1) Eddie Vedder, “Matter of Time” and “Say Hi” / Always glad to have new Eddie Vedder songs in the world. Both these new cuts resonate, but I’m especially fond of “Matter of Time,” which opens with planing piano and grows from there, resembling a hymn. Stirring backing vocals frame Vedder’s soulful rasp, and that once gentle piano becomes something more syncopated and Spirit-filled.
2) Black Thought, “Streams of Thought, Vol. 3: Cane and Able” / There are bigger things to worry about, sure. But I’ve feared that the fierceness and creative energy of The Roots might dull in some eyes and ears due to their longtime TV association with Jimmy Fallon. Perhaps the public only knows a kinder, gentler version of this killer crew. Anyone who hears the new one from Tariq Trotter, aka Black Thought, would have false notions upended. This is vital hip-hop that draws from deep wells of sound. Trotter’s lyrics are as pressing and insightful as ever, and he keeps great company, welcoming in the likes of Portugal. The Man, Pusha T and Schoolboy Q.
3) Christopher Gonzalez, “Bobo” for Atticus Review / This Christopher Gonzalez piece rings so true, full of exquisite, devastating passages. An essay about bearing close witness to fatherhood, the work unknots the ties that bind and looks inside to consider one’s own capacity. Gonzalez writes:
“A college writing professor once said that on the subject of fathers and sons there is little to write in fiction. Fathers and sons communicate in burps and grunts and groans, he said. That, because the communication is simple, there is somehow nothing complex about the dynamic between two people who can’t be bothered to use words. He referenced Hemingway’s ‘My Old Man’ and said that was it. It was the definitive story about father-son relationships. I’m not sure if I believe in a definitive anything, especially when it comes to stories and whose experiences are allowed to shine as being The One.”
4) Nathaniel Lee Hansen, “Elegy” for Whale Road Review / The raw emotion within Hansen’s poem somehow manages to console. This is a work of profound self-awareness, and an acknowledgement of how our connections to the living and the dead—both those we know and will never meet—ground us in our humanity.
5) J.C. Scharl, “How to be Sad, The Openness of Lament: Part 2” / The poet J.C. Scharl digs deep into the how, why and why not of sadness in this lovely essay. This is a work to return to, for the sake of understanding one’s own emotions and the sorrow others tote with them. Scharl writes:
“Sadness, or sorrow, is not closed. It is explosive. It bursts us open. It wounds us, tears us up, scrapes us raw. That’s why it hurts so much: it tears at us right where we are softest, most vulnerable. And that’s why we recoil from it into other dark emotions, the ones that let us close ourselves up, just like a person crumples to protect herself when where someone strikes at her abdomen.”