Tag: best of 2025

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Best Of Playlist record reviews

Best of 2025: Spaces

I started splitting playlists a few years ago, both to keep them from getting too unwieldy and to keep longer 15-20 minute tracks from discouraging people who were in it for more bite-sized material, without going full this-is-one-genre-and-this-is-another, which wasn’t much fun for me.

So much great material this year. The Spaces designation starts as mostly jazz, classical, and electronic, but I think of it as anything more sculptural, environmental, or exploratory. Obviously, there’s a lot of overlap – Antibalas, Damon Locks, William Tyler/Kieran Hebden’s Lyle Lovett cover, Moor Mother’s orchestral reworking of an earlier song, for example – would have definitely worked in the other list, but this was a by-feel process. These songs all felt right with the other songs on this playlist.

As usual, just used Tidal; my preferred transferring mechanism is Soundiiz, but there are several varieties. I hope there’s something you love here, and I hope you tell me what I missed:

https://tidal.com/playlist/0fcdcd21-2a4d-4bc0-b572-941e33f14238

  • Antibalas, “Oasis” – Kicking off with some of my favorite grooves of the year. Antibalas’s lean, bubbling instrumental offering Hourglass immediately jumped to some of my favorite of their work, as much as I’d loved the lead vocals previously.
  • James Brandon Lewis, “D.C. Got Pocket” – For his second record with Anti, James Brandon Lewis leaned into a muscular, sinewy trio with Chad Taylor on drums (who shows up on this list a few other times) and Josh Werner on bass (along with guest spots from Guilherme Monteiro on guitar and Stephane San Juan on percussion). This taut, funky track references the go-go sounds of Lewis’s hometown without being too obvious, and puts one of my favorite hooks of the year in the bell of his horn.
  • Peter Gordon and Love of Life Orchestra, “Macho Music Danceteria” – Another raging fanfare and unstoppable groove, from a different scene. This archival record, LOLO80, is a potent reminder of the revelatory nature of Gordon’s work. Rhys Chatham called Gordon the first artist to pair rock-and-roll gestures with classical technique, and it still bangs. This tune specifically mentioned the gay underground of early ’80s New York and the intersection of glamor and grime at its famous Danceteria.
  • Damon Locks, “Click” – Damon Locks’ first record under his own name in a minute is the kind of thoughtful, grimy collage music I don’t hear enough of anymore, done as well as I’ve ever heard it. This moody track is a highlight in a record full of highlights. “I stay tuned in, but the radio only plays a voice in the distance.”
  • Makaya McCraven featuring Theon Cross and Ben LaMar Gay, “Strikes Again” – Continuing the Chicago flavor as we visit drummer-composer-producer McCraven’s return to International Anthem and his beat-tape-inspired roots on a series of stellar EPs. This tune, from Techno Logic, features waves of brass from Gay’s cornet and Cross’s tuba in an infectious late-night groove.
  • William Basinski and Richard Chartier, “Aurora Terminalis (excerpt 1)” – I felt a commonality in the way sounds decay, vaporize into shifting atmospheres, in this gorgeous second collaboration between Basinski and Chartier with the McCraven above, along with a common affection for community, even in mourning.
  • Rob Mazurek, “Papaya Fruit” – Mazurek’s solo synth excursions on Nestor’s Nest intrigued and beguiled me throughout the year.
  • Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, “Four Walt Whitman Songs, No. 1: ‘Beat! Beat! Drums!'” – Of the many ways I am a simple man: about all you have to do is put Kurt Weill’s name on your record, and I’m giving it a concerted listen. But the collision of talent here, conductor Rattle with the LSO and baritone Ross Ramgobin taking lead vocals, made these definitive versions for me.
  • John Zorn and the Mary Halvorson Quartet, “Bagatelle #82” – There’s something that reminds me of Weill in Zorn’s classical/chamber writing I find intoxicating, and this set of his Bagatelles performed by the Mary Halvorson Quartet was a match made in heaven.
  • Julia Hülsmann Quartet, “Nevergreen” – German pianist Hülsmann leads a spellbinding quartet, with music that shares a similar spirituality and tightly woven quality, reminding me of Zorn and exemplifying the current era of ECM artists.
  • Marshall Allen, “Are You Ready” – Marshall Allen – while still shepherding the Sun Ra Arkestra – celebrated his 101st birthday with a gorgeous solo record, still killing it on alto with a marvelous band including baritone player Knoel Scott, trumpeter Michael Ray, and a killing string section.
  • Nels Cline, “House of Steam” – Cline’s Consentrik Quartet with tenor player Ingrid Laubrock sharing the frontline and the flexible rhythm section of Chris Lightcap and Tom Rainey, was the set I was sorriest to miss at Big Ears this year and if I’d had enough time to live with the debut record by this astonishing band beforehand, I might have made sure I was in line earlier. Magical.
  • Preservation Brass, “Climax Rag” – A gorgeous, swinging tribute to longtime percussionist Kerry “Fat Man” Hunter. For Fat Man is a perfect example of what makes Preservation Hall Jazz Band and its offshoots so crucial in the American music landscape, and this version of James Scott’s 1914 groundbreaking rag feels as alive as the first warm spring day.
  • Ethan Iverson, “Dance of the Infidels” – Speaking of crucial reminders that the canon can still feel live and immediate, Smalls both as a club and a label reiterate that again and again, not least on this remarkable document of Ethan Iverson leading a righteous trio with Albert “Tootie” Heath on drums and Ben Street on bass. This romp through a Bud Powell classic is a personal favorite but every track is a highlight.
  • Rodney Whitaker, “Sunday Special” – Mosaic, the fourth record of bassist Rodney Whitaker exploring the compositions of Gregg Hill, delighted me front-to-back. The gorgeous horn line on this one, played by Terell Stafford and Tim Warfield, drew me in initially, and the pristine melody kept me coming back.
  • Renee Rosnes, “Estorias de Florista” – Rosnes digs deep into Brazilian music on Crossing Paths, as on this gorgeous version of Milton Nascimento’s classic, with her driving Fender surrounded by a crushing and delicate band including Chris Potter, Chico Pinheiro, and John Patitucci.
  • Billy Mohler featuring Jeff Parker, Damion Reid, and Devin Daniels, “No Age” – Bassist Billy Mohler was unknown to me, but the presence of Jeff Parker and Damion Reid got me to check out his terrific The Eternal. This excellent tune, rich with mood and tension, is a great vehicle for this quartet.
  • Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith, “Floating River Requiem (for Patrice Lumumba)” – The second meeting of these towering artists, Defiant Life, is another astonishing look at the intersection of their compositional and improvisational styles and a series of gorgeous landscapes. This mournful piece, dedicated to the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is one of a series of masterpieces they weave together throughout the record.
  • Nicole McCabe, “Inner Critic” – A newer voice to me, the California-based saxophonist and composer McCabe blew me away with her compositions and bandleading throughout A Song to Sing.
  • Adam O’Farrill, “Nocturno, 1932” – O’Farrill’s writing and playing just get stronger and clearer in a way that reminds me of Samuel Delaney, in his essential book about writing, making a plea “For clarity, not simplicity.” He shows up throughout this list, often with some of the players he assembled on his masterful For These Streets, like Mary Halvorson, Patricia Brennan, and Tomas Fujiwara, and I’m still finding gems on this gorgeous record, like this soulful noir stroll.
  • Sumac and Moor Mother, “Scene 5: Breathing Fire” – Expansive doom-metal band find a perfect partner/rallying cry with rapper/poet Moor Mother on The Film, full of righteous, slow-groove tracks like this one.
  • The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, “The Grifter” – Giving a little break on the expansive visions of death and dread we’d dug into on the previous several tracks, but also carrying some of the thematic material, with a smoky cloud of instrumental soul from The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble.
  • DJ Python featuring Jawnino and Organ Tapes, “Dai Buki” – Queens-based DJ Python works in a similar mood-piece vein on this track, but also maintains a taut momentum throughout. Built for the chillout room or a transition between a couple of bangers.
  • JKriv and Pahua, “Paula’s Dance (Extended Mix)” – My biggest musical obsession this year as a whole was digging deeper into the Razor-N-Tape label (including funk and soul mentor Andrew Patton and I making a pilgrimage to the store in Brooklyn on my birthday trip) and this collaboration between co-founder JKriv and Argentinian producer Pahua is a prime example of what kept me coming back, a track I never get tired of.
  • Ringdown featuring New Body Electric, “Emotional Absentee” – Ringdown, the collaboration between Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee, could have fit on either list, working as a luminous pop song, but I still hear the classical rigor, the intricate clockwork throb of Shaw’s better-known work, and I always heard this remarkable song in this context.
  • David Murray Quartet, “Bird’s The Word” – Tenor legend David Murray’s (here also on bass clarinet) newer Quartet continues to astound and delight me. They live in and move through this composition; the subtle melodic comping of Luke Stewart’s bass, Marta Sanchez’s piano, and Russell Carter’s rock-solid but surprising drumming gives a gravity and lightness to the proceedings.
  • Raymond Pilon, “Long Story Short” – Parisian guitarist Pilon and a crack quintet gave us a gorgeous record, Open Roads, and this song, with its intertwining guitar and vibes (Alexis Valet) lines, hit my heart immediately.
  • Eric Alexander, “Angel Eyes” – Saxophonist Eric Alexander and his Quartet on Chicago to New York find every curve and shadow in this, one of my favorite standards.
  • Gerald Clayton, “Cinnamon Sugar” – Pianist Clayton assembled an all-star group for Ones & Twos – vibraphonist Joel Ross, flutist Elena Pinderhughes, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and drummer Kendrick Scott, with post-production work by Kassa Overall – and they all shine on some of his best, most distinctive compositions.
  • Ingrid Laubrock withFay Victor and Mariel Roberts, “Koan 58” – A favorite tenor player, Laubrock, assembled a series of trios for adaptations of Erica Hunt’s poetry, Purposing the Air, and the connections between Victor’s voice, Roberts’ cello, and Laubrock’s reeds struck me perfectly.
  • Angel Bat Dawid and Naima Nefertari, “Procession of the Equinox” – Any time there’s new work from polymath Angel Bat Dawid, it’s cause for celebration in my corner. Here she works with London-based musician and curator Nefertari on a spiritual, searching set of work.
  • Exceptet, “Tree Lines: IX. Baobab” – This excerpt from Katherine Balch’s ode to old-growth trees, exquisitely executed by NYC-based chamber ensemble Exceptet felt like it shared some DNA with the previous two tracks, exulting and finding spirituality in nature but without the sentimentality that often carries with it.
  • Esthesis Quartet featuring Bill Frisell, “Capricorn” – Esthesis came together with Bill Frisell to pay tribute to cornetist Ron Miles – the quartet’s mentor and Frisell’s longtime collaborator – with mostly new, original compositions. An act full of love, rigor, and powerful, joyful defiance.
  • William Tyler, “A Dream, A Flood” – Nashville guitarist Tyler made his strongest and most fully realized record yet. I’m still panning the rivers of this record and finding gold, like this haunting tear between the fabric of worlds.
  • Kara-lis Coverdale, “Equal Exchange” – Coverdale’s warm, beguiling solo piano and synth pieces vibrate the same parts of my soul as the Tyler and even the dancier track that follows this.
  • Nomi Ruiz and Eli Escobar, “Full Fantasy” – Two people who epitomize NYC dancefloor royalty come together and live up to every expectation in this perfect club track.
  • Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force, “Khadim” – Hard Wax founder Ernestus digs into mbalax with this simultaneously stripped-down and lush record, as good for hitting the floor with your people as going inside yourself.
  • Brad Mehldau, “Better Be Quiet Now” – I found my appreciation for Brad Mehldau – huge for me as a teenager, drifted away for a couple of decades – renewed in recent years, starting with his stunning memoir and stoked by reunions with Joshua Redman and a stunning duo set with Christian McBride, both last year. So I was primed for Ride Into the Sun, a richly orchestrated journey through (mostly) the Elliott Smith catalogue that captures the romance with an unpitying eye.
  • Chris Cheek/Bill Frisell/Tony Scherr/Rudy Royston, “O Sacrum Convivium!” – This brilliant quartet led by saxophonist Cheek, Keepers of the Eastern Door, covers an astonishing range of rep with a deep, lived-in empathy, like this Messiaen piece.
