1) Snail Mail, “Valentine” / I heard much to commend Snail Mail’s first full-length project, 2018’s “Lush.” But Lindsey Jordan and Co. reach a new level on “Valentine,” an album which creates its own sonic layers, then pulls them back to reveal all manner of nuance and detail. These songs strike hard at a visceral level, yet leave the listener with much to ponder.
2) Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats, “The Future” / Rateliff rejoins his sprawling soul band after last year’s solo joint, “And It’s Still Alright.” This new full-band record, “The Future,” sounds like a wonderful progression—and expansion upon—that project. Gone, for the most part, is the bluster of the (deserved) smash hit “S.O.B.” And in its place, a rich and swelling sound—one that still shakes the bones, but finds a much greater emotional resonance.
3) Curtis Harding, “If Words Were Flowers” / A different sort of soul music springs from this singer-songwriter. Harding’s work mingles psychedelia and jazz into its R&B, creating something swirling and satisfying.
4) Craig Davidson, “Cascade”/ The early stories in this collection by Craig Davidson are harrowing precisely because they feel so real and lived-in. Davidson might put his characters in slightly-less-than-mundane situations, but their every mechanism for feeling their way through rings true; and in the midst of existential peril, the writer threads beautiful, disarming sentences that remind readers what’s at stake.
5) John Dorsey, “One Cool Customer” for As It Ought to Be / The deceptive simplicity of this poem keeps me coming back. Almost a literary analog to the Pearl Jam tune “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” Dorsey begins with a simple meeting, a conversation that lingers, then explodes the moment into meaning.