Stranger Songs

A gifted singer/songwriter known for her emotive, often folky pop love songs, Ingrid Michaelson takes a turn towards the artfully conceptual on 2019's Stranger Things-influenced Stranger Songs. The album arrives a year after her similarly stylized holiday album, Songs for the Season. But where that album found Michaelson embracing a retro '50s brand of traditional pop, Stranger Songs finds her broadly drawing inspiration from the synthy, 1980s atmosphere and romantic teen drama of the Netflix horror sci-fi series Stranger Things. However, if you were hoping (or fearing) that Michaelson would descend completely into the icy atmosphere of the Upside Down with a near clone of the show's actual soundtrack, you may be surprised. Yes, there are analog-sounding synths and drum machines here as on the propulsively catchy "Young and in Love," which is perhaps the most militantly '80s track on the record, but there are also many lighter contemporary pop touches that longtime Michaelson fans will be familiar with. In fact, while the album's underpinnings do bring to mind the show's John Carpenter-style keyboard soundtrack aesthetic, much of Stranger Songs also finds Michaelson leaning more heavily into the show's more conceptual themes of romantic teenage longing and the desire for love and acceptance. Particularly, the opening "Freak Show," with its bubbly EDM keyboards and message of finding a safe place, feels like the heart of the album -- or at least the core of what Michaelson may have found so compelling about Stranger Things. She sings "When you wake up and you're all alone/And the bed's too big for one/Well you're not the only weird one here/Let me show you where I'm from." Similarly, "Missing You" with its low-end Giorgio Moroder-esque pulse finds Michaelson striking a balance between the arid synthesizer aesthetic of the series and her own knack for crafting buoyant, heartfelt anthems. Elsewhere, she evokes the adult-contemporary rock of '80s-era Heart on "Hey Kid," and then takes a left turn into nuevo flamenco-accented pop on "Jealous." Also engaging are the layered vocal harmonies of "Hate You" and the yearning album closer "Take Me Home." Ultimately, as the Stranger Things kids draw strength from each other to face whatever monsters may emerge from the dark, on Stranger Songs, Michaelson offers her own words of hope for gentle freaks in an upside-down world.