Following a stint with his high school garage-rock band, Bobby T. and the Slackers, Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Robert Tilden began releasing a steady stream of home-recorded material under his solo moniker, BOYO. Taking the form of songs, split singles, EPs, and albums, he launched the discography with the full-length debut Control in 2016. From the beginning, Tilden exhibited an interest in textured production that included clouded, sun-streaked atmospheres and fuzzy guitar tones that suited his yearning, downhearted lyrics and wistful chord progressions and melodies.
In 2018, Tilden received a health diagnosis for seizures that had started the previous year. While his treatment program did stop the seizures, the medications caused sudden shifts in mood that led him to stay home most of the time. Increasingly isolated, he focused even more on making music, and, citing Deerhunter's Bradford Cox and Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous as specific influences, worked at strengthening his songwriting without sacrificing his cultivated sound. A handful of short-form releases appeared before Tilden returned in 2020 with his third full-length, Where Have All My Friends Gone? Evoking names of contemporaries like Alex G and Jay Som, who are likewise known for their early output's sophisticated, lo-fi production approach, the album opens with the catchy, buzzing "Dogma." Its layered, multi-octave vocals, chugging guitars, shimmery keys, and constant eighth-note pulse establish the set's dreamy, mid-tempo urgency. Meanwhile, lyrics like "There comes a time where we die a little bit/Deep inside in a sense/Runs and hides/Memories become lies" (from "Junk") accompany conversational but memorable melodies. Diversions along the way include the jaunty, skittering "No One's Laughing" and the Lennon-esque "Southern Gothic," which maintain Where Have All My Friends Gone?'s affection for reverb as well as its underdog point of view. For indie fans who appreciate texture, melancholy tunefulness, and songs that are mostly two or three minutes in length, a rededicated BOYO may make fast friends.