Part of every artist’s job is to be attuned to their times, to plug into the vibe happening around them. That’s one explanation for how an award-winning lyricist and songwriter ends up—in the middle of an incredibly stressful time in our society—releasing an album of spare, wordless lullabies.

Dan Wilson first came to notice as a member of his brother Matt’s beloved indie-rock band Trip Shakespeare, before co-founding power-pop trio Semisonic with TS bandmate John Munson and college friend Jacob Slichter. Three albums and a #1 hit (“Closing Time”) later, the band went on hiatus and Wilson launched a songwriting career that has earned him three Grammy awards via collaborations with the likes of The Chicks, Adele, Chris Stapleton, Leon Bridges and Taylor Swift. Semisonic returned in 2020, and now 2025 finds Wilson taking a moment to release his third solo album.

Good Night, Los Angeles is the result of an experiment that Wilson—a prolific songwriter who freely shares his methods and tips—undertook one Sunday night at home in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles. The album’s one-sheet describes the moment as he sat down alone at the piano: “The house was dark, the streets were still, and in the soft tranquility while his family slept, Wilson began improvising a gentle, instrumental lullaby.” Capturing the “soothing… reassuring” results on his phone, he then shared it on his social media channels “as my way of saying goodnight.”

Over the next four years, Wilson repeated this practice hundreds of times, sitting down each Sunday night at his 1918 Vose & Sons upright piano and letting the moment flow through him. Good Night, Los Angeles collects 18 of these brief, evocative late-evening meditations. Each track is entirely improvised on the spot, and the recordings are both crude and intimate; you hear every creak and groan of the century-old instrument as Wilson sets his muse free to roam through the late-evening quiet.

“When I first started posting these songs on Sunday nights,” says Wilson, “I was really heartened by how many people reached out to say that the music made them feel good and helped them find some kind of peace at the end of the day.”

Each individual track is named for a street in Los Angeles, a clever conceit that doesn’t ultimately help that much with the task of reviewing an album like this. The mostly minute-long “songs” are more like moments, each engaging in its own way, on its own terms, without leaving more than a vivid impression of warmth, curiosity and humanity. After multiple listens, I couldn’t point to a particular track or hook or theme that jumped out from the rest—and yet collectively, they constitute one of the most soothing and refreshing listening experiences I’ve had in a long time.

“I think there are a lot of folks out there who just want to hear someone tell them goodnight,” says Wilson, “and I was happy to do it.” Thanks, Dan.

Rating: A-

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