1) Sleater-Kinney, “Little Rope” / “Hell don't have no worries / Hell don't have no past / Hell is just a signpost / When you take a certain path.” Open your record with these words, and you have my attention (not that I need an excuse to sit up and listen close when Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker set something off). We might overuse the word “cathartic” when it comes to rock and roll, but the latest Sleater-Kinney dances with demons in order to exorcise them.
I still miss Janet Weiss but, much more than the band’s last two efforts, “Little Rope” gives me great hope for this chapter in Sleater-Kinney’s history.
2) My Morning Jacket, “The Tennessee Fire” / Some untold spirit led me to spin the Louisville band’s 1999 debut this week, and thank goodness. Jim James and Co. have lived multiple lives in the past 25 years it seems, but this record set a gorgeous foundation for what came next—not just for My Morning Jacket, but modern American music. Earthy and ethereal, steady-driving yet hovering above painted lines, these songs work in and around the listener.
3) Kassa Overall, “Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz” / I’m not sure there’s a cooler album title than this, from the 2019 effort by this Seattle native. And Overall’s music lives up to the name he bestowed. This is cool and swirling sound, a deeply intentional yet seemingly effortless union of hip-hop, jazz, pop and more. Pure delight.
4) Percival Everett, “Half an Inch of Water” / Forever late to every party, I am newly and increasingly enamored with Everett’s fiction. This 2015 collection doesn’t so much subvert classic Western story tropes as it lives quietly, soulfully around them. Whether it’s the tale of a mystical rescue mission or a horse trainer rearranging a stranger’s marriage with zero malice, Everett comes to the West with a priestly tone and an impeccable sense of what actually moves us.
5) Erika Howsare, “The Age of Deer” / My first must-read book of 2024 examines our relationship with “our wild neighbors” through lenses of history and science, art and philosophy. The bond between humans and deer is fraught but can be mutually fulfilling, Howsare shows in prose that’s as smart as it is lyrical.