1) The music of Deafheaven / Maybe it’s the impending election; maybe it’s just my own heart. But I’ve needed to sit with a beautiful heaviness (or is it a heavy beauty?) over the past week, and a trip back through Deafheaven’s catalog was the right remedy. There’s a thickness to this well-honed sound worth luxuriating in, taking on all the weird, wonderful atoms around us.
2) A Place for Owls, “how we dig in the earth” / There are bands whose very presence in the world consoles me; Denver’s A Place for Owls ranks among their number. This band chooses tender songcraft over ego at every opportunity, rewarding listeners with their openness. Their latest unspools these qualities through dynamic lyrical imagery and elemental aspects of modern emo while forever pushing for something beyond mere convention. There is a rewarding sonic ambience here, twinned with a depth of feeling.
3) 2nd Grade, “Scheduled Explosions” / This Philadelphia outfit makes an art form of sneaky-good garage rock, coaxing listeners into singing along with phrases like “jingle jangle nuclear meltdown” without being glib or glossy. These 23 brisk songs never waste a moment, cramming every measure with melody and askew wisdom.
4) The Belair Lip Bombs, “Lush Life” / The 2023 record from Melbourne’s Belair Lip Bombs is like a welcome, refreshing wind. The Australian collective both invokes the ghosts of great ‘80s bands in the new wave/post-punk milieu and feels like they’re creating in the next room over.
5) Natalie Warther, “Seventeen” for Wigleaf / This Natalie Warther piece conjures up more feelings than I can capably convey, feelings about the transience of childhood and of music and about the permanence of love. Each line is a gem. Sit with this one today.