Lake Street Dive have continually expanded the horizons of pop music, utilizing their eclectic sound - a distinctive blend of soul, folk, jazz, classic pop, and more - to unify audiences. Their all-embracing ethos has solidified their reputation as a beloved live band, renowned for forging deep connections with every crowd. Their new album, Good Together, embodies this spirit. Members Rachael Price, Bridget Kearney, Mike Calabrese, Akie Bermiss, and James Cornelison infused the album with a profound sense of purpose, often reflecting on the factors driving societal division, such as unchecked technological growth, cultural isolation, and the relentless pursuit of self-optimization. Emerging from a mindset they describe as “joyful rebellion,” Good Together stands as a defiant and exuberant work, primed to inspire joyous dancing and heartfelt sing-alongs.

“There’s a lot to be angry about in the world right now, a lot of pain and rage and divisiveness, but it isn’t sustainable to constantly live in that anger - you need something else to keep you going,” Calabrese explains. “Joy is a great way to sustain yourself, and we wanted to encourage everyone to stay aware of that. In a way, this album is our way of saying, ‘Take your joy very seriously.’”

In early 2023, the band convened at Calabrese’s home studio in Vermont, spending nearly a week generating new songs, aided by a 20-sided die - a remnant from Bermiss and Kearney’s lockdown-era Zoom-based Dungeons & Dragons sessions. “The captain of a particular song would roll the die, and the result would decide the chords, the meter, and the tempo for that song,” Kearney explains. “We’d take those elements and jam for a while, go our separate ways and come up with lyrics and melodies, then come back together and workshop everything. It ended up taking us to new places we never would’ve gotten to otherwise, in terms of things like harmony and tempo and groove.” This collaborative approach not only expanded their musical palette and expressive range but also deepened their intimacy as a band. “In the past, we’d written pieces of songs and shared them with each other and built them up from there, but we always had the space to listen and reflect in total privacy,” Price adds. “At first it was terrifying to write together in the same room, but as soon as we got started it felt so fun. We very quickly realized, ‘Oh, we need to do this again and again.’”

Following their acclaimed 2021 album Obviously, praised by Rolling Stone for defying pop's trend towards lo-fi intimacy, Good Together sees Lake Street Dive reuniting with Grammy-winning producer Mike Elizondo. The album's soundscape spans from R&B to funk to Brazilian pop.

While Good Together often reflects on external observations, many tracks draw from the band members’ personal experiences. “Walking Uphill,” for example, emerged as Price revisited her journal from seven years earlier, transforming underlined passages into a meditation on self-repair. And as expected, the album showcases Lake Street Dive's musical versatility and imaginative expression. Tracks like “Better Not Tell You,” a ’70s-funk-inspired dance song from the perspective of Macbeth’s witches, and “Far Gone,” a psych-rock reflection on our collective addiction to technology, highlight their creative range.

Since their formation in Boston in 2004, Lake Street Dive has embodied a spirit of camaraderie and mutual care, fully realized on Good Together. “Our tastes in music differ more than they ever have, but we’re still able to bring all those influences together with a real love and respect for the diversity within the band,” says Price. “The main thing that’s kept us going over the years is that very strong foundation of friendship - everyone has a voice, everyone gets heard, and we’re all really careful about looking out for each other’s happiness.”