O.K. is as comforting as a bowl of chicken noodle soup or an afghan knitted by your grandmother or a steaming bubble bath. On the opening track, "Folly," a gentle acoustic ballad about the uncertainty of early love that blossoms into subtle electronics, Gabrielle Smith sings, "In my dreams, you're a bathtub running/You are warm and tender and bubbling," and there's really no better description of the album itself. Although it deals candidly with the complications that accompany newly-minted adulthood (after all, the same song ends on a decidedly less positive note, "You are cold and bristling and struggling"), the naturalistic blend of acoustics and electronics and Smith's charmingly confessional lyrics, effortlessly catchy melodies, and invitingly casual vocals keep the mood buoyant. Her songs reassure you that no matter how messy and embarrassing and awkward life gets, it also has a way of working itself out in the end: in other words, everything will be okay.

As far as massively infectious but endearingly DIY bedroom pop goes, this album has got you covered. From "Broken Necks" to "A Hug Too Long," O.K. is full of choruses you'll catch yourself humming for days afterward, as memorable for their propulsive rhythms and pulsing synths as for their self-deprecating lyrics ("While you were breaking your neck trying to keep your head up/I was breaking my neck just to stick it out for you;" "You went to work/I went to New Brunswick"). Even at their most acerbic, Smith delivers these lyrics with a relaxed coolness that isn't quite detachment but remains light enough to maintain the music's upbeat atmosphere.

But the album is also so much more than its humble construction suggests. Smith and her band manage to far exceed the boundaries traditionally associated with lo-fi self-production, resulting in a rich, dynamic, and emotionally resonant end product. "I Admit I'm Scared" is another song that begins softly, but it quickly erupts into a rhythm-driven, multilayered amalgam of sounds, culminating in an aggressively energetic group singalong: "If I had a dime for every time I'm freaking out/We could fly around the world or just get out of your parents' house." "The Thunder Answered Back," on the other hand, is moody and atmospheric from the start, centered on hauntingly overlapped vocals and climaxing in an impassioned and tumultuous finale. Continuing down a darker path, "Pocket Full of Posies" contrasts ominous and buzzing instrumentation with sweetly childlike nursery rhyme melodies, emphasizing the naivety and uncertainty in the refrain, "You know what being scared is/But not how to be scary."

O.K. was one of the most instantaneous albums I heard last year, but it's also proven to have remarkable staying power. This can be attributed to the fact that it is both simple and complex at once: never overwhelming in its richest moments but never half-baked in its most minimalistic ones. And even as it tackles very real and uncomfortable sentiments, it never dwells in darkness for very long, making it immensely replayable.