Bombadil

While they claimed in nearly all their interviews that their conceptual starting point was the folk music of Bolivia, Bombadil's frolicsome take on indie pop shares much more in common with the cutesier side of the Elephant 6 stable and indie label Kindercore Records. They released their first album, A Buzz, A Buzz, in 2008. Bombadil continued to deliver albums regularly through a series of setbacks including lineup changes and health issues, with constant member Daniel Michalak remaining at the helm. In the meantime making fans of other alternative songwriters, 2013's Metrics of Affection and 2015's Hold On featured R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe on trumpet, and their sixth long-player, 2017's Fences, was produced by John Vanderslice. A product of the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, In Color was a self-recorded outing flush with Bombadil's bittersweet melodicism.