OFFICE DOG: SPIEL [2024]

“ Spiel is heavy but nimble, more direct in its arrangements and sentiments, but also moodier, more melancholy; it sounds like shoulders shrugged against a cold wind. While he does craft some intriguingly askew hooks—slicing the word “shade” into multiple syllables, clipping his words into a staccato rhythm on “Tightropes”—Strang pares his songwriting back considerably, deploying just a few words to gesture toward feelings that resist specific labels. Just as the music toggles between quiet and loud, these songs move from alienation to contentment, from unease to “something like an antidote.””