1) Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real, “A Few Stars Apart” / I’ve always dug Lukas Nelson—yes, he’s Willie’s boy—in doses. There’s a true earthy charm to everything the songwriter does, but sometimes his lyrical and musical ambitions expose him. The latest Promise of the Real record is the one I’ve been waiting for; Nelson and Co. lean back and relax into these songs, finding perfect pop-rock grooves and pursuing a lyrical simplicity that Tom Petty would’ve tipped his Mad Hatter piece to. This is one to go back and enjoy over and again.
2) Julian Lage, “Squint” / The young guitar genius both stretches out and tamps his notes down on this new one. Lage plays jazz, blues and something on the accessible side of noise rock with an apparent vigor and sense of direction. These songs feel loose and lived-in, yet can tighten into swirling stormclouds of sound at a moment’s notice.
3) Islands, “Islomania” / Nick Thorburn and Co. create pop music that is as impermeable as it is buoyant and breezy; the songs possess a lightness of being, and yet you can’t imagine any of their notes landing any other place. After releasing two albums in 2016, the band is back with a perfect record for the summer season.
4) Hanif Abdurraqib, “A Little Devil in America” / Abdurraqib ranks as one of our preeminent poets—and one of our most soulful essayists. He does the latter in this collection, turning over the concept of Black performance to examine nearly every angle. There are so many moments of virtuosic humanity here; Abdurraqib’s insight is peerless yet somehow the beating heart of these pieces is even more vital. The best book released so far this year, in my only-so-humble opinion.
5) Three poems by Lauren Camp / I keep stumbling over poems by Lauren Camp, and each time find myself a little softer, a little more smitten with the world. All three of the pieces here burn hot and bright, but I suppose “Emptiness Prayer for Agnes Martin” works on me most. What can one do but be staggered and heartened by phrases like “a flirtation of wind,” “Light vaults again which is consolation,” “kaleidoscope of margins”—and their remarkable, surpassing sum.