Petal Press

Raghu Lokanathan has always been an artist who’s grown on me. I remember hearing his debut album, Caledonia, during my days at Village 900 and going from dismissively putting his tunes on the air to singing along to catchy songs like “Ramona” and “For Bob Snider and Us” (uh, with the mic off, of course). The same goes for Petal Press, his latest EP; it took a couple listens before I was tapping my toes to Lokanathan’s waltzy folk tunes and finding his quirky lyrics bouncing around in my head. Petal Press feels a little less off-kilter than Caledonia, and while I loved Lokanathan’s almost-whimsical approach to many of the songs on his debut, this album shows Lokanathan’s musical growth.
-Amanda Farrell. mondaymag.com