  • Camila Meza featuring Gretchen Parlato and Becca Stevens, “Uncovered Ground” – Chilean guitarist/composer/singer Meza teamed up with two of my favorite jazz vocalists for this breathtaking original and standout from her record Portal.
  • The Budos Band, “Escape from Ptenoda City” – Turning the temperature back up with this kicking, groove-saturated avalanche of overlapping riffs from Budos’s terrific VII.
  • Quantic and Sly5thAve, “Twang” – Quantic made my favorite entry in the DJ-Kicks series in many years and, naturally, many of my highlight tracks are his own work. This collaboration sent me deep into the catalog of Austin saxophonist/composer/producer Sly5thAve.
  • Soul Clap, “Unifying Force” – This Boston duo released another astonishing record that reminds me of what I love about house, including its sense of possibility, especially this pulse-pounding earworm.
  • Teri Lyne Carrington and Christie Dashiell, “Triptych: Resolve/Resist/Reimagine” – A different flavor of possibility and groove comes in this highlight of drummer-composer Carrington and singer-composer Dashiell’s revivification of Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln’s landmark We Insist!
  • Brandee Younger, “Breaking Point” – Brandee Younger’s compositions and playing get stronger and stronger, as evidenced by this sparkling, racing, cascading highlight of Gadabout Season with a tight trio of Rahsaan Carter on bass and Allen Mednard on drums.
  • Ganavya, “Land” – I learned about Ganavya through her astonishing guest spot with Shabaka’s band at Big Ears last year, and so was primed for her magnificent Nilam, and it didn’t disappoint. A magical cry into the wonder.
  • Nathan Salsburg, “Part I” – The two beautiful pieces of Salsburg’s Ipsa Corpora are a new apotheosis of his long-form solo acoustic guitar playing and a powerful portrait, a reminder of the necessity of bearing witness.
  • Nicole Glover, “Resilience” – Saxophonist Nicole Glover’s creamy-and-spiked tone gets a brilliant showcase on Memories, Dreams, Reflections with the supple rhythm section of Tyrone Allen and Kayvon Gordon.
  • Amina Claudine Myers, “Hymn for John Lee Hooker” – This miniature from Myers’ home recorded solo piano and organ record Solace of the Mind is a potent reminder of art and people’s ability to ripple through time, building resonance.
  • Brian Charette, “Ceora” – One of the finest current organ players in the NYC jazz scene returned with a beautiful showcase for saxophone legend George Coleman including this sumptuous read on a Lee Morgan classic.
  • DJ Airwalk, “Flower Metal” – The floating chords this atmospheric dancefloor crusher starts with felt like they shared a language with the previous tracks and the two that follow.
  • Cerrone and Christine and the Queens, “Supernature MMXXV (Purple Disco Machine Remix)” – Cerrone’s revival in the last few years has given me endless joy and this collab with Christine and the Queens (who I discovered when they worked with Dam-Funk) and Purple Disco Machine on remixing duties is a classic given a subtle, sweet refurbish that honors it in every way.
  • DJ Haram, “Loneliness Epidemic” – DJ Haram’s Beside Myself is a furious, love-rich encomium to finding ways to live in the world and not succumb to despair. This and several other songs on her new one have given me so much solace in this year.
  • Nate Mercereau, Josh Johnson, and Carlos Niño, “Hawk Dreams” – The rhythm section of  Mercereau and Niño (who first blew me away with Surya Botofasina but went to the stratosphere with Andre 3000) pairing with one of modern music’s most fearless genre-crossing saxophonists Johnson seemed like a match made in heaven, and what’s hopefully the first of many records by this trio did not disappoint.
  • Alexa Tarantino, “Inside Looking Out” – A saxophonist who has not only a grasp but an incessant curiosity for the entire history of the horn that comes out in her playing a way that reminds me of James Carter more than anyone else, Tarantino’s writing and bandleading – like the thrilling way her solo blends seamlessly into Steven Feifke’s piano on this lead-off track to her excellent The Roar and the Whisper – catch up to her dynamic technique and point the way to even greater things.
  • Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bajas, “Nothing Does Not Show” – Two exploratory groups at the vanguard of the current Chicago scene, Josh Abrams’ Natural Information Society and CAVE offshoot Bitchin Bajas, came together for an astonishing record of warm, spiritual minimalism on Totality.
  • Behn Gillece, “Beyond the Veil” – Vibraphonist Behn Gillece assembled a remarkable ensemble, including Rudy Royston on drums and Willie Morris on reeds, for a set of his excellent compositions, like this slow-flowing piece that feels like watching clouds of fiberglass.
  • Saul Williams and Carlos Niño, “We are calling out in this moment” – Saul Williams has loomed large in my consciousness, my understanding of poetry and music, since a year-ish period when I found Slamdance, Slam (which I saw at the Drexel in the whole week it was in theaters), and his track on Crucialpoetics Vol. 1. This collaboration with Carlos Niño and other guests (on this track including Maia the Artiste and Kamasi Washington) is the closest thing I’ve heard to Williams’ exhilarating set at Big Ears a couple of years ago yet committed to wax, and I can’t wait to see this group live at this year’s festival.
  • Maya Beiser, “Salt Air, Salt Earth” – Cellist Maya Beiser made a breathtaking record themed around salt. Every piece is excellent, but this Clarice Jensen composition lit up every cell in my body.
  • Linda May Han Oh, Ambrose Akinmusire, Tyshawn Sorey, “Folk Song” – Linda May Han Oh’s arco bass that kicks off this singing, sweeping standout from her Strange Heavens felt like it had some commonality with the Beiser, and the restrained, deep-drilling tonal palette Akinmusire’s trumpet and Sorey’s drums find every nuance reminds what an astonishing unit this is.
  • Chicago Underground Duo, “Hyperglyph” – This collaboration between cornetist Rob Mazurek and drummer Chad Taylor was one of my gateway drugs into exploratory instrumental music – I saw them at a Firexit downtown on the same bill with German techno duo Mouse on Mars – and they’re still astonishing me.
  • Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin, “Chahar” – There’s a very cool angular free-funk quality I wasn’t expecting from this trio led by avant-doom-noise guitarist Oren Ambarchi with bassist Johan Berthling and drummer Andreas Werliin (who I knew from Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra).
