Many artists are having to adapt to the COVID pandemic, rethinking all plans for their music this year. Lo-fi pop duo Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West, known as Oh Wonder, have shown how this can be done remarkably well. They had planned a world tour for 2020 but now concerts are cancelled, they have instead been making music from home. The result is new EP, Home Tapes, which feels like the opposite of a global tour. It is homemade and stripped back, not meant for stadium arenas but to listen to in your room by yourself.

The EP opens with ‘Lonely Star’, a beautiful track showcasing just how much Oh Wonder can achieve with a piano and vocals. Since the pandemic began, loneliness has afflicted many people much more acutely. Josephine singing, ‘I’m a lonely star / Is there anybody out there?’ in an almost hypnotic way captures this feeling perfectly. Despite the wistfully sad tone, this song can provide comfort by showing people who are feeling isolated that they are not the only ones. Paradoxically, admitting to loneliness can actually make you feel less alone, as you realise that everyone is feeling it right now.

This is followed by ‘Keep On Dancing’, inspired by Josephine having to cancel her birthday party. As someone who also had a lockdown birthday this year, this is definitely a song I needed. It reminds me to be grateful for the things I do still have rather than focusing on celebrations I am missing. This song champions finding joy in the little things, like dancing to your favourite song.

‘I Like It When You Love Me’ takes us into the mind of someone questioning whether their relationship is worth continuing, reflecting on the reality of two people falling out of love. Josephine asks the scary questions that we often do not want to acknowledge to ourselves, singing ‘We never drive for miles talking like we used to / Can you feel it fading too? / Are we in too deep to take it all back?’ This track is arguably the one least obviously tied to our specific situation in 2020, but it does bring to mind the struggles of people stuck in isolation together and having to face their relationships in ways they perhaps have not had to before.

Midway through Home Tapes, a pattern can be seen emerging. Oh Wonder are known for their simple, easily relatable lyrics laid over soft piano or string arrangements, and this EP shows them doing exactly that. They could be criticised for being too safe and repetitive. One of the lyrics in ‘Keep On Dancing’ says, ‘I guess swaying solo always feels the same’, and sometimes you get the feeling that Oh Wonder also always feel the same in each song. This can be said for the remainder of the EP; the next two tracks are nice, but nothing new.

Home Tapes succinctly captures the universal feelings of anxiety and loneliness that many people are finding exacerbated by the global situation in 2020. While wistfulness and nostalgia are definitely themes here, the EP ultimately advocates for hopefulness. It would certainly benefit from more variety to give it more of an edge, but overall it is a reassuring listen. Life during social distancing and quarantine feels so much smaller than it used to, and that can feel like the most infuriating, claustrophobic, mundane existence. But Oh Wonder has found a way to make this new smallness of life feel comforting and sometimes even beautiful.

Rating: 6/10

Home Tapes is available now via Island Records

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