Album of the Month - November 2025
After a handful of EPs and the intimate What Remains, Canadian duo Ocie Elliott, made up of Jon Middleton and Sierra Lundy, return with their new album Bungalow, released on October 24 via Nettwerk.
The record lasts just under 25 minutes and features eight tracks, but in that brief time the duo manage to distill everything that makes their sound so immediately recognizable: close harmonies, gentle acoustic textures, and an atmosphere that feels like home.
Entirely self-produced and built around minimal arrangements, Bungalow alternates between guitar-based pieces and more ambient, piano-driven moments. The instrumentation shifts delicately from track to track: acoustic guitar arpeggios, soft strumming, piano lines, and subtle touches of bass, electric guitar, and synths, creating a palette that’s cohesive yet varied.
By the Way
Released as the first single back in mid-August, By the Way immediately set the tone for what Bungalow would become. It’s built around a steady guitar arpeggio and a few piano accents, forming a calm, circular pattern that never breaks (will it be one of the next One Patter Songs?). Jon and Sierra’s voices intertwine in their familiar half-whisper, trading gentle lines about love’s constancy and acceptance. Online listeners have described it as “classic Ocie Elliott”: simple and emotionally direct. It’s a perfect opening moment.
Feeling Fine
The mood lightens with Feeling Fine, released as the second single in early September. Two acoustic guitars play interlocking strumming patterns, soon joined by a bass line and a subtle electric guitar that enters halfway through, adding melodic depth. The track feels more expansive, with a hopeful energy that contrasts the opener’s introspection. Lyrically, it’s all about finding calm after chaos, and the warm production reflects that inner peace.
Younger Days
One of the emotional highlights of the record, Younger Days blends a fingerpicked guitar arpeggio, piano, and a second acoustic guitar playing double stops that subtly enrich the harmony. Halfway through there’s a short instrumental section, a floating solo that seems to come from a synth pad, though the sound is so organic it’s hard to tell. The lyrics are steeped in nostalgia: growing up, moving on, realizing you can’t return to what once was. Its refrain “Oh my, I can’t go back / I cannot go home / My younger days are over” captures the album’s bittersweet heart.
Opening Night
The third and last single, Opening Night, released in early October, marks a small stylistic shift. Here, Ocie Elliott set the guitars aside for most of the song, building around soft synth layers, a minimal beat, and a bass line that anchors the rhythm. The lyrics sketch scenes of travel — airplanes, hotel rooms, fleeting nights, evoking that feeling of being everywhere and nowhere at once. Then, halfway through, a simple electric-guitar solo steps in, delicate and melodic, bridging the electronic textures with the duo’s organic roots
Rockland
At the album’s center lies Rockland, a piano-led piece that stands apart for one key reason: Jon doesn’t sing. Instead, Sierra’s voice carries the entire song, hovering over a minimal piano arrangement that grows slowly in depth. The absence of guitar gives the track a quiet gravity, letting the lyrics take center stage. It’s perhaps the most haunting song on Bungalow, fragile, aching, and cinematic in its stillness. Many fans have called it the emotional core of the record, a moment of still water after the movement of the earlier tracks.
Wild Rose
Wild Rose brings the guitars back, layering strumming patterns, piano, and a simple bass line in a comforting rhythm. The song feels like a return to warmth after the solitude of Rockland. The duo here sings about love as something natural and imperfect: “I want this love to be a wild rose.” The metaphor fits the music perfectly: delicate but enduring, fragile but alive. It’s one of the record’s most immediately affecting songs.
Jobie’s Song
Here, the piano grows more expressive and is joined by an acoustic guitar that alternates between arpeggios and chords, supported once again by a bass line. Jobie’s Song unfolds like a letter of comfort. Its lyrics sketch a vivid scene and an emotional promise: being there for someone on the “bright side of the moon.” The arrangement mirrors the message: steady, evolving, and full of empathy. It’s not a dramatic song, but one that draws you in with quiet grace, embodying Ocie Elliott’s ability to make small things feel significant.
Petals
The album closes with Petals, a brief instrumental piano piece that feels like a deep exhale after the emotional journey of the previous songs. No guitar, no vocals, just a sparse piano line that drifts softly, like petals falling in slow motion. It’s both an ending and an afterthought, a way of saying goodbye without words.
Bungalow is an album that invites stillness. Its songs never rush; they unfold naturally, like memories surfacing in quiet moments. Across eight tracks, Ocie Elliott refine their art of understatement: songs built on repetition, gentle textures, and harmonies that seem to breathe together. It’s both a homecoming and a subtle evolution, balancing the duo’s acoustic roots with small touches of modern production.
In just 24 minutes, Bungalow captures the fleeting beauty of everyday life and that’s precisely what makes it November’s best album.