1) Regina Spektor, “Loveology” / There’s perhaps no more charming lyric in 2022 than this one from Spektor: “Let's go to the movies / I will hum you a song about nothing at all.” It comes on perhaps the best song from her new record “Home, before and after,” and will make you want to listen for that hum over and again.
2) The music of Gregory Alan Isakov / Forever late to the party, I’m digging through Isakov’s catalog these days, always resurfacing with wonder enough to carry me forward. These are the songs I want to accompany my late-night drives, my sojourns beneath starry skies, those small moments when my own sense of connection isn’t quite enough.
3) Paolo Nutini, “Last Night in the Bittersweet” / On his first album in eight years, the Scottish musician jogs our memories, refreshing our sense that he’s one of the most compelling songwriters around. His melodies find a place between raw emotion and tender resolve; arrangements layer and frame those melodies with bits of soul. All driving home lyrics about heartache and belonging. Just a powerful experience from start to finish.
4) Maggie Smith, “Sitting on an Old Bedspread Under an Oak Tree, Watching My Son’s Soccer Practice” for Plume / Few modern poets do the work of heart rending and heart mending quite like Maggie Smith. Her work minds the gap between where we’re hurt and where we’re healing, never letting us forget both—or how they’re connected. This poem, flowing from a deceptively simple moment, takes readers on a journey through self-doubt and painful memories into enough catharsis and care to keep going.
5) Sloane Crosley, “Cult Classic” / I’ve never read anything quite like the new novel from Crosley: pitch-black romantic comedy meets a satire of guru culture, then takes a hard turn into a very specific sort of spy thriller. Crosley’s voice is well-defined and keeps the reader engaged from encounter to encounter, moment to moment.