  • Dave Douglas, “Future Community Furniture” – Another of my very early gateways into the avant-garde (I feel like I bought Douglas’s tribute to Mary Lou Williams and Charms of the Night Sky in the same year I first heard Zorn’s Masada) still searching and still putting out everything at the highest quality as on this intriguing band with the brass section filled out by Alexandra Ridout and David Adewumi (making stunning use of those harmonies and dissonances) and a rhythm section of Kate Pass, Rudy Royston, and Patricia Brennan.
  • Fieldwork, “Fantome” – A reunion of Tyshawn Sorey, Steve Lehman, and Vijay Iyer, that shows they haven’t missed a step, that shared language still has ineffable qualities that come out more strongly in this configuration than when the three of them work with one another in other contexts.
  • Matthew Shipp, “Cosmic Junk Jazz DNA” – Every Shipp record is an event, even as he’s one of the most prolifically recorded pianists in any genre. While I’ve been a big fan since the David S. Ware quartet he was in, he’s developed a solo-piano language like few people of his generation. This vocabulary begs to be pored over like Cecil Taylor’s as it evolves subtly and explosively. The Cosmic Piano is his most potent statement in the genre yet.
  • Kris Davis Trio, “Lost in Geneva” – Still reeling from last year’s remarkable debut album, this ferocious rhythm section of Robert Hurst and Johnathan Blake pairs beautifully with probably my single favorite pianist of my age cohort, Davis, and this between-albums single keeps me extremely excited for more music from these three.
  • Dayna Stephens, “Brake’s Sake” – Saxophonist Stephens moved to bass for a surprising and delightful run through Monk tunes, featuring his long-running collaborators Ethan Iverson, Stephen Riley, and Eric McPherson.
  • The Necks, “Warm Running Sunlight” – The Australian trio who redefined the piano trio continue to dig deep into their shared language, as on this flowing pastoral (and the rest of their beautiful record Disquiet).
  • Otherlands Trio, “Imago” – This trio, led by bassist Stephan Crump, aligns him with two other musicians who never abandon their shared melodic groove sensibilities, even at their most avant-garde: tenor player Darius Jones and drummer Eric McPherson, and the results are a rain of gorgeous multi-colored sparks.
  • Tomas Fujiwara, “Recollection of a Dance” – Fujiwara, long one of my favorite drummers, assembled a percussion quartet – including Patricia Brennan, who’s very probably this year’s playlist MVP, alongside Tim Keiper and Kaoru Watanabe – for a gorgeous, searching set of songs on Dream Up, including this one.
  • Chris Thile, “Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004: IV. Giga” – I like Thile’s first record of Bach but not quite as much as his excursions into the classical canon on other people’s records – like Edgar Meyer or Bela Fleck – or on his Live From Here radio show, where it felt like the pressure wasn’t as strong. This return to that repertoire burned away all those reservations; it feels like he’s relaxing into the material and singing it through the mandolin, without sacrificing any rigor or concentration.
  • Sam Amidon, “Tavern” – Salt River is the most fun I’ve had with a Sam Amidon record in years, and this bouncing duet with saxophonist/producer Sam Gendel epitomizes why.
  • Estratos and Michael Mayo, “VESPER” – Brooklyn jazz/R&B band Estratos beguiled me with their eponymous album, especially this song, with Mayo’s deadpan vocal riding a hypnotic, bouncing groove.
  • Pat Thomas, “For McCoy Tyner” – London’s [Ahmed] astonished me this year at Big Ears – though it’s still a set I’m torn about, ask me in person – and that sent me down the rabbit hole of its component players, especially pianist Pat Thomas (not the Highlife singer, a mistake it turns out I’d been making for years). The subtlety and closeness of this Tyner tribute hints at the blast furnace intensity of [Ahmed] and feels a million miles away at the same time.
  • Patricia Brennan, “Aquarius” – Vibraphonist Brennan amazes me more with every single record and Of the Near and Far is a masterwork. The slow build on this, the melodic cells from her band including Miles Okazaki, Sylvie Courvoisier, and John Hollenbeck, and the surging power it rises to… just stunning.
  • Kieran Hebden and William Tyler, “If I Had a Boat” – Tyler’s solo record also made my list. Still, this collaboration with Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) who was massively influential to me in my 20s felt very much its own thing. This extended, pastoral take on one of my favorite Lyle Lovett songs was the rare “This feels like it was made for me” piece of art that exceeded those expectations.
  • Lonnie Holley, “The Burden (I Turned Nothing Into Something)” – Another artist whose wide ranging taste in collaboration finds a way to honor what’s unique about each of the artists he works with while still feeling entirely his, Holly teamed with percussionist/synth player Jacknife Lee and multi-instrumentalist Angel Bat Dawid (mentioned earlier on this list) on this gorgeous track from his remarkable Tonky. I’m still not sure if the “prayers” part of the playlist starts with this or the track before, but we’re definitely in it by now.
  • Moor Mother with Wooden Elephant and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, “LA92” – Moor Mother’s orchestral reworking of her Analog Fludis of Sonic Black Holes record was a brilliant chance to revisit one of the first records of hers I fell for, and a remarkable statement in its own right.
  • Gabriel Kahane, “Heirloom: I. Guitars in the Attic” – Kahane’s astonishing piano concerto, played by his father Jeffrey Kahane (also signed to Nonesuch in the ’80s) and The Knights, is my favorite of his classical works on record yet, leaning into the form and conjuring a lot of inchoate thoughts I’d been working through about memory and inheritance.
  • Mary Halvorson, “About Ghosts” – Mary Halvorson’s Amyrillis band – I’m on record as calling it her most powerful and flexible unit, perfect for translating her writing – made their best record yet, About Ghosts, including adding to certain songs (like this one) two additional tenor saxophones, Immanuel Wilkins and Brian Settles, upping the harmonies and fire in the front.
  • Charles Lloyd, “Ancient Rain” – At 87 years old, Charles Lloyd continues to play with a clarity and fire refined over an entire life in music and as a person. His bluesy Figure in Blue would be the envy of anyone, with astonishing interplay between Lloyd, Jason Moran, and guitarist Marvin Sewell. As good as the rest of the record is, I couldn’t get this unaccompanied tarogato coda out of my head and that’s where we leave this year’s wrap up – an 87 year old legend, playing one of the most beautiful melodies of the year, on an instrument that’s not even his main axe, bare in a single beam of light.
Categories
Best Of visual art

