Chicago’s jangly, lo-fi rock outfit Wide Orbit releases their debut album Introducing… Wide Orbit today via 22TWENTY (Oracle Sisters, Cornelia Murr). Fronted by songwriter Ryan Tuohy, the six-piece tracked the album in a cramped room outside Chicago, capturing a charming, youthful, and freewheeling energy throughout the new record.
Wide Orbit taps into the scrappy charm of ’90s lo-fi indie rock, underpinned by a quiet discipline and devotion to classic songcraft. Tuohy’s vocals land with youthful clarity — honest, unpretentious, and hopeful without being naive. Tracked mostly live, the album captures the band’s natural looseness and magnetic pull. It’s the sound of misfits looking for a musical home — an orbit of their own.
On songs like “What’s The Point?” or “Full of Feathers,” Tuohy notes he was inspired by classic ’60s artists, like The Beatles and the Beach Boys. He sought to channel a similar sound through stacking harmonies, creating “big-sounding” drums, and embellishing the instrumentation with a Danelectro 12-string, a Wurlitzer electric piano, and a tremolo pedal. These more classic pop-rock songs are inspired by interpersonal relationships, both real and imagined scenarios, like the heartfelt “Buddy” partially inspired by his cat, or a guy in love with a girl who’s much smarter than him on the cheeky and upbeat “Full of Feathers.”
In contrast, songs like “Soil,” “Soon,” or “Good Morning” show a more experimental side of the record. These songs are comparatively simpler with classic production techniques — like slowing down and speeding up tracks, or changing pitch — creating much of the songs’ personality and color. Tuohy says these songs fit the “B-plot” of the record, saying, “where most of the songs lean toward the 60s rock/pop direction and have interpersonal themes, these are more psychedelic, experimental, and introspective.”
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