1) Wild Pink, “Dulling the Horns” / John Ross leads one of my favorite working bands into refreshing territory on the latest Wild Pink joint. The songs here are so smart and take so many glorious left turns; “Dulling the Horns,” just like every previous record, feels like a natural outgrowth of the soul that’s humming around and within you.
2) Patio, “Collection” / I’m enamored with last year’s effort from this NYC trio; Patio’s post-punk is both lean and colorful, catching listeners off-guard at nearly every moment while satisfying them all the same.
3) PawPaw Rod, “Doobie Mouth (An EP From PawPaw Rod)” / I’m not sure I’ve heard a better slice of soul music this year. L.A.-based artist PawPaw Rod is weaving all three tenses together at once, colliding past influence, present circumstance and an orientation to future pop in songs that are so damn charismatic.
4) The Clearwater Swimmers, self-titled / Melancholy yet propulsive, the debut from these northeastern rockers carries both a perfectly autumnal vibe and the evidence of being weathered by all sorts of seasons.
5) Yuri Herrera, “Season of the Swamp” (translated by Lisa Dillman) / Few contemporary storytellers take hold of my attention like Yuri Herrera; his latest novel is a textured tale of Mexicans exiled in 19th-century New Orleans, and the prose so beautifully, so exactingly conveys the sensory feast and famine of that experience. As revolutionaries grow to become greater revolutionaries, Herrera guides us through the places between cultures and neighborhoods, between the history we’re living and the history that will be.