1) The music of Fleetwood Mac / Thousands of words have been spilled (maybe just this month) about the drama and dynamic of Fleetwood Mac. But man, if it doesn’t just keep sucking you back in. I spent time this week with a trio of the band’s peak records—“Rumours,” “Tusk” and “Mirage”—and was reminded again how great the songs are, and how magnetic the band’s whole vibe is, drawing you into the heart of what it’s doing at any given moment.
2) Adia Victoria, “A Southern Gothic” / Plainly put, the latest from the South Carolina native contains some of the best songs of 2021. From the fan-into-flame opener “Magnolia Blues” onward, the album is textured yet visceral, deeply intelligent yet driven by instinct. If you want to hear multiple strains of American music collide—and ask important questions of themselves—this is a must-hear.
3) The Felice Brothers, “From Dreams to Dust” / If you like your sad bastard music with a lived-in personality, some terrific backing vocals and the ability to couch little heartbreaks in moments of brief uplift, The Felice Brothers have you covered. Springing from another of 2021’s great opening tracks—”Jazz on the Autobahn”—the record feels like a novel you want to get lost in.
4) Bad Bad Hats, “Walkman” / Kerry Alexander and Co. always strike a balance between lyrical vulnerability and sharp, serrated pop that reveals the Minnesota band as the smartest folks in the room. The second half of the band’s latest is can’t-miss, one of the stronger runs it has ever committed to the public record.
5) Lee Potts, “We’ll Miss the Stars in the Morning” for Trampset / My heart forever bends toward night-sky poems, and Potts’ latest takes a beautiful gaze from thousands of feet above, reorienting our perspective on life’s little lights. Potts writes, midway through:
Every light down there
is where it is because someone felt
a stab of desire.
How do any of us navigate
to what’s always hidden
behind the infinitely tender horizon?