Nightlands

The project of Philadelphia-based multi-instrumentalist Dave Hartley, Nightlands combines dreamy pop with the love of experimentation he grew up with thanks to his genetic engineer father. Hartley is also the bassist for the War on Drugs, and began working on his own music in earnest when the group's album Slave Ambient was taking longer than expected to complete, and released his debut album, Forget the Mantra, on Secretly Canadian in 2010. Though his duties with the War on Drugs — who released Slave Ambient in 2011 — kept him busy for much of that year, he also issued the All the Way and Covers EPs, the latter of which included a gorgeously hazy version of Lindsey Buckingham's "Trouble." In 2013, Hartley dropped Nightlands' second album, Oak Island, which featured major-seventh chords (considered the most nostalgic-sounding harmonic grouping) in its songs.