John Gallagher Jr. — the Tony-winning Broadway lifer you know from Spring Awakening, American Idiot, and most recently The Avett Brothers’ Swept Away — is reminding everyone that the day job has always been a side hustle. The Brooklyn-based songwriter has just shared “Mitsuko,” the latest single off his forthcoming EP Almost OK, due May 29 via Grand Phony Music.

Pronounced “meets-co,” the track is a road-wearied love letter dressed in Laurel Canyon flannel. It’s the kind of song that sounds like a sunny acoustic strummer on first listen, then quietly muscles up into something that rocks harder than it lets on. According to Gallagher, that duality is the whole point.

“‘Mitsuko’ is about falling for someone from far away and racing impatiently to get back home and profess those feelings,” he explained. “It’s a love song sung by someone making up for lost time, so despite the sweet sentiments of the lyrics, there is an urgent current running beneath it all. I’m a big fan of that duality. It allows a simple tune about love to rise up and rock a bit harder than one might expect at the outset.”

Stream “Mitsuko” here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3wYWUKZGgWqLgWfWnEAxlS

“Mitsuko” follows the EP’s lead single “Tough Spit,” a power-pop tragicomic anthem that conjures mid-80s Elvis Costello while skewering the doomscroll era, and the Jeff Tweedy-tinged daydream “Lido Lane.” Where Gallagher’s 2024 LP Goodbye or Something documented the wreckage of a romantic storm surge, Almost OK plays like a postcard from the other side — a short, unfussy dispatch from someone steadily finding their footing again.

“Almost OK fell into place with an easy quickness,” Gallagher said. “For someone who has fretted and second guessed my way through recording albums in the past, it was a sweet relief to go into the studio with the band and have my first EP come together so organically. This record is a succinct snapshot of me in motion as I move from one place in time to another.”

Recorded at Studio G in Brooklyn with producers Oscar Albis Rodriguez (lead guitar) and Zach Jones (percussion/vocals), the EP also features Grand Phony labelmate Hannah Winkler on keys and vocals, plus Tim Lappin on bass. The crew has been road-tested for two years, and you can hear that lived-in chemistry across all five tracks.

Almost OK Tracklist:
1. Tough Spit
2. Never Leave
3. All This Changing
4. Mitsuko
5. Lido Lane

Catch Gallagher and band on the road this summer:
06/11 — Asbury Park, NJ @ Wonder Bar
07/31 — New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
08/28 — Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy

Pre-order/pre-save Almost OK before it lands May 29 via Grand Phony Music, and don’t sleep on “Mitsuko” — it’s the rare love song that knows when to lean on the gas.