Get off work. Get on the subway, maybe your bicycle. Put your earbuds in. A pop song only lasts a couple minutes, but can create a universe. 2nd Grade’s new 23-track album, Scheduled Explosions, is another entry in Philadelphia songwriter Peter Gill’s rapidly expanding catalog, and simultaneously his most focused and expansive work yet.

Scheduled Explosions was home-recorded with friend and engineer Lucas Knapp (who recorded 2nd Grade’s breakthrough album Hit to Hit); it’s an odyssey of 60s-inspired dream logic driven by melody, charted through an environment of ambient violence and existential dread, and touching down in a pantheon of prolific pop weirdos like Robert Pollard, Alex Chilton, Lily Konigsberg, Chris Weisman, and Nate Amos. The work of a visionary at the height of his worldbuilding powers, Scheduled Explosions is a heat-seeking missive addressed to the past, present, and future of rock & roll.