Best of 2025: Visual Art

Incredibly strong slate of Visual Art exhibits this year, 70 shows across six cities. Less New York presence because I only made one trip this year and because it was celebrating my birthday less time to traipse through galleries, but what we saw there was choice. Getting to show my Mom an hour of Christian Marclay’s The Clock – not on this list because it was on it when I first saw the piece, but maybe my favorite single artwork of the last 20 years – was worth so much.

Everything on this list is in Columbus, unless otherwise stated. All photographs are by me; all art is owned by the respective artists. The list is in chronological order.

20 Favorite Visual Art Shows of 2025

  • Harminder Judge, Bootstrap Paradox (MOCA, Cleveland) – Fascinating spiritual abstraction dealing with death through changing colors. I was unaware of the London-based artist before walking into MOCA and walked away breathless.
  • Various Artists, Pangrok Sulap (Red Gallery, Knoxville) – Big Ears Festival has stepped its visual art game up significantly over the last few years and this year I was especially struck by the work of this indigenous collective out of Malaysian Borneo (Dusun and Murut clans) where Pangrok means “punk rock.” Large scale, protest art that vibrated with the music bounding through the streets.
  • Taryn Simon, Taryn Simon (Gagosian, NYC) – Another fascinating collection of protest/commentary art including a riff on the kleroterion, an Athens election mechanism, and unsettling, beautiful photographs commenting on the current political moment without smashing us over the head.
Amy Sherald, Whitney Museum (my Mom in the foreground)
  • Amy Sherald, American Sublime (Whitney Museum, NYC) – I knew Sherald’s portraits, but the Whitney’s exquisite, sharp presentation reiterated the cumulative power of seeing the massive scale of these pieces, often putting marginalized communities at a mythic/American mural scale, bringing them into a perspective that was a necessary corrective, and the number of canvases talking with one another. Also a show that benefitted greatly from the free hours – even though I have a membership to the Whitney, I loved seeing these with a wider range of people.
  • Jack Whitten, The Messenger (MoMA, NYC) – I’ve been a rabid fan of Jack Whitten since the Wexner Center show a few years ago and this fuller retrospective deepened his hold on me and my appreciation for his work, as well as letting me turn my Mom and my friends Daria and Marie onto his work.
Jack Whitten at MoMA
  • Elsa Muñoz, Botánica Apokaliptica (Pecha Projects) – The side room of the new Brandt Gallery – which has been killing it in general this year – provides a space for more angular, challenging work. This, my first exposure to Muñoz, was a rich, poetic, haunting collection of pieces that really spoke with one another.
  • Carol Tyler, Write it Down, Draw it Out: The Comics Art of Carol Tyler (Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum) – Not just one of the best exhibits I’ve seen in the Billy Ireland (which consistently impresses me), one of the best curated (by her daughter Julia Green with additional exhibition labels by John Kelly) exhibits and one of the most successful examples I’ve seen of using the gallery space itself and integrating ephemera to tell a story ever, in any medium. Still thinking about this astonishing exhibit.
Carol Tyler at Billy Ireland
  • Richard Lillash, Interior Spaces Beyond the Surface (Brandt Gallery) – I knew Richard Lillash mostly as a musician from his role in Don Howland’s blown-out-blues duo The Bassholes, though I knew I he was a visual artist. This witty exhibit that played with thoughts of Chagall and de Chirico and direct references to other art was revelatory.
  • Maren Hassinger and Senga Nengudi, Las Vegas Ikebana (Columbus Museum of Art at the Pizzuti) – An astonishing tribute to long-term collaboration and community, seeing the way these two artists developed independently and came together, even on different coasts. Also, a beautiful reminder that the Pizzuti is back.
  • Tiffani Smith, GreaseNTheRoot (Streetlight Guild) – Streetlight Guild killed it this year; every time I walked through the door, I was richly rewarded. In particular, the gallery exhibits bore the fruit of tending community, curation as an act of love, and a reminder that love means holding people and work to higher standards. Tiffani Smith’s collages and sculptures pulled together threads of Black history, personal ancestry, and a keen eye to the ways those forces shape the present and future in a way I’d never seen before.
Tiffani Smith at Streetlight Guild
  • Tiffany Lawson, What If I Told You It Was Freedom (Streetlight Guild) – I was already a fan of Tiffany Lawson’s work, but this astonishing exhibit expanded, sharpened, deepened everything I love about the way she brings specific narratives to vibrant, surprising life. Hearing Mark Lomax (in the solo recital that made my live music year’s best) give introductory remarks about the difficulty of “making dope shit… Genius, we all know geniuses, but this…[gestures around] this is dope.” Not only do I agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly, but months later, that memory is a reminder of what a special situation Scott Woods has created with Streetlight Guild – where one of our town’s preeminent artists of decades can say it about one of our rising stars, and it just happens on the regular. Years and years of diligent community building and care were required to make this “just happen” and that should get called out a little more often.
  • Susan Watkins, Susan Watkins and Women of the Progressive Era (Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis) – Beautifully curated exhibit of an artist who’s less well known than she should be with her archive tied to a single museum. This acted as a corrective and also helped put her work in context.
Tiffany Lawson at Streetlight Guild
  • Katie Davis and Jennifer Nicole Murray, Saturated Solace (Sarah Gormley Gallery) – This year Sarah Gormley struck me with the thoughtful way exhibits are put together, the careful, incisive ways the artists dialogue. My favorite example – and there were several exhibits that were in heavy contention – paired Katie Davis, whose layered, mood-thick abstractions I’ve loved for a long time, with someone new to me, Jennifer Nicole Murray whose collages and unsettling realistic paintings merged a sharp point of view on the world at large (snatches of memes and TikTok catchphrases colliding) with inner lives in various stages of turmoil.
  • Harry Underwood, Mostly True Stories (Lindsay Gallery) – Lindsay Gallery also settled into its downtown location and never let up, everything I saw there was a winner. This combination of bucolic, idealized “golden age” scenes and text undercutting any sort of gauzy nostalgia burned into my brain and is still teasing me as I write this.
Jennifer Nicole Murray at Sarah Gormley
  • LaShae Boyd, A Letter to the Liberated Child (Brandt Gallery) – This show hit as hard as a sledgehammer but wielded by a dancer. The amount of intricate painterly craft and technique combined with the deep trauma inherent in the stories being told was an astonishing combination.
  • Veronica Ryan, Unruly Objects (Wexner Center for the Arts) – The play between containers and space in this largest exhibit I’d yet seen by this British sculptor beguiled me, unsettling and poetic and meditative. I came back to this show at least hair a dozen times and it kept revealing secrets.
LaShae Boyd at Brandt Gallery
  • Nanette Carter, Afro Sentinels (Wexner Center for the Arts) – The new sculptures here in its eponymous series were astonishing but what I loved most were the juxtapositions, the interplay and the way pieces spoke to one another.
  • Florian Meisenberg, Florian Meisenberg (No Place Gallery) – No Place killed it in general this year but this impossible to categorize show of recent work by this Berlin-based painter took the cake for me.
Nanette Carter at Wexner Center
  • Laura Sanders, Survivor Skills (Beeler Gallery at CCAD) – This exhibit of Sanders’s hyper-realistic paintings evoked powerful narratives of resilience and strategies.
  • Sarah Fairchild, The Gilded Wild (Beeler Gallery at CCAD) – Fairchild’s play with textures and materials had their best yet showcase in the large room of this Beeler show.
Sarah Fairchild at Beeler Gallery

Categories
Best Of dance theatre

Best of 2025: Theater/Opera/Dance

This was a closer-to-home year for me in terms of “performance art.” My only New York trip was for my birthday, so more about friends, and I didn’t get to any theater (have no fear, I’ve already got APAP booked and three or four theater/Opera/dance pieces around Winter Jazz Fest and Globalfest).

That local focus really shone a light on how strong the artistic quality of the theatrical scene is right now: the batting average of the 50 shows I saw this year was extraordinary. Beyond the version of Nine that exceeded all my expectations, Short North Stage delivered several other productions that served as a reminder that they’re the best they are at what they do. Abbey Theatre of Dublin swung for the fences and – even when the final product didn’t quite make my final 15, gave me an experience I’d never seen before in a theater (The Witch of November) or delivered all the beauty of some of my favorite musicals with an intimacy and community spirit (Fun Home with Evolution, Hadestown with their Young Adults program). The Contemporary did a version of my favorite play of the last five years that lived up to my memories of seeing it at the Public in every way.

Smaller companies took chances that paid off big, with Tipping Point ripping my heart out of my chest, Endeavor introducing me to one of the freshest playwriting voices in years, Imagine giving us Rent with Mark and Roger played by femme-presenting actors and a fresh, DIY take on material I know in my sleep (along with a Cry-Baby that punched way above its weight class and came within a hair of making this), pointing to a bright future with Brandon Boring taking the reins as Artistic Director. Opera Columbus shows up here twice, and the two that didn’t make the list easily could have. Tyrell Reggins’ Trinity Theatre Company launched an ambitious project to do every August Wilson play of the cycle and set the bar high.

