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Jun 05, 2025 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Garrett Cardoso

Later this month, Atlanta-based indie singer/songwriter Elijah Johnston is set to share his upcoming sophomore album, Stupid Soul, following in the wake of his 2023 Strolling Bones debut Hometown Vampire. Across seven albums Johnston has steadily developed a steadfast songwriting voice and an adroit talent for pop melodicism. His latest album, produced by Tommy Trautwein at The Zoo in Athens, GA, finds Johnston supported by a group of friends and collaborators, fashioning jangly blends of pop songcraft, pastoral singer/songwriter fare, and lyrical folk narratives.

Johnston and company have already shared the album’s lead single, “Ideas,” and its latest track, “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” and today they’re sharing another new track, “Oxygen,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Oxygen” finds Johnston in a wistful mode, trying to navigate a relationship through rocky passages. Twinkling keys and winding guitar lines flicker between Johnston’s chiming acoustic chords. The tender instrumentation moves in plaintive swells, diverting into a spotlit guitar solo or a sweetly melodic verse, only to strip it all back to let Johnston’s heartfelt vocals shine on the chorus. Lyrically, the track shoulders the weight of hard times, but it also comes implicit with a certain hope that the uncertainty will bind Johnston and his loved ones closer together: “When the lights go out / When the roof caves in / When the rain won’t come / When the sidewalk ends / Doesn’t matter what’s in between us / If we’re starved for oxygen.”

Johnston says of the track, “‘Oxygen’ was the first track written for the record, and in a different timeline it could be the opening track. We were thinking of references that feel equally timeless and connected to their respective time frames — folk singers, mid 2000s pop stalwarts, rock bands from across time and space. We were hoping to create something that felt like wide open arms and timeless songcraft. We used band member Drew Beskin’s Gibson acoustic that is the signature model for Noel Gallagher, and we felt happy to invoke some Britpop into the proceedings. The song deals with age-old questions of purpose, identity, and how to repair a relationship in the weeds. What do you turn to when things get hard?”

Listen to the track below and pre-save it here. Stupid Soul is out on June 20th via Strolling Bones Records.