The airy, adult alternative electro-pop tunes of London duo Oh Wonder are often recognizable for their distinctive vocal unison. A project started as a songwriting exercise, they charted in the U.K. and elsewhere with their 2015 eponymous debut of keyboard-and-drum machine songs. The duo expanded instrumentation to include analog synths, strings, and live drums on the livelier Ultralife (2017) and No One Else Can Wear Your Crown (2020) before landing on the U.K. album chart for a fourth straight time with the conflict-themed 22 Break in 2021. A surprise companion piece, 22 Make, arrived the following year.

In September 2014, songwriters Anthony West and Josephine Vander Gucht set out to write, record, and release one song a month for a year, culminating in a home-recorded, downtempo debut album. Titled Oh Wonder, it was completed and shared online in early September 2015. In the meantime, the band became a viral sensation, garnering millions of streams and receiving high-profile radio play at home. They signed with Republic Records and were selling out live shows in places like London, Paris, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and New York City before the album's arrival and before ever performing publicly. The debut went on to reach the Top 30 in the U.K. and Canada, also charting in Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the U.S., where it peaked at number 80 on the Billboard 200.

The follow-up, their first to be conceived as an album, featured a broader palette and brighter tone. Still self-produced, Ultralife arrived on Island/Republic in mid-2017. Reaching as high as number eight in the U.K. and a slightly improved number 76 in the States, it was followed by more touring, including a handful of dates opening for Beck in North America in 2018. They returned in 2019 with songs from their third album, which they again produced themselves. Released in February 2020, No One Else Can Wear Your Crown was another vibrant outing. A world tour came on the heels of a run of intimate record-store shows that month in the U.K.

With touring sidelined due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Oh Wonder released an EP called Home Tapes later in 2020. Though they ultimately didn't split up while struggling with pandemic life, the dual-perspective "breakup album" 22 Break followed in October 2021. The following year saw the duo issue 22 Make, a life- and love-affirming companion album that included the singles "Magnificent" and "Fuck It I Love You." ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi