Oceanography’s second full-length, Thirteen Songs About Driving Nowhere in Alphabetical Order, is a postcard from a place of solitude, uncertainty, and grief.

Written as Oakland, CA-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Brian Kelly helped care for his sister, who passed away in November of 2020 after a long battle with cancer, the album finds the musician mostly alone with his thoughts in cars, driving between Oakland, his childhood home in the East Bay suburbs, and seemingly endless doctors’ appointments. While there’s a bittersweet quality to many of the songs, Kelly’s pop sensibility translates to catchy hooks and an immediate familiarity, recalling at times The War on Drugs, My Morning Jacket, and Damien Jurado, with a distinct thread of Americana woven throughout. The first single “Monterey,” is a meditative reflection on changing family dynamics amid illness and grief. “Homes line the canyon like molars in your jaw, you grind ‘em together ‘til the feeling is gone,” Kelly sings over plaintive piano. The record manages to feel both lush and spacious, heartbreaking and uplifting, building keys, guitars, bass, and drums into an atmospheric soundtrack for the unknown road ahead. 

Recorded mostly live, Thirteen Songs has a full, organic sound courtesy of a band of veteran players, including Scott Barwick (Jonathan Richman), Peter Labberton (Parquet Courts, St. Vincent), Bevan Herbekian (Teenager, Colors), and Kirt Lind (Donald Beaman). But the album retains Kelly’s singular vision and intimate, introspective feel.