B-Side Guys

Scott Fisher has been at this long enough to know when to stop pushing. The Portland-born, LA-based songwriter has spent two decades moving through piano-pop, classical, Bossa Nova, 70s psychedelia, and indie rock without settling into any one of them, and “The Great Unknown” reflects that restlessness more through what it strips away than what it adds. Fisher dials the tempo back, and the song breathes accordingly.

The track arrives ahead of what will be his ninth album, following Kingdom of Ego, a 2023 record that took aim at social media narcissism and the distortion of the American dream, produced with Tim Levebre, whose credits include David Bowie, Sting, and John Mayer. “The Great Unknown” feels like the exhale after that kind of effort, folk-inflected and unhurried, more interested in sitting with uncertainty than diagnosing it.

Fisher’s background in classical piano and jazz keeps the arrangement from going slack. There’s enough structural discipline underneath the looseness to hold the song together without making it feel constructed. That balance has always been his strength, and at eight albums deep it comes naturally.

Where Kingdom of Ego had something to say and said it across thirteen tracks, “The Great Unknown” seems content not to have all the answers.