1) Destroyer, “Dan’s Boogie” / The latest from Dan Bejar’s Destroyer project leans into a signature blend of the breezy and the ill-mannered, the sweeping and the specific. Which is to say, it’s a delight.
2) Hannah Cohen, “Earthstar Mountain” / Elements of Fleetwood Mac and other lush ‘70s pop can be heard in Cohen’s new one, while a distinctly individual spirit shines through. These songs dazzle on the record and make promises of fuller joy live.
3) Whatever the Weather, “Whatever the Weather II” / London musician Lorraine James does something I deeply admire: recreate the weather. Tracks on this glorious ambient work correspond to specific temperatures and make lasting intermittent bouts of storm and sun.
4) Pádraig Ó Tuama, “Kitchen Hymns” / The wonder-working Irish poet seizes chances to reflect on what it might mean to lose God but gain your soul. More timely than I could have ever guessed.
5) Bailey Gaylin Moore, “Thank You For Staying With Me” / The debut from author—and my fellow Columbia, Missourian—Moore is a soulful set of essays that mines beauty and woe from episodes of religious trauma, from inside pregnancy and single motherhood, and moments spent gazing outward at the injustices other women encounter. Moore’s work is distinctly Midwestern, perceptive, formally inventive and always deeply humane.