1) Jon Foreman, “Departures” / Few songwriters of my generation have matured quite like Foreman has. His work, musically and lyrically, displays a thoughtfulness and level of deliberation that eludes so many who traffic in three- and four-minute pop songs. “Departures” isn’t so much a new direction for Foreman, but a plowing forward, the expression of a desire to dirty one’s hands in the soil of what matters most.
2) Teenage Wrist, “Earth is a Black Hole” / The Los Angeles duo brushes up against emo, punk, shoegaze and more on an album of perfectly-tailored, wonderfully angsty music for the deepest blacks, blues and purples of a listener’s mood.
3) Archie Shepp and Jason Moran, “Let My People Go” / Pitchfork’s Madison Bloom gets it just right: “Archie Shepp doesn’t play the saxophone so much as he sings through it.” Here, the jazz master sings over, around, through and with modern great Jason Moran’s lyrical, supportive piano. Shepp and Moran and perfectly matched and deliver one of the most spiritually nourishing albums of the early year.
4) David Dark, “Rush Limbaugh: Thought Leader” / No one needs my commentary on the death of Rush Limbaugh. I lived at too much of a remove from the radio giant’s invective and, upon his death, the comments poured in through grieving eyes and gritted teeth. What I do care about is learning how to balance two heavy weights: always honoring the image of God in someone, while not pretending they always honored the image of God in other.
As is often the case, David Dark gets as close to this balancing act as any. And I’m grateful for the public service he performs in this short essay:
I believe I could name seventy-five friends and family who have given more of their lives to Rush Limbaugh’s words than they’ve given to their spawn, their spouses, or their parents. In this sense, he was among the most powerful worship leaders in American history.
5) Li-Young Lee, “Folding a Five-Cornered Star So the Corners Meet” for Image Journal / This is an older one, I believe, but I was thrilled to come across the poem this week on social media. Lee’s capacity for naming the self and others is an extension of the Adamic duty, and the work’s handling of devotion, consternation, and all things great and small is a triumph.
This sleeplessness is not my sleeplessness.
It must be the stars’ insomnia.
And I am their earthbound descendant.