2.

Oceanator

Everything is Love and Death

Elise Okusami’s fourth record under her Oceanator moniker was my introduction to her work, and what an introduction. Everything is Love and Death – an album title of beautiful simplicity – is one of those records that I fell in love with during my first play of it. It’s now one of my favourite indie rock records of the 2020s so far. Okusami hits the balance between the personal and the universal perfectly here. There’s passion and heartbreak but also reflection and an engagement with wider, more existential human concerns (not least, as is a recurring theme this year, fear of the apocalypse). Her lyrics are unfussy but genuine, taking both the good and the bad in hand. Love, and death. Musically, Okusami builds everything around hook and melody, albeit in a range of ways. The structures of a few of the early tracks on Everything is Love and Death remind me a little of some of the songs on the first three Weezer records – talk about high praise. Elsewhere, though, there’s a tinge of sunny 80s guitar pop (see ‘Be Here’), as well as something a little knottier, approaching The Argument era Fugazi (see both ‘Drain the Well’ and ‘Drift Away’). And my favourite track on the record, the beautiful ‘Won’t Someone’, closes things with a perfect acoustic refrain that worms into the head before slowly opening its wings and flying. Wow.

Taking a significant chunk of time in the studio to record the album has definitely paid off for Okusami. Everything here is so carefully crafted and infused with meaning. Collaborating with Grammy-winning chameleon producer Will Yip – who has worked with acts as diverse as Lauryn Hill and Turnstile – was also a master stroke. Yip ensures texture, but also doesn’t over-do things: all that painstaking composition never ends up feeling stale, with Yip’s light touch breathing life into the record.

Ultimately, Everything is Love and Death is an absolute triumph, delivering rich but uncomplicated guitar pop-rock of the very highest quality.