1) Cat Power, “… Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert” / Chan Marshall sings through the iconic Dylan set by inhabiting the iconic Dylan set; and Marshall honors a singular moment by never thinking herself bigger than the moment yet showing her cards, helping us see how she brings each of her moments to this performance. How I wish she could have played one iteration of Dylan, only accentuating Todd Haynes’ great film “I’m Not There.”
2) Josh Radnor, “Eulogy Vol. 1” / There is a gift artists give when they manage—by intuition or painstaking intention—to let down every guard. A rare gift indeed, but Josh Radnor offers it on his debut full-length; these songs arrive, bearing naked insight on melodies that echo long with hope. The entire record sings, but the closing couplet of “Learning” and “Joshua 45:46” are a 360-degree act of affection: for the artist, for the audience, for anyone who will come within earshot.
3) Jaimie Branch, “Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))” / This posthumous record from the gone-too-soon trumpet great showcases exactly why Branch was so beloved. These songs soar and spiral, play with color and dig into rigorous rhythms. You feel well cared for by the music, and by this musician, willing to show you so many wondrous things.
4) Jack Bedell, “Three Coins in the Fountain” for Major 7th / Jack Bedell’s meditation on Sinatra cuts to the heart of songs and singing, of families and the moments we might be our true and precious selves. Like the Great American Songbook in the hands of an icon, this poem is elegant with just the hint of a deeper ache.
5) Jessica Cuello, “Chagall’s ‘The Poet with the Birds’” for Four Way Review / In this poem, Cuello writes the world just beyond the frame of Chagall’s painting—and, oh, how much there is to see and experience: the nature of freedom, the fragrance that draws distant people close again, the ways we care by placing our hands in one another’s wounds. And, of course, the way presence and absence are forever trading places.