At what point do we lose ourselves while doing what the world expects of us? How does psychological and geographic distance make us trade our dreams for financial security and conformity? More importantly, how do we stop it from happening?
These are the questions posed by Agora Sci-Fi‘s new EP Finding It Hard to Explain Something So Obvious.
When I heard the debut bedroom pop single “Portals”, it stopped me cold: the wistful and melancholy tone, the lo-fi production that sounds like a demo from Metric or American Thighs-era Veruca Salt. Lyrics about meeting a loved one in your dreams (“I read some dreams are portals to / other possible worlds and / I think I saw you there.”) Instant add to the Friday setlist. I’ve listened to that song nearly every day since. If nostalgic heartbreak had a sound, it’d be pretty similar to this, I think. Easily one of my favourite and most-played songs of 2025.
Agora Sci-Fi is the alter ego of Illinois-based songwriter, musician and art professor Nathania Rubin. The video for “Portals” is her work as well: a hand-drawn animation, mixing stop-motion pencil, photography and video elements and matches the introspective tone of the music. In a fantastic interview with Stories from the 78, she describes it this way:
“…with ‘erase and redraw’ you see the erasure marks behind the figure…and so to me the idea of personal history being this trace behind you really matched [the song]”
She followed “Portals” up with the reverb-drenched “Sloppy” in April, and it strikes a lot of the same tones, singing about the importance of living with your own thoughts in an always-connected world that pushes us to “keep your job but lose your mind”.
In five tracks, Finding It Hard to Explain Something So Obvious is an expansion on these themes: the restrictions on our creative selves by work and hustle culture, the importance of making things, thinking things, and connecting with other people.
Standout “for Jandek” is a groovy, 70s inspired jam inspired by an interview with the titular outsider artist. Rubin sings about compartmentalization and playing the role expected of society. “your healthy sum 401K your / relatives live far away, you’re / stuck in what you built / so you could hide.”
In the Stories from the 78 interview, Rubin promises more art to go with the music, including videos for each song. As the AI-fueled capitalist dystopia unfolds around us, Rubin’s musical and artistic creativity is an inspiring, warm and thoughtful reminder of the value of taking time to make things: connections, art and peace with ourselves.
