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Jul 10, 2025 By Caleb Campbell

Detroit-based indie folk pop singer/songwriter Ohly released his debut full-length album, Miracle, in 2023, but he’s remained plenty busy in the years since. He quickly followed his debut with a collection of B-sides and stripped-back acoustic versions, alongside a new EP, Laces. This year, he’s keeping up the momentum with a handful of new singles, once again cultivating a rosy folk pop sheen tempered with nostalgic reflections on growth and heartache. He has already shared a pair of new singles this year, “Bring You Back” and “If I Go,” and today he’s sharing another new track, “Flat Year,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Flat Year” finds Ohly crafting a dynamic folk pop rollercoaster, beginning in intimate sound collages before steadily ascending to cathartic heights. Ohly dots the track’s quieter moments in spindly guitar accents and meditative acoustic fingerpicking, creating a scattershot dance of electronic and acoustic textures. As the song builds, he’s joined by strident, marching drums, anthemic keys, and a chorus of backing vocals, all produced with a sleek pop flair. Yet, at the track’s apex, it falls back into a naturalistic folk space, only to build back upwards with the next chorus. Ohly delivers his vocals while caught in a constant push and pull between the track’s competing instrumentation and aesthetics, quiet and confessional in one moment and impassioned in the next.

The track’s lyrics capture this same spirit of constant, restless searching: “If I run / And chase down every salt flat / And curl the spine on my soft back on the road / Or if I sing / For just a couple people / And hear the conversations that they bring / Well I might take a turn / From the ways I’ve grown / And I might step real close / To a microphone / But it’s you / It’s true / You’re the only thing that still comes through.”

Ohly says of the track, “As I get older, I’ve reflected on who or what stays consistent in my life, regardless of the choices I make, and often find comfort there.”

Check out the song early below, out everywhere on July 11th.