Wye Oak, the Baltimore-born, Durham-based duo composed of Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, assembled the nine songs on Every Day Like the Last during a period where Wye Oak were in flux after a decade-plus of steadily releasing albums and touring. Sonically, the collection represents Wasner and Stack getting back to basics. Balancing the organic and the artificial, using electronics and programming to add new textures.

When 2020’s JOIN tour, which brought along three other musicians to fully bring Wye Oak’s catalog to life, unfortunately got cut short, Stack’s and Wasner’s work on other projects led to the two rethinking how Wye Oak worked. Every Day Like the Last also documents Wye Oak shifting from thinking of its work in album-length groups of songs to dealing in singles, a format shift that wound up documenting their creative method in something close to real time. The new collection is comprised of the singles Wye Oak has released since 2019’s glowing “Fortune” plus three new songs. While it wasn’t conceived the way an album traditionally is, these songs coalesce because of the way they examine and grapple with ambiguities, which is reflected by the dual meaning of the title and its attendant track, a pensive, suspended-in-midair track that contemplates the importance of human connection.