DRUGDEALER

A veteran of the L.A. psychedelic scene, Michael Collins turned the trippiness down to a slow boil for his Drugdealer project. Built around his smooth keyboard playing and plangent soft rock melodies, the band sought to re-create the laid-back sound and vibe of Laurel Canyon of the '70s, while also sounding as technically pure as a studio full of session players. Two albums recorded in the late 2010s (The End of Comedy and Raw Honey) combined Collins' songwriting and producing skills with his knack for rounding up interesting collaborators like Weyes Blood and Ariel Pink. Tim Presley and Kate Bollinger were among the guests on the project's third LP, 2022's Hiding in Plain Sight.