Produced by Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes) and Brendan Benson (The Raconteurs), Time Apart funnels a half-century of American and British influences - including power pop, explorative indie rock, jangling heartland hooks, and New Wave nuances - into something sharp and singular. The result is a warm, widescreen follow-up to the Prescriptions' 2019 debut, Hollywood Gold, with songs balanced halfway between classic craftsmanship and progressive exploration.

Fiery and forward-looking, Time Apart explores both sides of the pop and rock divide. It's a 21st century album rooted in everything that made the classic stuff so compelling - sharp songwriting, ringing refrains, percussive stomp, and guitars that chime one minute and churn the next. Lead singer and guitarist Hays Ragsdale pulled inspiration from Big Star, Elvis Costello, and other artists who used pop melody and rock & roll muscle as launchpads for a bigger, bolder sound.

The Prescriptions have never been shy about nodding to the hook-driven rockers who came before them, but here, they carry those influences into uncharted territory, uncovering something that's truly theirs along the way. It was time together that created Time Apart, and the Prescriptions have never defined their ambition or abilities so clearly before.

Much of Time Apart finds Ragsdale in an introspective mood, turning his personal journey toward honesty into something universal. When recording sessions began, Ragsdale, bassist Parker McAnnally, and drummer John Wood were still riding high on the critical success of their 2019 debut Hollywood Gold, which earned the band invitations to perform at SXSW and Jason Isbell's Shoals Fest. But as the pandemic brought their tour to a halt, The Prescriptions had time to chase down new ways to present their melody-driven sound for their sophomore album. They ultimately uncovered a spacey, neo-psych soundscape full of taut power-pop, explorative indie rock, jangling heartland hooks, and New Wave nuances.