Find your new favorite folk, pop or Americana wordsmith and revisit the work of classic singer-songwriters too. Chris Robley selects songs by writers like Anna Tivel, Joe Pug, Gregory Alan Isakov, Gillian Welch, Peter Mulvey, Arcade Fire, Mark Erelli, Phoebe Bridgers, and many more.

LYRICS IN THE LIMELIGHT: Song Lyrics worth Hearing

Robley's orchestral indie-pop and fractured folk music has been praised by the likes of NPR, the LA Times, Performer Magazine, and the Boston Globe — and has drawn comparisons to John Lennon, Elliott Smith, John Vanderslice, Grandaddy, XTC, and Paul McCartney. This playlist contains selections from his first four solo albums, as well as his band THE SORT OFs. 

Chris Robley's Indie-Pop Playlist

Love triangles and basic arithmetic meet New Wave rhythms and indie-rock riffs on this track, with Chris Robley getting an energetic assist from backing band The Fear of Heights:

Daniel Adlaf - keyboard and flugelhorn
Arthur Parker - bass
Chris Robley - guitar and vocals
John Stewart - drums

Engineered by Jeff Stuart Saltzman at Secret Society (Portland, Oregon).

Mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman at Mysterious Beard (Portland, Oregon).

Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering (Portland, Oregon).

1+1+1=3

Chris Robley - 1+1+1=3

"The science is way off," says Maine-based songwriter Chris Robley of his new single 'Collapsing Star,' musing on how pop music is rife with mixed metaphors and factual inaccuracies. ""In this song a giant sun steadily dims and shrinks; I think stars actually get big and bright before they finally collapse, but I chose sentiment over science." 

Robley, whose previous album saw him "at the top of his game" (KCRW), has been releasing a series of singles over the past year, the latest of which is a song about the promise of devotion in the face of aging. It’s a Bowie by-way-of Death Cab sprawl, both epic and ultimately tender, the music patiently shrinking under its own slow gravity.

Recorded at Secret Society and Mysyerious Beard Studios in Portland, Oregon.

Engineered and mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman.

Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph.

Performed by: Arthur Parker (synth bass), Daniel Adlaf (keys and synth), John Stewart (drums), and Chris Robley (voice, guitars, glockenspiel).

Chris Robley - "Collapsing Star"

The new synth-rock single from Chris Robley recalls Secret Machines, Muse, Radiohead, and Bjork, with its obsessive, buzzing bass, soaring vocals, and squalor of guitar.

Engineered by Jeff Stuart Saltzman at Secret Society in Portland, Oregon.
Mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman at Mysterious Beard in Portland, Oregon.
Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph in Portland, Oregon. 

Performed by:

Arthur Parker - Keyboards
Daniel Adlaf - Synth Bass
John Stewart - Drums and Percussion
Chris Robley - Vocals, guitars, and keyboards

Lyrics:

I gotta let you go (4x)
Oh, how could you shut me out right now
when I couldn't need you more
and how haven't you realized by now
the one you've been waiting for is here

But I wanna be the only one (3x)
you love

Let You Go

Chris Robley - "Let You Go" (radio edit)

A bare-bones, bedroom folk version of Robyn's dance hit "Call Your Girlfriend." Let's get LONELY!

I've always loved this song by Robyn, and her production is brilliant. But it's a great song even without the big beat, bells, and whistles.

So I recorded my own take on it — stripped to the essentials. For me, that's acoustic guitar and voice. 

Recorded all old-fashioned to a Tascam 388 tape machine that lives and loves in Lewiston, Maine. 

Mixed by Peter Rodocker at Yellow Room Recording Studio in Portland, Oregon.

In between is a whole continent. Imagine that!

Chris Robley - "Call Your Girlfriend" (indie-folk Robyn cover)

One morning shortly after my father passed away I was going through old photographs with my mom. At some point, the lamplight turned on thanks to an automatic timer. I'm not sure which of them programmed it that way, but I liked to imagine it was my dad. 

The idea stuck with me that the things we set in motion will outlast us. Also, that almost anything could be funny from a distance. Comedians get to joke about all kinds of tragedies once enough time's gone by. 

So that became the beginnings of this song: "Louise Louise Louise Louise" — recorded on my trusty Tascam 388 reel-to-reel tape machine in Lewiston, Maine. 

Mixed by Peter Rodocker at Yellow Room in Portland, Oregon. 

In between is a whole continent. Imagine that!

Chris Robley - "Louise, Louise, Louise, Louise"

Chris Robley is a poet, songwriter, and producer whose lush, orchestral indie-pop has been praised by NPR, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, and others. Skyscraper Magazine said he is “one of the best short-story musicians to come along in quite some time.”

Robley’s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in POETRY Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, Beloit Poetry Journal, RHINO, Magma Poetry, and more. He is the winner of Boulevard’s 2013 Poetry Prize for Emerging Writers and a 2014 recipient of the Maine Literary Award for poetry.

Chris Robley - "Let You Go" (radio edit)

Chris Robley Music