Between Cotton Jones, Page France, and his eponymous Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread, Maryland’s Michael Nau‘s built up one hell of an indie rock reputation over his career. And as a family man fast approaching his forties, there’ve been some real waves of wisdom and maturity making appearances in his more recent music.

That’s not to call his earlier solo catalogue childish by any account; his 2016 single “Love Survive” has shown some serious staying power with nearly 50 million streams on Spotify alone, with several other album selects and standalones making millions of impressions in the interim between then and now as well. With that songwriting validation in tow and the best band of friends a man could ask for to back him up, Nau teamed up with The Killers/Lucy Dacus/Fruit Bats producer-engineer Adrien Olsen to create a new batch of tunes not too long ago.

Well after a disappearing overdub scare and two full-band sessions, Accompany finally came out last Friday. With a bit of psych-soul sophistication (robust arrangements and all) classing up the mix, these near-dozen newbies might just be Michael Nau’s modern masterpiece. It’s a swatch-swapping journey that deserves to be heard front to back, but if you just want a quick, colorful way to keep your beginning-of-work-week outlook positive, “Painting A Wall”, with its optimistic pedal steel and life-navigating lyrics, will put you in wonderful spirits.

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