lovelytheband - finding it hard to smile (2018)

“Broken,” the lead single from lovelytheband’s debut album, opens in a “Brooklyn loft,” but make no mistake: This is Los Angeles music. Frontman Mitchy Collins, formerly of Brooklyn’s Oh Honey, relocated to LA and met the other members of his new band on a drunken night in West Hollywood, and that spirit of laidback West Coast partying permeates their debut album. “In your head it’s Coachella every weekend,” goes one representative chorus. But as with their home city, all the sunshine hides something a bit darker beneath the surface. Over the bright, tropical vibes of “Alone Time,” Collins sums up the mindset of many Southern California transplants: “I don't have to feel good/I just want to feel better.”