1) The War on Drugs, “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” / Some bands just sound like the inside of my head—Adam Granduciel’s The War On Drugs, among them. The band’s latest, in somewhat typical fashion, is a grower; with each listen, the space within these songs and seeking spirit expressed through the lyrics sneak up on me until my sense of alienation and the band’s ache sound one and the same. Never short on forward motion, War on Drugs songs absorb that sadness but find the will to keep traveling, encouraging listeners to do likewise.
2) Marissa Nadler, “The Path of the Clouds” / Dreamy melodies and grounded tones mark the latest from this talented singer-songwriter. Nadler’s songs this time out veer in intriguing narrative directions, including investigating the soul of historic mysteries; dive into the depths of each story with Nadler if you will—or simply enjoy the remarkable, ethereal balance of these arrangements anchored by Nadler’s expressive voice.
3) Todd Dillard, “Love Poem with Pop Culture References Because Love is Ephemeral and Linked Inextricably to Its Time” for the Indianapolis Review / Man, I dig this one from Todd Dillard. The poem challenges the form’s opposite impulses—to straddle the specific or feign timelessness—by casting an enduring love in contrast to the moment’s memes and viral impulses. And in doing so, it manages to be one of the most gorgeous love poems I’ve read in recent memory:
“I love how love can be two people looking in different directions / yet they see the exact same thing,” Dillard writes in a remarkable instance of clarity and definition.
4) Seth Wieck, “An Indispensable Conversation” for Fathom Magazine / Poet, fiction writer and essayist Seth Wieck unites the best of each skill in this gentle, occasionally melancholy look at friendship. Wieck’s accounting of the friends he gathered as a child slowly spins outward, creating circles that enfold multiple generations of his family and hometown.
“My kids come home from school with strange names on their tongues like Xander and Arihan and Trinity and Eden, and I wonder how many of these friends will grow into old age with them,” he writes in one moment, letting the question rest in comparison to his own stories.
Ultimately, he wonders how we might keep a record of the people, places and things we’ve known without skewing the narrative: “Life is full and teeming and will not be flattened into a story, but in what other way can we talk about our lives?”
5) Tommy Welty, “To My Hometown As I Leave” for Fathom / I always appreciate the tenderness and depth of field in poems from my friend Tommy Welty. Here, in a companion poem to an essay also well worth your time, he coaxes meaning from color in refreshing, soulful ways. Lines like “but the gold is in the green — / the dandelions and the chickweed / lacing the ground like a veil,” and a conclusion that’s too lovely to spoil here, truly sing.