1) Alvvays, “Blue Rev” / A sure-fire candidate for rock record of the year, Alvvays’ latest chases a perpetual sense of motion, motion that causes and calms drama, motion that stills, suppresses and then reveals. Singer Molly Rankin sounds out a cool siren song against an aesthetic that draws on New Wave, ‘90s dream pop and more.
2) Open Mike Eagle, “Component System with the Auto Reverse” / Consistently my favorite force in hip-hop over the past decade, Mike Eagle returns with another superlative record, a uniting of ideas and eras, food for the brain and the soul. Few artists broker peace between their purposes—satisfying their own curiosity, and reaching into listeners’ lives—the way he does. On an early interlude, he delivers this thought:
Yesterday is safer, 'cause you already know what happened
(I had some time by myself)
And every album (Every one of 'em)
Is a little collection of pieces of yesterdays
I don't always have the words for the feelings
(I been sittin' by myself)
(So I decided, so I decided)
So I decided to make you a tape
3) Bonny Light Horseman, “Rolling Golden Holy” / A supergroup for a certain swath of listener, this triad of Anais Mitchell, Eric Johnson and Josh Kaufman surpasses their excellent 2020 debut, braiding their talents—and the idioms of folk, country and classic singer-songwriter records—to create a perfect autumn album that will work just as well out of season. If you’re not on board by the time Mitchell croons a series of questions (“Who’s gonna lace up your boots? … Who’s gonna bind up your wounds?”) on second track “Comrade Sweetheart,” take time for a little heart-check.
4) Jessica L. Walsh, “When My Daughter Tells Me I Was Never Punk” / It took a viral tweet for me to find this one by Walsh, a remarkable and visceral poem, in which the speaker answers her typical teen by showing how everything she did for survival and love was, indeed, punk. The poem ends with a riff on Talking Heads that is pitch-perfect. The poem can be read here, or in Walsh’s new book, and you can be sure I’ll make up the time I wasted without her work.
5) Ian Cohen, “Will Sheff, After Okkervil” for Stereogum / Another recent release I’m preoccupied with is “Nothing Special” from longtime Okkervil River principal Will Sheff. This profile, conducted by the venerable music scribe Ian Cohen, takes a thoughtful look at the band vs. the solo artist, Sheff’s relationships with his collaborators (and his own music), and why the album doesn’t actually live up to its title.
At one juncture, Cohen writes:
Nothing Special is less an attempt to reintegrate himself in that world than to reconcile the little corner he’s carved out for himself over the past 20 years. “When I’m called before the God of Art and they’re like, ‘Is anything you did worth anything?’ I can go – this record, I feel like I got there a couple of times,” Sheff jokes. “And I’d hope the God of Art would say, ‘Yeah, you got me on a couple parts of that.'”