1) The music of Ruston Kelly / About once or twice a month, I become freshly occupied with the songwriting of Ruston Kelly. I’ve certainly hit that moment in January: from “Mockingbird” to “Mending Song,” “Rubber” to “Belly of the Beast,” Kelly’s songs seem to know me inside out while coaxing me to sing along (and loud).
2) Yola, “My Way” / The new EP from the British artist is a fabulous pop document in miniature, housing both grand sweeps and wonderful adornments.
3) Jasmine 4.t, “You Are the Morning” / One of the coolest, deepest records of the young year unspools the talent of British singer-songwriter Jasmine Cruickshank, who proves remarkably fluent with folk, indie rock, chamber pop—and a variety of poetic moods.
4) Li-Young Lee, “Behind My Eyes” / The 2008 collection from this Indonesian-American poet is nearly perfect, a wonder of language and space calling the reader into its deeps, into its doubts, and ultimately into its generosity.
5) Nicole Sealey, “Object Permanence” for The American Poetry Review / This Nicole Sealey poem came across my radar this week, and stunned me with the beauty of its insight and the widescreen clarity of its love.
We wake as if surprised the other is still there,
each petting the sheet to be sure.
How have we managed our way
to this bed—beholden to heat like dawn
indebted to light. Though we’re not so self-
important as to think everything
has led to this, everything has led to this.
There’s a name for the animal
love makes of us—named, I think,
like rain, for the sound it makes.