1) Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Cool It Down” / I can’t paint myself with the colors of a Yeah Yeah Yeahs superfan, but I’ve always respected the band. My appreciation runs deep again, for a record where the tangling of distance and urgency, hot and cold, yield powerhouse emotional moments.
2) The Bad Plus, self-titled / One of my very favorite jazz outfits has changed shape over time, from piano trio to a now piano-less quartet. Whatever the arrangement, the hot and strange collide as The Bad Plus sounds out its un-orthodoxy in whatever voices it gathers. The rhythm section of drummer Dave King and bassist Reid Anderson still play it fast and fevered, while guitarist Ben Monder and sax player Chris Speed bend and shape the melodies.
3) 2nd Grade, “Easy Listening” / When a band kicks off its latest with a song called “Cover of Rolling Stone,” you know you’re in for a raucous, rock and roll time. The Philadelphia band bashes out brisk power-pop anthems that will have you pumping one or more fists and wishing for more measures.
4) Sandra Cisneros, “Woman Without Shame” / In her latest collection, the remarkable poet addresses aging and sexuality, how to unite different versions of the self and the way to remember old lovers in lines that are often hilarious, always poignant and offer an implicit model for finding our forward momentum in the world.
5) Stewart O’Nan, “Last Night at the Lobster” / I picked up this slim novel after a friend dubbed it sad and sweet—the words like flames for this particular literary moth. O’Nan’s work here is both of those things and more, as he documents the last, long shift at a New England Red Lobster; he captures the rhythms of breathlessness and boredom that mark life in a restaurant while digging deep into relationships that already feel lived-in when readers arrive. Never settling for the easy or overly sentimental way, while retaining a wealth of heart, the book makes showing up for the last shift well worth it.