1) Soccer Mommy, “Sometimes, Forever” / Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison leaps the turnstile on her third album, alighting on greatness. These songs have rock guitars and pop grooves for days; but, most important, they have Allison leaning into the smallest turns and making each melodic moment count.
2) Damien Jurado, “Reggae Film Star” / I came to Jurado’s catalog relatively late and, now, each album arrives like a quiet event worth taking note for note. Here, Jurado sets his sad-eyed melodies over gently stirring arrangements, imbuing these songs with the natural feel of conversation as well as elevated senses of heartache and hope.
3) Caamp, “Lavender Days” / I’m not sure what it is, but I really can’t get enough of this Ohio band, which melds rock, folk and bluegrass tones, then scuffs up its golden melodies just enough to let vulnerable grain show through each one of them. The band’s latest is stacked with great songs and moments that cut beautiful and deep.
4) Muna, self-titled / From ‘60s girl groups to Wilson Phillips all the way through to Haim, you can trace the line tethering bands who project timeless vocal arrangements onto cutting-edge pop. On its third record, this L.A.-formed trio assures its place in that lineage; this is an album that grows as it goes, electric pop currents supercharging tender moments with power.
5) Natalie Shapero, “Have You Been Wanting To Go To Sleep and Not Wake Up” for Iterant / This Natalie Shapero poem wrecks me (in all the best ways)—challenging the nights in which I wanted sleep to swallow me, lending me just enough stubbornness to hold fast until daybreak and the hint of a better world.
“What matters is securing
a different world to die in, as I refuse
to die in this one.”