1) The National, “Rome” / Y’all know I’m one of God’s great suckers as far as The National is concerned. So a live record (released on my birthday, no less) would occupy my alley even if it arrived subpar. Thankfully, this is far from the case. “Rome” is full of wondrous little moments: Matt Berninger delivering a birthday message in meter on “Smoke Detector”; the dodge and build of “England”; the campfire closing rendition of “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks,” just to name a few.
2) Amen Dunes, “Death Jokes II” / The purported last album from Damon McMahon, at least as Amen Dunes, explores the textured darkness and slivered light that have made his work so great—and chases each element into new expressions.
3) Julien Baker (pictured below) and Torres, “Sugar in the Tank” / Opening on the lines “I love you all the way / To hell and back / I love you tied up on the train tracks,” this little gem of a song is a perfect union between two great talents. Tinged with pedal steel and propulsive as can be, it’s an all-encompassing love letter that goes down so sweet.
4) Haruki Murakami, “The City and Its Uncertain Walls” / The latest from the modern master is a fairy tale of dreams and shadows, libraries and lingering lifelong love. Even if you resemble no one in the story, so often you feel Murakami is writing you across the pages and that sense vibrates through this one.
5) Caylee Gardner, “Self-Portrait as a Check Engine Light” for Whale Road Review / Grateful to share this winter issue of Whale Road Review with so many terrific writers, Gardner among them. This short piece is a glorious look into our dangers, our failures, our boundless possibilities:
If you can think of streetlights / as celestial, think of me as a gold / star. I’m not always proof / of a future crisis. Can you hear / me humming? Listen, / I just want to be looked after.