1) Deer Tick, “Emotional Contracts” / I can’t tell you what I was doing—or thinking—last June, because I can’t fathom how I missed the latest Deer Tick release. A summer late and yet somehow on time, I’m enamored with how the veteran band branches American music forms through this set. John McCauley and Co. offer fully-realized takes on indie-rock, early rock, soul ballads and more.
2) King Hannah, “Big Swimmer” / Something like U2's "The Joshua Tree" by way of Portishead or Slowdive, the new one from Liverpool duo Hannah Merrick and Craig Whittle recreates the scenes and stories outside their windows—and across the American continent—with mesmeric vocals, full-bodied guitars, and 21st-century Beat lyricism.
3) Slash Fiction, “We’ll Hold This Line Until Hell Freezes Over” / The UK emo band’s latest is unabashedly queer, unabashedly communal and an unabashedly rousing listen.
4) David Berman, “Actual Air” / Even with my deep, wide love of poetry, I rarely finish a collection and want to immediately begin again at Page One. David Berman’s landmark collection sent me back to the start; the late indie-rocker’s poems are desperately sad, desperately funny and full of peerless imagery. This is an all-time gem.
5) Javier Peñalosa M (translated by Robin Myers), “What Comes Back” / What a gorgeous act of collaboration by the Mexican poet and translator Robin Myers. “What Comes Back” is not only a duet between this pair but, in its verses, between the human and elemental; this is a heart-rending rhapsody about the connections we cannot help but feel in our bodies and souls.