Style: Experimental singer-songwriter rock; compare to The Shins, Trampled by Turtles, Arcade Fire
Top tracks: “Hold On, Boy,” “Smoke Signals,” “Firstborn Son”
Short of reprinting Leonard the Lonely Astronaut‘s complete lyrics, a brief review cannot amply explore the songwriting prowess Osenga bestows on his latest LP. Recorded in a homemade spaceship housed in a Nashville warehouse, Leonard chronicles the psychological voyage of the concept album’s fictional title character, a man coping with the death of his wife by launching into space to deal with his emotional baggage. But the sci-fi conceit is merely a blueprint for Osenga’s achingly human verses accompanied by experimental pop/rock, a fresh stretch for an artist who ingeniously oscillates between singer-songwriter folk (“Ever and Always”), indie rock (“Shooting Star”), and ambient interludes (“Perihelion”).
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