1) PJ Harvey, “Let England Shake” / Listen. I’m woefully late to the PJ Harvey party, and I know it. But deep-diving into her catalog, I’m transfixed. A decade late to 2011’s “Let England Shake,” I just want to swim around in the waters Harvey troubles. All the volatile chemistry of rock and roll is here, expressed by a real artist who is thoughtful about the visceral.
2) Jon Batiste, “We Are” / Batiste’s fame has grown during his tenure as Stephen Colbert’s bandleader, but his gifts and musical roots are deep. He shows them off here, on a forward-thinking, historically-grounded album that lives to line up behind great soul and jazz statements from the likes of Max Roach and Marvin Gaye.
3) Pete Yorn, “… Sings the Classics” / This covers set is worth a listen solely on the basis of Yorn and Liz Phair playing Black Francis and Kim Deal on “Here Comes Your Man.” Yorn also brings a thoughtful, personal touch to cuts like Kirsty MacColl’s “They Don’t Know” and The Stone Roses’ “Ten Storey Love Song.” He even manages to inject a bit of world-weary charm into his reading of “Moon River.”
4) Todd Robert Petersen, “Picnic in the Ruins” / There’s always something a bit Coen Brothers-esque to Petersen’s work, as he crafts singular moments in which people who should have nothing to do with each other meet on the page. His latest novel is a violent, funny, thoughtful look at the American West, cultural appropriation and the ways modern people relate to ancient places. Petersen is a joy to read, and I relish becoming as lost in his stories as the characters who populate them.
5) Courtney Ellis, “A Specific Love” for Fathom Magazine / I live in phrases, phrases which govern my life and spread my imagination. There’s so much I could say about this superlative piece from my friend Courtney Ellis; but let me simply mention that Courtney introduced me to a phrase which will stick with me for a long, long time: “… We can do one tender thing. And then another.”