Crocus

Recommended If You Like: Tomberlin, The Cranberries, Barrie, Kacey Musgraves, Japanese Breakfast, The Weather Station, Slow Pulp, Lala Lala, Big Thief. After 2018’s critically acclaimed Almost opened The Ophelias to a world beyond their Cincinnati home, the indie rock quartet craved a return to a sense of community. The band members no longer lived in the same city bandleader Spender Peppet (she/her) and new bassist/longtime music video collaborator Jo Shaffer (they/them) live in New York, while drummer Mic Adams (he/him) and violinist Andrea Gutmann Fuentes (she/her) remain in Ohio. When it came time to record the candid, expansive Crocus, The Ophelias purposefully focused on the experimental, communal spirit that fueled their first record. Crocus was recorded at night in a converted “2000 percent haunted” Masonic lodge, which surely had an effect on the album’s ability to weave darker tones through the taut song structures. Engineer John Hoffman kept