1) Vince Staples, “Dark Times” / No one sounds like Vince Staples. Cool and unbothered yet beset, evolving yet eternally youthful, self-deprecating yet wholly himself. “Dark Times” is yet another great entry in one of the truest individual hip-hop canons of the 21st century.
2) DIIV, “Frog in Boiling Water” / Often we, in a sort of backhanded nod to our own weariness, say someone else looks how we feel. Well, the latest DIIV (pronounced “dive”) record sounds how I feel: swooning and romantic about the world yet awash in torrents of noise and news and sweet desperation.
3) La Luz, “News of the Universe” / Led by the great Shana Cleveland, this outfit twines surf rock and punk and “Pet Sounds”-era off-kilter loveliness to create a set full of more angels than devils but marked by wondrous pushes and pulls.
4) Slow Fiction, “Crush” EP / The NYC band is insistent and artful on this remarkably tight five-song set. These cuts dart and dive through emotions, yet always compose themselves to push, push, push against any barrier to feeling human.
5) Aimee Nezhukumatathil, “Bite by Bite” / One of our more vibrant poets, here Nezhukumatathil joyfully, colorfully weaves both brief cultural and personal histories of foods and ingredients ranging from pawpaw to lumpia, mint to cinnamon, mangosteen to fig, black pepper and gyros and more. Each of these short essays tantalizes, deepening our connection to the author and to the wider world of flavors and spices and journeys.