1) Julien Baker and Torres, “Send a Prayer My Way” / Two of our great indie-rock songwriters team for a countrified album that’s both earnest and irreverent when it needs to be. More Baker/Torres collaborations in the future, please.
2) Tunde Adebimpe, “Thee Black Boltz” / If we aren’t to receive any more TV on the Radio records anytime soon, then give us projects like this. A core member of that band, Adebimpe offers up a record that’s often exhilarating and slyly humorous. “Thee Black Boltz” both resembles TVOTR, while growing both poppier and more artful all at once.
3) The music of 1970s Film Stock / Digging through the crates of Eddie Garcia’s grade of rock and roll is to joyfully discover something both atmospheric and chaotic, highly instrumental and yet owning potent vocals.
4) Bethany Jarmul, “My Son Asks About Death” for Lost Balloon / Jarmul works a sort of literary miracle here in this flash piece, sifting and naming that which makes life worth living and what we leave in death.
If the sun burns out, the world freezes in darkness. If gravity ceases, everyone and everything not-rooted releases. If all water disappears, nothing can replace it. “You only get one mom,” I say. Which is both true and not true.
5) Justin Carter, “See You in the Lobby” for The Account / The poet uses his own pivot foot to find the surprising and visceral beauty in a phrase that bridges basketball, confrontation and life’s most mystically mundane moments.
It’s a shame
the phrase contains the connotations
of violence because otherwise
it’d be such a beautiful thing
to say: see you in the lobby
of my dreams …