1) Natalie Merchant, “Tigerlily” / Merchant’s post-10,000 Maniacs solo debut was no wallflower when it arrived in 1995, selling five million copies. Still, revisiting it this week for my soul’s sake made me think we somehow underrated it. These tracks are textured, romantic and surprisingly funny. Merchant deserves mention among the best songwriters of her generation, and “Tigerlily” is living, continually evolving proof.
2) The music of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin / A work project sent me burrowing down the catalog of this Springfield, Missouri band, one that seemed primed for a big breakout about a decade ago. This might sound like the most obvious compliment to pay a band but, this time out, I was astonished by SSLYBY’s capacity for knowing what a song should sound like. There are no wasted moves, no false notes; when you hear one of the band’s songs, you can’t imagine them making any choices but the ones they did. Simple and radical.
3) For Tracy Hyde, “Hotel Insomnia” / The music of this Japanese group is often labeled shoegaze, and that seems right. I heard trace elements of Alvvays and The Cure on their latest (and, apparently, their last). Most important, these songs collapse on themselves and expand in the most sublime, satisfying ways.
4) Tom Breihan, “The Number Ones” / An outgrowth of his work at Stereogum, Breihan’s book counts and chronicles an array of Billboard No. 1 hits across the decades. Breihan explores their minutiae and explodes their context, helping us sift through what makes a hit hit in a wise, appealing manner.
5) Morgan Talty, “Night of the Living Rez” / I am wholly devoted to the characters in Talty’s debut story collection. Passing the narrative between small pockets of the Penobscot community in Maine, Talty writes people who are hilarious, tragic, endearing and maddening. Each page is shot through with the sort of desire and quiet desperation one feels in their hopes to connect and find their particular people and place in this world.