1) Punch Brothers, live at Powell Hall in St. Louis / Until this week, I hadn’t seen a concert indoors since catching Lucy Dacus in the early winter of 2020. Taking my place among a vaxxed and masked crowd inside St. Louis’ resplendent Powell Hall, I wasn’t sure how to feel or what to do. Then Punch Brothers took the stage and reminded me why live music matters. Call them progressive bluegrass or avant-garde Americana or any number of labels—what Chris Thile and his mates do is erase any line between head and heart, proving the two can be satisfied by the same musical experience. I’m not quite sure when I’ll attend another show. But this one offered enough to tide me over for a long time.
2) Beach House, “Once Twice Melody” / For whatever reason, the music of this oft-revered duo hasn’t ever done much for me. But for whatever reason—perhaps the need to be swept away by something, or the need to hear something that sounds like Twin Peaks plays—the songs on their latest have staggered me. The band is completing this record in chapters, the fourth and final to arrive next month, and I can’t wait to hear how they close the circle.
3) Aoife O’Donovan, “Age of Apathy” / The New England singer-songwriter manages to cut both a luminous and urgent figure on her latest set, like a siren who’s actually looking out for you. O’Donovan’s song cycle is among the best of the young year, a complete listening experience.
4) Kids on a Crime Spree, “Fall in Love Not in Line” / The Bay Area band mingles Phil Spector and punk to a deeply delightful effect on their new one.
5) Jabari Asim, “Yonder” / Perhaps the first great novel of 2022 (or, at least, the first I’ve laid eyes on) comes from the multidimensional author. Asim places his reader among a community of the Stolen (slaves in 19th-century America) as they navigate their loves, losses, fears and tastes of freedom. The book makes small, gorgeous gestures, even when it introduces a supernatural element that prefigures its ending. Asim both grounds the book in his characters’ human dignity and in a sense that there is more to life than we can naturally sense. A triumph of voice and character development.