And the biggest story is the return to full artistic power of the Wexner Center. Leveraging relationships with the Department of Dance, Denison University, and national and international artists, they presented the strongest slate since before the pandemic. All praise to Elena Perantoni. All praise to Kathleen Felder. I can’t wait to see what this team does, augmented by Nathalie Bonjour, who joined during the year.

Everything below is in Columbus unless otherwise stated, all photos are provided by respective companies as stated. If I reviewed it, I quote and link to the original review. If a review isn’t linked, it had a limited run or I was out of town and I wrote a preview or I saw it on my own dime. Listed in chronological order.

Nine, photo by Fyrebird Media, provided by Short North Stage
  • Nine by Maury Yeston and Jeff Marx, after Federico Fellini, directed by Edward Carignan (Short North Stage) – In my review for Columbus Underground, I wrote, “Carignan does a masterful job of balancing what’s kinetic – keeping the entire cast moving, swirling around both Guido and each other to underscore the sense of chaos and fragmentation in the character’s mind, reinforcing that we’re always in his mind – and pausing to both let the audience breathe as well as stop on these arresting images that pay homage to one of the 20th century’s great image-makers. Another touch that reinforced that push-and-pull, which I appreciated very much, was Vera Cremeans’ take on Guido’s mother, his biggest influence, bringing a stillness that we don’t see much of throughout the rest of the show, the deliberateness she brings to the role and the gravitas, as the only person who does – probably who could – tell Guido to “Shape up,” helps emphasize the loneliness as he’s turned away from that center of gravity, as well as leading the company in a searing, blew-my-hair-back rendition of the title song.”
  • Archiving Black Performance: Roots and Futures by Holly Bass, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Jennifer Harge, Ursula Payne, Crystal Michelle Perkins, and Vershawn Sanders-Ward (Dance Notation Bureau/Archiving Black Performance, Wexner Center for the Arts) – This mixture of archives, keeping performance alive, and expanding on languages, is right up my alley and my jaw was in my lap for the entire hour of this.
  • Fat Ham by James Ijames, directed by David Glover (Contemporary Theatre of Ohio, Riffe Center) – I didn’t think anything could live up to how The Public Theatre struck me, but my god, this destroyed me. In my Columbus Underground review, I wrote: “Patricia Wallace-Winbush reminds us all that she’s at the very top tier of comic actors; her physicality and timing astonished me over and over. Glover’s production set up an interesting doubling of the outsider-insider observer-and-participant relationship across generations with Reese Anthony’s firecracker of a performance as Tio, resonating in ways I hadn’t noticed when I saw Fat Ham Off-Broadway. Anita Davis’s Tedra also spoke to me in ways the other performance didn’t, giving me a sense of understanding of the character without letting her off the hook for any of the horrible decisions or their repercussions while also still hilarious; I’ve never seen the first half of that equation pulled off as well in any Gertrude from any production of Hamlet, adding the razor-sharp comedic sensibility shoved me back in my chair.”
Fat Ham. Photo by Alexa Baker, provided by Contemporary Theatre of Ohio
  • Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson, directed by Tyrell Reggins (Trinity Theatre Company, Columbus Performing Arts Center) – The first August Wilson I ever got to see in a theater (the Goodman in Chicago) had a high personal bar set for me and Tyrell Reggins – who I was already a fan of as an actor but didn’t know his directing – sailed so far above that bar I left with my jaw hanging down, unable to talk to anyone as I walked back across downtown. Led by Wilma Hatton as one of my definitive Aunt Esters (again, a high bar, I saw Fences on Broadway), everyone in this left me stunned.
  • Dentro. Una storia vera, se volete by Giuliana Musso (translated by Juliet Guzzetta) (Wexner Center for the Arts) – Often documentary theater or journalistic theater I find vital but a little dramatically unsatisfying. Musso’s work here, dealing with child abuse, was exactly the opposite. A riveting, gut-wrenching, searing evening that still has me thinking about it.
  • Bothered and Bewildered by Gail Young, directed by Nancy Shelton Williams (Tipping Point, Columbus Performing Ars Center) – A director whose work I knew on a playwright I didn’t and one of my “Good lord, have you seen this?” shouting at everyone I could find moments of the year. As I said in my Columbus Underground review: “The magic of Bothered and Bewildered lies in its fascinating, yet impossible-to-look-away-from quality; it captures the frustrations and banality of the extremely realistic anger and frustration that no one can fight against. The grinding pain of knowing what the characters are going through will not improve for any of them. Williams and her cast make the immaculate craft going into this invisible; it feels as much like staring into fragments of someone’s life as anything I’ve ever seen on a stage, while simultaneously dragging me to the edge of my seat and slapping me across the face.”
Bothered and Bewildered. Provided by Tipping Point.
  • Rock Egg Spoon by Noah Diaz, directed by David Glover (Available Light, Riffe Center) – A wild burlesquing of history and the present, how good intentions go wrong and bad intentions go worse. The least describable anything I saw all year and maybe my single favorite piece on this list. In my Columbus Underground review, I said “The first act…gets at the heart of the human desire to be remembered, to have one’s story told, as a river flowing from the source of desperation not to be lonely. The hunger for connection and the desire to not show how much you want it, because rugged self-reliance is at the heart of the same myth, reverberates through both acts, as language (including “revolutionary,” “uncharted territory,” and the oft-attributed-to-Jefferson “Something better a few steps ahead”) shows up in different character’s mouths across various situations, showing how these concepts change and don’t change.”
  • Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, directed by Matt Hermiz (Gallery Players) – A huge-cast, music-heavy play I’ve known since I was a preteen and Hermiz and cast made me see it with fresh eyes and stand waiting for the bus home grinning, giddy to write notes and capture as much of what I just saw as I possibly could. In my Columbus Underground review, I said “Lusher’s Salieri is a masterpiece of nuance, a finely calibrated performance that makes every shade of the gray the character wallows in rich and vibrant and the character’s slide deeper and deeper into unhappiness feel inexorable, not despite his self-awareness but fueled by it, so enraged by the lack of causality between living up to some standards and talent and reward, so embittered by the lack of direct communication from the almighty that he reshapes his concept of God into his own misery. That unhappiness, that bitterness at life not catering to him is what he worships by the end of the play – something I’d never gotten before from a production of Amadeus: Hermiz and Lusher revealed this to me as not a play about loss of faith but putting that expectation at the center of your belief system.”
