1) Lydia Loveless, “Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again” / Songwriters don’t come much more formidable than Lydia Loveless, whose latest only expands the borders of bravery and fragility, lust and isolation, equal and somehow consonant desires to live a quiet life and blow the amplifiers.
2) Slaughter Beach, Dog, “Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling” / Anthemic rock and roll with pedal steel and lyrical references to a Charles Mingus acolyte? I’m all in on one of the most complete records of the year.
3) Worriers, “Trust Your Gut” / Lauren Denitzio and Co. beat anxious feet against city sidewalks, creating a pop-meets-punk sound that transcends the typical ways we use those genre tags. The ethos here is punk, with no willingness to surrender or shift shape; the hooks are huge and glorious, made for reaching the back of an arena and the center of a heart.
4) Shane McCrae, “Pulling the Chariot of the Sun” / Resonant poet Shane McCrae delivers one of the most lyrical, quietly harrowing memoirs in recent memory with this account of his childhood, in which he was kidnapped at an early age and sequestered by his grandparents. Memory and its thorniness; questions of belonging; the complexities of race and identity—all are handled with a remarkable tenderness and timbre. The seeking inherent in these circumstances comes through in a different sort of epic poem, seeking clarity and a beautiful peace with every part of one’s own story.
5) Katelyn Botsford Tucker, “On Wednesday I Get Ashes at the Drive-Thru” for HAD / Each unfurling layer of this flash piece knocked me further back on my heels; Botsford Tucker sets this Ash Wednesday scene within a fast-food culture that encourages our cravings, spiritual and material. The juxtaposition proves gorgeous and staggering.