Tel Aviv-based singer, songwriter, and producer iogi today shares his expansive champer-pop album we can be friends via Raw Tapes Records (the label helmed by Rejoicer of Stones Throw). Listen to the album we can be friends HERE.

iogi’s sumptuous third album we can be friends embodies his ability to make lush music that radiates with empathy and thoughtfulness. This is music for afternoons where the sunlight perfectly touches the windowsill, as iogi has returned with an album that is straightforward in its loveliness while asking important questions about our relationship with the natural world around us. There’s an inherent playfulness in iogi’s songwriting—reminiscent of Harry Nilsson’s seemingly effortless songwriting and Steely Dan’s smooth elegance, as well as psych-pop contemporaries like Peel Dream Magazine and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. The ease with which these melodies flow can be a bit disarming; it first sounds like music you’ve already been living with for years.

iogi says, “we can be friends is a concept album, dealing with my perspective on man’s relationship with the natural world, and our role in this relationship. Although as human beings we are considered to be part of nature, it seems to me that we are deeply disconnected from it, feeling as though we’ve become superior and dominant over creatures and big parts of natural life. This album presents different encounters I’ve had with these ideas, and raises questions I couldn’t really find answers to. This feels like the beginning of a journey for me, and part of making this album was to carve these ideas and questions in my history. Although not as straightforward and personal as my prior albums this is my most exposed work so far.”

iogi’s debut the ceiling garnered 8.7 million Spotify streams and 1.9 million plays on Bandcamp, and 2021’s dreamy everything’s worth it contributed to the culmination of an impressive career that boasts over 17 million Spotify streams and extensive touring. iogi’s signed with Raw Tapes Records, founded by Yuvi Havkin, who himself is signed to the influential L.A.-based label Stones Throw under the name Rejoicer. Raw Tapes can be viewed as Tel Aviv’s answer to Stones Throw—an uncompromising, genre-defying label that houses a cosmically vast array of artists at which iogi fits right at home.

A reflectiveness permeates we can be friends, carrying a simple but important message: We’re all in this together, so let’s act with as much kindness as we can muster.