  • Being Black Outside by Vinecia Coleman, directed by Sermontee Brown and Sha-Lemar Davis (Endeavor, Club Diversity) – Endeavor put themselves on my personal map with this, my favorite new playwrighting voice in years (maybe since Available Light introducing me to Noah Diaz two years ago, maybe since an Under the Radar four years ago), brilliantly directed by Brown and Davis and beautifully acted by Robinson and Smith. I wrote in Columbus Underground, “I was laughing out loud, huge laughs that got me on the side of these two characters within five minutes of Being Black Outside starting. The voice is so startling and rich, establishing these vibrant characters without wasting words. Coleman’s writing and Brown and Davis’ direction align beautifully in a tone that has no quarter for despair, yet simultaneously doesn’t sugarcoat the terrible nature of many of these events. It’s as effective a piece of art at putting me in a world that’s hostile to the Black people inhabiting it.”
Being Black Outside, provided by Endeavor Theatre
  • Gutenberg! by Scott Brown and Anthony King, directed by Niko Carter (Abbey Theatre of Dublin) – The best insider-baseball theatre comedy I’ve seen in a long while, with the genuine affection and respect between the two cast members Jonathan Collura and Joe Bishara shining. For Columbus Underground, I wrote: “The other conceit that’s very hard to pull off and this Gutenberg! does extremely well is actors who know more than their characters. The deep commitment behind every malapropism, every half-understood-at-best trope of theater or movement at history, rings a bell. The bell might ring harder for those of us versed in the subjects but I think Bishara and Collura communicate a strong enough sense of “the confident idiot” that even if an audience member doesn’t know the exact reference, they’ve worked with someone of that stripe to know it’s wrong.”
  • Rappaccini’s Daughter by Daniel Catán after Nathaniel Hawthorne, directed by Brandon Shaw McKnight (Opera Columbus, Southern Theatre) – This Mexican composer’s take on a Hawthorne story I’ve loved since High School made my entire body vibrate. I said in Columbus Underground: “The fascinating arrangement choices, music directed by Salazar and played by Feza Zweifel (timpani), Carmeron Leach and Chris Lizak (all other percussion), Sara McGill (harp), and Diana Frazer and Que Jones (pianos) create a tense, throbbing landscape where subtle shifts sometimes feel like jump scares and sometimes lull us into a state of hypnotic attention until we come to, realizing we’re in a completely other place. The loveliness of the harp – and sometimes a piano or marimba – is less of a reprieve from the delicious creepiness and more a reminder of the Leonard Cohen line “Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows”…McKnight’s staging also fits into that tapestry of dread like a tight puzzle piece, not drawing attention to itself but putting the characters all just this side of uncomfortably close to one another, or when they’re not directly interacting, far away from anyone else, accenting their loneliness or their monomania or the feeling of drowning like Brueghel’s Icarus”
Rappaccini’s Daughter. Photo by Terry Gilliam, provided by Opera Columbus
  • Clowntime is Over by Joseph R. Green, directed by Michelle Batt (MadLab) – This revival of my personal favorite piece I’ve ever seen at MadLab, retaining Andy Batt’s astonishing existential clown in purgatory but switching the rest of the production up bringing in MadLab vet Michelle Batt as a director and a young supporting cast reminded me how much I loved it and revealed new textures I missed before. A rare utterly vital, necessary revival.
  • The Old Man and the Sea by Paola Prestini, Royce Vavrek, and Karmina Šilec, after Ernest Hemingway, directed by Karmina Šilec and Mila Henry (Beth Morrison Productions/Opera Columbus/Wexner Center for the Arts) – On my periodic trips to New York, no producer has a better batting average for my taste than Beth Morrison Productions and the combination of them, the Wex, Opera Columbus, and Paola Prestini set a lot of high expectations… and met every single one of them. I’m about as far as you can get from being a Hemingway fan but I was utterly enraptured and blown away by every minute of this. For Columbus Underground, I wrote: “The music here adroitly evokes, elevates, and amplifies the senses of frustration and transcendence. Jeffrey Zeigler’s cello and Ian Rosenbaum’s percussion establish landscapes but also joust with the vocal writing: bursts of marimba and sweeping arco lines buoy and skip across throbbing choral passages and set up Conteras’ growling hope and Brueggergosman-Lee’s ecstatic blue flame on “What a Fish;” scrabbling, tight percussive cello phrases and the soaring chorus entwine with Girón’s silken cry on “Come;” the marimba bounces across cello that conjures shadows at sunset as the chorus sings lines as clear as ice being dropped in a glass setting up a wry battle/seduction between on Brueggergosman-Lee and Contreras on “Daiquiri,” Those touches enliven the piece, enriching the emotion without distracting…The physical action also packs the field of vision with these allusions and witty references. During the previously mentioned Daiquiri, Contreras takes his blazer off and puts it back over his shoulders repeatedly, winking at the repetition and sameness of a drinking problem, but also shaking the jacket in the direction of La Mar and the glass, nodding to the drink as adversary and honored collaborator through Hemingway’s longtime preoccupation with bullfighting. The use of treadmills also underscores that repetition and monotony (alongside some rich drones from the cello and chorus) and the effort needed to maintain. Women throw plastic into the pools that represent the ocean. A chest freezer – any fisherman knows – stands in for a bar and also a coffin. The boats and rafts are brought down to earth as cheap pool flotation devices. All of these touches led to a grin that didn’t leave my face until I slept.”
The Old Man and the Sea. Photo by Terry Gilliam, provided by Opera Columbus
  • Mareas/Tides by Marion Ramirez and Ojeya Cruz Banks (Wexner Center for the Arts) – The best fusion of various dance styles and live jazz I’ve ever seen in my life, bar none. Unafraid of the prettiness of traditional ballet or the appeal of digging into a groove but also willing to go to the most abstract, mythic spaces.
  • Rent by Jonathan Larson, directed by Alan Tyson (Imagine Productions, Columbus Performing Arts Center) – Alan Tyson – beyond this he also directed a chroeopoem that was my favorite part of this year’s Columbus Black Theatre Festival – provided a stripped down Rent with two femme-presenting actors as Mark and Roger that pinned me to my seat and reminded me what I loved about that play originally, and all the people in my friend group who loved it I’ve lost since. For Columbus Underground, I wrote “That feeling – enhanced by terrific, low-key choices in choreography by Nicholas Wilson and intimacy choreography by Krista Lively Stauffer – gives the proceedings a vital, DIY edge, stripping away just enough slickness to lay bare the beating heart of these songs and relationships. In addition, Tyson’s production hits all of the beats a longtime fan would expect (without sacrificing a handshake to any newcomers), but also throws some fascinating curves and angles that sent me out into the night thinking about this production of a play I’ve probably seen a dozen times over the years.”
Rent. Photo by Payton Andisman, provided by Imagine Productions
Categories
Best Of Playlist record reviews Uncategorized

