When it comes to songwriting, Covid-19 has really been the elephant in the room; even the Swifts and McCartneys who’ve made entire albums since the spring haven’t seen fit to directly mention it. That’s why it’s so refreshing to hear an album like this one, where nearly everything singer/writer Max Bien-Kahn pens is about different aspects of life under shutdown. Some are lighter than others, but every song touches on things we’ve all felt in the past year but haven’t heard many songs about. The sentiments on “Venmo” (“How does it feel to be all alone, with nothing to do except look at your phone”) are pretty much universal; though hopefully the last line won’t be (“Cox just turned your internet off!”) “Friends (Quarantine Dream)” lays out the hopes everybody has of hugging your friends, sharing flasks and staying out all night again. And “Please Don’t Die” addresses the very real fear that one’s friends won’t all be around when shutdown ends. The mood is lightened by its jangly country feel and the harmonies of Bien-Kahn’s partner Mik Grantham.

Though best-known as guitarist/banjo player in Tuba Skinny, Bien-Kahn works here in a low-fi pop mode that brings Lou Barlow’s old Sebadoh tapes to mind. He plays all the instruments (mostly guitars and bass) and doesn’t dress things up too much, nor does he stick himself with any complicated vocal parts. As with the Barlow records, the sound is so modest that you don’t immediately notice how well-crafted the songs are. That happens a little later, when they start going through your head and you realize that shutdown has just gotten a tiny bit better.