us.” Okey Dokey’s summer 2019 album, which will feature 10 songs with 10 different artists, is a logical extension of the band’s innately communal ethos. The first single, “Thick and Thin,” features LA-based indie synth-pop staple Dent May. It’s a 60’s nostalgic little ditty about being a good pal to a friend in need—a pleasant track to both the ears and the soul. Okey Dokey is basically :) personified.

Like many great albums before, Tōth’s debut album, Practice Magic and Seek Medical Help When Necessary, was born of heartbreak in a Brooklyn apartment. Tōth is the project of Alex Toth and the aptly titled album tracks his road to recovery after a debilitating break-up. The standout single from the album, “When I Awoke” addresses the literal feeling of waking up next to someone you love and knowing that it’s over as well as the philosophic waking up to yourself and the world in the wake of loss. Toth enlisted friends to build a gloomy, gorgeous arrangement of drums, upright bass, and echoing cello to create a dream-like trance that pulls his listeners into the moments and the rooms where his relationship unfolded and ultimately ended. With an ethereal build up of percussion, he somehow manages to capture the sound and ubiquity of memory. Toth is a poet in this song and lines like “you looked like a shadow of the day before” and “you step into my stream about a thousand times a day” illustrate the hazy shape a memory can take and how persistent those memories can be. The track is absolutely wrenching but holds notes of acceptance as well as loss, suggesting that Toth may be coming up for air soon. When things fall apart, they often look different once you put them back together. However, in putting himself and his music together again, Tōth has found a voice and created a song both ephemeral and pervasive.

Justin Vernon has grown comfortably into his role as a sort of ambassador of alternative rock, a curator of the museum that is his tiny sliver of the musical canon, a less guttural Dave Grohl. His April Base studio is not only the home base of his many side projects (Big Red Machine, Volcano Choir, and The Shouting Matches), but has also used his musical success as a platform to support other music he loves, recording albums for The Staves, Hippo Campus, Sufjan Stevens and numerous others. Upon releasing “U (Man Like),” one of two new tracks released in anticipation of a new album, Vernon said of Bon Iver, “This project began with a single person, but throughout the last 11 years, the identity of Bon Iver has bloomed and can only be defined by the faces in the ever growing family we are.” The song is centered around a soulful piano line and features guest vocals from Bruce Hornsby, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, the Bryce Dessner-directed Brooklyn Youth Chorus and a fellow experimental alternative rock falsetto-singer, Moses Sumney. The influence from these various contributors is apparent but doesn’t prevent Vernon’s characteristic voice, either melodically or lyrically, from shining through—with references to Greek mythology and German opera crowding the same verse. Addressing a range of notably American social problems, Vernon has assembled his friends to urge us all to do better, admitting, “It’ll be a long day of fixing.”

“Gretel”, the first single release of a long-awaited return LP from (Sandy) Alex G, binds the warm nostalgia of fairy-tale musings to the clammy, inevitable truths of malevolence. From its disorienting, playful beginning to the trickled-in synth, reminiscent of the “Reading Rainbow” theme, this ear-candy haunt effectively drones its listener into the magical, ominous realm of oral tradition. The shrill siren-whirs indicate trouble, allocating responsibility to the well-known greedy folk-tale sister, Gretel, of the Brothers Grimm story, "Hansel and Gretel." This song comes from (Sandy) Alex G’s upcoming 13-track album titled House of Sugar, set to be released on Friday the 13th, this upcoming September. “Gretel” will take you on an enjoyable jaunt into a foreboding fairy-tale forest through the beloved, spectral harmonies of (Sandy) Alex G.

“I See Red” is the shimmering new single from dream-pop duo Geowulf. Their first release since last year’s debut album, Great Big Blue, the track invokes their signature breezy, coastal sound while adding new depth in the lyrics. A tight drum beat and spacey synth sound introduce vocalist Star Kendrick’s crisp, clear soprano. “I keep my rage like I have a secret,” she sings, invitingly matter-of-fact. The song was written after a fight with her sister, amidst the realization that you’re only comfortable being your most horrible self in front of the people who love you the most. “And I'm only learning / Just to live, you gotta chill out / Calm down and breathe again.” Like a fight, the song starts small and gradually grows, adding more nuance and instrumentation to the arrangement, and finally culminating into a nice full band sound in the chorus. Reminiscent of a sunnier Beach House, “I See Red” is vibey and atmospheric, and should top all your summer road trip playlists.

“If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it’s yours; if it doesn’t, it never was” is a saying so common, it’s in danger of losing its urgency.  In her new single, however, Bedouine reopens and pours salt into the old adage. Over the last four months, Bedouine has slowly, deliberately put out tracks from her upcoming album, Birdsong of a Killjoy—“One More Time” is her fourth and latest release. Stripped-down acoustics open the song and are quickly overlaid by her elegant, nostalgic vocals. The track is an exploration, weighing the power of having a partner against that of doing it alone and an air of loneliness echoes the whole way through. Bedouine’s poignant lyrics consider the ways that being with someone can hold you back. In one verse, she is a cage and her lover the bird trapped inside; in the next, she is the shore and her lover the waves washing her away. The music reflects that characters she creates, containing both the lightness of a bird and the calming rhythm of the waves in its melody. Bedouine's celestial voice takes center stage and, at the climax of "One More Time," a symphony of strings swells to meet her. Her distinct brand of folk is drifting, billowing, and tender in this track. It feels as though Bedouine is learning something about herself over the course of the song and, luckily, she is gracious enough to share the lesson with us.

Steve Marino’s breezy single “Six Two Four” is an ode to good times and carefree summer nights. Lo-fi drums and reverberating guitars open the track, immediately emanating familiar feelings of intimacy and warmth. The arrangement is tender and hopeful; close your eyes and you might feel like you’re sitting around a fire pit with your closest friends, swaying along to Marino’s soft, easy vocals and losing yourself in the gorgeous melody. The lines “Everyone’s Here / Everyone’s Out” repeat throughout the song, making for an easy sing-along and emphasizing what’s at the heart of the lyrics and the mood: a celebration of friendship. “Six Two Four” is easy listening at its finest—it’s from Marino’s debut solo album, Fluff, which is flush with cozy songs about noticing and appreciating the people and places that make you feel like you’re home.