O∆ (LP)

O∆, the debut album from self-produced American songwriter, London O'Connor, is a post-any-genre narrative told through vivid and visual production he made from the contents of his backpack while sleeping on floors and couches in New York City. It details the suburban world he grew up in and fled from in Southern California years before.

His story is not that unlike many others, "a kid who feels stifled in America's suburbs and wants to get out." But, there is a clarity and vulnerability in London's version that is rare. From the meticulously simplified arrangements to the lyrics that stand out more as admissions than punchlines, to his opening live sets in New York that saw him perched on top of a solitary cube of light in a blacked out venue- London's mode of expression is to reduce until there is nothing left to hide behind.

"The hooks are so intensely hooky that you can find yourself singing along to them without even knowing it. It's infectiously joyous, and even when the songs turn sentimental and sweetly sad there's still the uplifting energetic charge of witnessing an artist figuring out the extent of their powers." - Pitchfork