Sara Larson

If the smoothest of music makes you want to cuddle, this collection may motivate you to cuddle even more. Smooth 70s is a 2021 compilation of some of the most pleasant pop music of the 1970's, when pleasantries in music could still be enjoyed. Who made this? X5 Music Group/Warner Music Group.

The third full-length and Atlantic Records debut from Shaina Taub, Songs of the Great Hill came to life over the course of countless daily trips to the enchanted spot of its title. In the bleakest days of lockdown, the New York City-based singer/songwriter would head to the North Woods of Central Park with notebook in hand, then set to work on the incandescent batch of songs that now comprise the album. “It felt very much like a metaphor for the time we were all living through—trying to trudge up this great big hill with some sense of grace, looking for some kind of hope in all the dread and isolation,” recalls Taub, also a multi-award-winning composer and actor in musical theater. “After a while, it felt like I was writing into existence all the songs I needed to hear.”