1) Yola, “Stand for Myself” / I dig the sophomore record from British singer Yola Carter. Building on the foundation of her well-received, Grammy-nominated debut “Walk Through Fire,” Carter offers a more complete—and completely satisfying—sonic document. Swirling yet sturdy, these tracks unite timeless songcraft and up-to-the-minute expressions, pop with soul and country. The musical flexibility allows Yola to express more than one feeling at a time, yet unite every mode and mood through her superlative voice.
2) Torres, “Thirstier” / Torres (aka Mackenzie Scott), as much as any current indie artist, brings together the theatrical and deeply personal sides of rock. So perhaps it’s little surprise that, while many of these songs are of the hot-and-bothered variety (including the title cut), Scott goes big and isn’t afraid to rip her heart from her sleeve and wear it somewhere even more prominent.
3) Dusted, “III” / I can’t get enough of this one, which shows off the spare, soulful side of Brian Borcherdt—better known for his work with the colorful electronic outfit Holy Fuck. These songs hold all the quiet, melancholy charisma of an Elliott Smith while nodding meaningfully to classic folk and soul.
4) Brandi Carlile, “Broken Horses” / There is a rare class of music memoir that transcends cliche and sounds exactly like the artist themself. In these books, the author’s capacity for storytelling across medium clarifies itself. Elvis Costello wrote a book like this. So did Liz Phair. And Questlove. Brandi Carlile takes her place near the head of this class with “Broken Horses,” a raw and earthy—yet damn poetic—look inside her life. The book is full of the expected tales of resilience and starry-eyed celebrity encounters, but Carlile’s authenticity (a typically overused word, but one that can’t be talked about enough here) ties them all together, gently drawing readers into lyric moments of wonder, honest reckonings and glorious expressions of faith.
5) CJ Green, “Faith” in Image Journal / I love everything about this short story from CJ Green. (Disclosure: Green edited a couple of my pieces at Mockingbird a few years back.) Ostensibly the tale of a high-schooler working his first pizza delivery gig, Green gently digs into the sorts of furrowed-brow thoughts and welcome palpitations we experience around love, sex, religion and loyalty as we come of age. Green spins remarkable webs of connection in a relatively short space, and gets every little detail right—which makes you trust him with the big things.