Bobbie Lovesong’s On The Wind: Psych-pop from New Mexico strikes the right notes

Bobbie Lovesong is the unfamiliar pseudonym of a US songwriter/singer you’re probably not aware of. Chicago’s Madelyn Strutz has been releasing under-the-radar albums for more than 10 years, and is a singular artist typical of the kind that can exist in the US: committed, communally-minded, low key, low-profile and subsisting on a diet of low-paid gigs and session work with various bands across numerous states.

Such an existence stopped in 2020 when the pandemic arrived; Strutz travelled from Brooklyn, New York to Taos, New Mexico, to quarantine with a friend.

On arrival, Strutz fell in with a bunch of musicians and as the weeks turned into months, she found herself writing songs that reflected the improbability of the times.

In the press release for the album, words such as “extraterrestrial”, “earthship”, “space-age interpretations”, and “LSD-blotted Americana” are used to reference the psych-pop hippy vibes you hear in the music, but strip the waffle away and you’re left with a batch of rather good wobbly original songs (including Organic Orange, Eat the Apple Before it Falls, Two Faces in the Castle, and Reincarnation of a Lovebird) and woozily reinterpreted jazz standards (including Fly Me To the Moon).

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If you were to elevator-pitch the songs to someone it would be something along the lines of a weirded-out Jenny Lewis and/or Natalie Prass, but in fairness, Strutz very much remains her own person.