1) Lucy Dacus, “Ankles” and “Limerence” / Never let me pit artists against one another, let alone bandmates. That said, the songs of Lucy Dacus reach me in a way few artists of her generation can manage, even her supremely talented Boygenius pals. Two new songs—two promises—from Dacus ahead of a new record only flesh out that notion, cutting deep while staying cool.
2) The Lone Bellow, “Love Songs for Losers” / Somehow, I missed out on the 2022 record from this superlative trio. Remedying that mistake in a late-not-never way this week, I was drawn to the band’s unity of roots-music harmonies and open-hearted currents of ‘80s pop. Tracks like “Honey” and “Dreaming” possess a romanticism that should be experienced between the ears (and often).
3) The music of Mac DeMarco / Something about DeMarco’s cool-to-the-touch grooves and unforced charisma, across multiple albums, proved a necessary balm this week.
4) Ben Ratliff, “Every Song Ever” / As someone who writes about music both for a living and as an act of love, people imagine I know how to listen well. Still, I am tempted to listen too wide, too shallow in our age of sonic abundance. Ratliff’s 2016 text is a beautiful, needed reminder to listen closer and deeper.
5) Jill Kitchen, “In a Parallel Universe, There is Nothing I Can Do” for Split Lip / This Jill Kitchen poem is a wonder of beautiful, sad-eyed momentum (and resilience):
there she lay sleeping there in the before what if they hadn’t woken her what if they let her finish her sleep cycle would she have emerged full grown butterfly some mix of sea siren & pj harvey’s 50 foot queenie some wild creature able to walk through velvet night or fierce sun without wavering without finger hand shaking without feeling the earth run tumble at her face …