1) Eluvium, “(Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality” / Matthew Cooper’s music has become a steadfast companion this year and his latest, inspired by poets and expressed through orchestras, further showcases his gift for creating all-encompassing sonic worlds.
2) The A’s, “Fruit” / As a fan of Sylvan Esso and Mountain Man, I’ve been kicking myself for somehow missing the news on this project, featuring Amelia Meath and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig. “Fruit” is an exquisite albeit brief record that makes the old sound new again, as the duo records in the vein of early pop and folk. Each song is a little immersion of its own and more than worth the wait.
3) Bokani Dyer, “Radio Sechaba” / On his latest, the South African jazz pianist creates a record that sounds, well, like the best sort of radio station: soul, pop, hip-hop and more mingle, each song united by a depth of feeling and forward way of thinking.
4) Pete Holmes, “Comedy Sex God” / The comedian’s 2019 memoir-to-date is an often-riotous, always earnestly-charming, multidimensional journey through spirituality and standup. Holmes’ trajectory takes him from youth group and purity culture (I can relate, Pete) into a sort of spiritual Wild West before re-establishing a relationship with the sacred. On the road, Holmes discovers that love and sex, friendship and laughter, are not everything, but represent significant parts of a delightfully unfathomable whole.
5) Anders Carlson-Wee, “Moving Sale” for The Common / There’s an alluring alloy of ambiguity and pinpoint detail in this Anders Carlson-Wee poem; “Moving Sale” documents a sort of subversive scam with a reach that far exceeds the ambition of its perpetrators.
Duluth, we said when a browser asked.
Omaha, we said to another.Omaha? they said. What’s in Omaha?
It was a good question, but in truthwe weren’t moving, just using
the drama to draw shoppers.
Readers will run their eyes over the text, instinctively trying to plot landmarks and motivations, before being toppled by a pitch-perfect kicker.