Picture, if you will, a time many thousands of years ago when a great hunk of land connected the bottom end of Britain with the Netherlands, Germany, and the Danish peninsula: A bulbous stretch named Doggerland, long since submerged beneath the North Sea, where megafauna roamed the tundra, and human civilisation thrived in pockets. On his third solo album, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and mystic tour guide Rudi Zygadlo takes you to this ancient, sunken place and, guitar in hand, puts the damp grass of Doggerland between your toes — then invites you to a party at the end of the world. Doggerland, released in June 2023 via Zygadlo’s own RZ Records label, provides pop music as escapism: A bubble of hope in a sea of doom, saluting the oncoming tides with big hooks and a wry sense of humour. Drawing on reference points that span Greek mythology, Aldous Huxley, Stevie Smith poems, and the everyday bathos of modern urban life, Zygadlo guides the listener through a strange, playful, uncanny valley of his own imagining. “I had for a long time an image in my head of me in a bath, wearing a VR headset, with a dog on my lap and the Union Jack hanging in the background,” says Zygadlo. “The bath is overflowing, but I’m plugged in to fantasy land. I think that image captures a lot of the anxiety and mischievousness on the album.”