Olivia Jean "Night Owl"

Olivia Jean is back on the beat with her second full-length (and first self-produced) album, Night Owl, on Third Man Records. The album mines the shared spaces between bubblegum, beach pop undercurrents and fuzzed out garage a la B-52s and Dick Dale, lyrically diving headfirst into the frustrations of perfectionism, mental barriers, obsession and modern heartache. Unlike Bathtub Love Killings on which we found Olivia playing every instrument on the vast majority of the album, Night Owl is decidedly more collaborative, with a studio band of buddies backing up her up.

Night Owl is exactly what it sounds like: the wee-hour workings of an artist engrossed in a project, pushing against omnipresent forces of fear and judgment to do exactly what you've always wanted to do and be exactly what you've known you are. It's candy-coated and bittersweet, fully aware and also full-hearted.