Planet (I), Squirrel Flower

Squirrel Flower's heart-rending sophomore album Planet (i), following her 2020 debut I Was Born Swimming, is exactly that. A singular planet, a world entirely of artist Ella Williams' making. The title came first to her as a joke: it's her made-up name for the new planet people will inevitably settle and destroy after leaving Earth, as well as the universe imagined within her music. "Planet (i) is my body and mind, " Williams says, "and it's the physical and emotional world of our planet. It's both." Buoyed by her steadfast vision and propelled by her burning comet of a voice, the record is a love letter to disaster in every form imaginable. Tornadoes, flooding, gaslighting assholes, cars on fire-these songs fully embrace a planet in ruin. As Williams rides from melancholy to jubilance to complete emotional devastation over the course of twelve songs, she carves out a future for herself and those she loves. Planet (i), out June 25, 2021 on Polyvinyl, is at once a refuge, an act of self-healing, and a musical reflection of Squirrel Flower's inner and outer worlds.