The following was written in 2021 and published here for the first time.

Obviously begins with the exciting possibilities of a potential romance on the track “Hypotheticals.” Later, a relationship’s flame burns out in the wrenching “Anymore.” Lake Street Dive draw on a variety of genres including pop, rock, R&B, and soul. Different songs have different sounds (a relationship’s beginnings on “Hypotheticals” sounds different than its endings on “Anymore”), but they are not so different as to make the album seem disjointed, and lead singer Rachael Price provides an anchor.

A sequence of three songs—“Being a Woman,” “Making Do,” and “Nobody’s Stopping You Now”—explore the personal as political and the political as personal. In these songs, thematic and sonic power build on each other to stunning effect. On “Being a Woman” (about gender inequality) and “Making Do” (about climate change and other collapses that will worsen over time), the lyrics are simple, straightforward, and poignant. While there is nothing thematically cheerful about these two songs, “Nothing’s Stopping You Now” (about the opportunity to break out of gender norms) is clearly optimistic.

I had been meaning to dig into the Lake Street Dive catalogue for years, but this is the first full album that I’ve listened to. It’s (obviously) left me hungry for more.