1) The music of James Vincent McMorrow / Spending time with the Irish songwriter is to have your hopes and visions, desires and regrets reinforced, to feel them all at once yet in distinct measure. Like a Justin Vernon or his countryman Damien Rice, McMorrow’s voice spans ample emotional and physical range, allowing you to hear yourself—and something wholly other than yourself—somewhere in the mix.
2) Sheer Mag, “Playing Favorites” / Every few months (Weeks? Days?), someone trots out another “rock is dead” thinkpiece—look there’s another one now. I’m left to assume none of these people have heard Philadelphia’s Sheer Mag. The band’s latest implicitly argues for the relevant, beating heart of rock while delivering on songs that are just a helluva lot of fun. I come alive hearing this music.
3) Jahari Massamba Unit, “YHWH is Love” / Unite Madlib and Karriem Riggins, as this project does, and I’m willing to cede full and free reign. Play the solar system if y’all want—you deserve it. What actually makes this pairing so great is the duo’s capacity for keeping things cool. Rather than overplay or unleash their full powers, they sit together in the pocket to create some of the coolest soul/jazz/funk you’re likely to hear in the present- or near-future-tense.
4) Bill Ryder-Jones, “Iechyd Da” / Lush yet with vulnerable notes forever breaking through, the latest from this British songwriter is both heavenly and human. Ryder-Jones’ pocket pop symphonies harbor all manner of surprises and broker all sorts of treaties within the listener.
5) Leslie Jamison, “Splinters” / Billed as “another kind of love story,” Jamison’s true tall tale about divorce, motherhood, breathing in and out and creating through the pandemic, is beautiful and painful. This account describes a resilience that only resembles resilience in hindsight; speaks to a strength that works itself out in small moments; and reflects a writer who believes in the goodness of this world and is learning to believe she counts among that goodness.