Portland musician Alexei Shishkin opens “Yucca Street,” the title track to his upcoming new album, with a dark admission: “Haven’t made a meaningful connection in years,” he whispers under a warped guitar and some sampled street chatter. “Everyone always disappears… or is it me?” he questions, recalling the same diminutive, intimate songwriting that marked his The Dog Tape, which came out last year. Shishkin’s compositions are always unassuming, but they’re never inessential. He follows up his realization with a limitation — “all I know is that the clouds are a ceiling” — that sounds oddly full of promise. Listen below.

Yucca Street is out 2/19 via Forged Artifacts. Pre-order it here.