Best of 2025 – Songs

There was an enormous amount of music I loved this year. As usual, I divided this into songs – usually have lyrics, generally concise – and spaces – usually instrumental or minimal lyrics, usually expansive – and I think both lists are bulging with some of my favorite songs of all time. I hope you find something to love here, and I hope you let me know what I missed.

https://tidal.com/playlist/0f306b98-4b51-4098-a7f1-6a0d6b8ad492

  • Little Simz featuring Obongjayar, and Moonchild Sanelly, “Flood” – I liked the earlier Little Simz records but her fifth album Lotus plunged its hooks in me from the moment I heard this first single and never really relented. “They want you to stop, then they leave you to rot, but that’s just not my frequency, man.”
  • Halley Whitters, “Corn Queen” – The single best modern example of the heavy internal rhyme and alteration country song in the style of Roger Miller, Lefty Frizzell, and Tom T. Hall, a highlight of a record brimming with highlights, and my single favorite song of the year. “No kids of his own, just a two-year-old who thinks he’s everything. Gonna change her name, gonna help her raise a future former Corn Queen.”
  • Southern Avenue, “Rum Boogie” – Southern Avenue made a record as good as their breathtaking live show, that stands alongside their vintage rock and soul idols, and came through tragedy to do it. This song evokes a Saturday night in the Memphis I’ve come to know in the last decade-plus better than any I can think of, including a shout out to my (and Anne’s) beloved Buccaneer (RIP). “Down at the Bucc’ played a Midtown ruck, it was a magical little scene: hipsters tripping, eclectic women, and everybody in between.”
  • Esther Rose, “Rescue You” – Esther Rose continued to be the finest songwriter at ripping my heart out of my chest in the subtlest, lowest-key way with her devastating Want. This song in particular, with its repetition of “I know you’re scared” and “I would be too” (I think dropping an “I love you too” substitution on the latter a couple of times), is an ice sledgehammer to the solar plexus.
  • S. G Goodman, “Solitaire” – Another gorgeous tracking shot through the desolation of the soul and what keeps us going in the face of seemingly assured failure. “I know you cry about your brother for the times that he goes mad. But you look at me the same way, I’d throw my money down on that.”
  • James McMurtry, “Pinocchio in Vegas” – A brilliant, perfect blending of wry observation (placing the children’s book character in the adult mire of artifical lights, probate, and the grind) and bone-deep understanding of loss (the wrenching choruses with their point of view shift) that no one does as well as McMurtry. “Pinocchio’s in Vegas with his eyes on the prize. He’s a real boy now, his dick grows when he lies, but his face stays frozen like it’s still made of wood; it betrays no expression as he cleans them out good at that back room table, most every Friday night. He don’t even need the money, he’s just in it out of spite.”
  • Lilly Hiatt, “Kwik-E-Mart” – The swinging, laid back groove of this standout track from Forever, Lilly Hiatt’s most assured, rocking record since Trinity Lane, is the velvet glove delivering a sly, winking seduction/self-assessment: “Sweet, sweet perfume; everybody else disappears when you’re in the room.”
  • Sunny War featuring Valerie June, “Cry Baby” – Sunny War’s Armageddon in a Summer Dress is a slower burn than her astonishing Anarchist Gospel but the variety of textures and the foregrounding of some of her finest vocals make songs like this one (a duet with one of the greatest singers working, Valerie June) sumptuous slow-motion explosions. “You saw hell today. Ain’t life funny that way? Some grass isn’t green; some pain goes unseen.”
  • Willow Avalon, “Something We Regret” – Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell is one of the most assured debuts I’ve heard in years and this brushed-drums rollicking shuffle knocked me over immediately. “I love you like sugar; you love me like sex. Put us both together, we’ll do something we regret.”
  • Golomb, “Play Music” – Golomb impress me more and more with each outing, and I’m heartened to see more of the world catching on as evidenced by a recent run with Mdou Moctar and a string of packed European dates. This ars poetica beautifully synthesizes their influences and points at the individual voice they’ve forged from them. “I want to play music that jumps my head to the side. I want to play music in an irresponsible manner. I want to play music with an undeniable question…with no answer.”
  • Cymande, “Chasing an Empty Dream” – The first Cymande record in a decade (and 40 years after their run of unassailable funk masterpieces) found them still rocking at the height of their powers. One of the great grooves of this or any year. “Is it real, what they feel? What’s the deal when they’re chasing an empty dream?”
  • clipping., “Run It” – I liked the way this frayed, future-rotted, glitchy groove sat between the two more conventional dancefloor monsters on either side and Daveed Diggs’ furious vocal drags the listener through that pulsing landscape by the throat. “Didn’t mean to wake up in the same clothes you’ve been rocking for a motherfucking week.”
  • Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 featuring Sampha the Great, “Emi Aluta (Zamrock Remix)” – Sampha the Great’s throbbing remix starts in media res with a vintage Egypt 80 horn burst and adds some simmering contemporary flavor to Seun Kuti’s excellent work carrying on Fela’s message. The sparseness of the vocal call and response before we return to those horns always stuns me.
  • Songhoy Blues featuring Rokia Koné, “Norou” – We take the energy down to a more healing, internal place with this gorgeous flowing track from Malian band Songhoy Blues with a remarkable feature from Rokia Koné.
  • Patterson Hood, “The Pool House” – I caught some similarity in the sound worlds between Songhoy’s guitar and vocal harmonies and the haunting orchestrations and sumptuous vocal from this personal favorite from Patterson Hood’s best-yet solo effort. “The story that broke him had a gleam in its eyes. Sometimes there’s no coming back from your fears realized.”
  • Bonnie “Prince” Billy, “Is My Living in Vain?” – I kept going back to both Hood’s Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams and Oldham’s The Purple Bird because they’re both excellent records with great songs but also for the way they both grapple with sounds that feel heavily 1970s to me: lush arrangements that drift like heat-fog in the borderland between country and soul and very masculine, very vulnerable vocal performances. This full-throated psalm takes the questions that underpin many of our lives and brings them to the forefront. “Is my praying in vain? Is my fasting in vain?”
  • Caylee Hammack, “Bed of Roses” – A world-beater of a contemporary country song and eponymous track of Hammack’s terrific sophomore record with a pedal steel line that felt like it waltzed hand in hand with the Oldham it follows but blooms into a bounce. “Bitter grapes make the sweetest wine. The holes I’m digging are just seeds and dreams I’m sowing for my bed of roses, where I’m sleeping just fine.”
  • Sharon Van Etten, “I Can’t Imagine (Why You Feel That Way)” – I was talking to someone just a few weeks ago, about seeing Sharon Van Etten play solo upstairs at Pianos during CMJ with the Smith Westerns. I’ve been a fan since that first record and watching her music grow in heft and power has been sheer delight and this new record might be my favorite, easily standing alongside the first two but never trying to relive their moments. The bass line on this song is probably my favorite of the year. “Took the medicine; now feeling strange. I can’t imagine why you feel this way.”
  • SASAMI, “Slugger” – Former Cherry Glazerr member SASAMI’s astonishing synthpop noir Blood on the Silver Screen is full of razorblade mosaics like this perfect three minutes knife twist. “I’m always running, so I probably should’ve seen it coming.”
  • Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Pyramid Scheme” – After their best record yet, this intermezzo of a single kept my appetite whetted for the next full Hurray for the Riff Raff statement. “I don’t know who you want me to be. I don’t know and it terrifies me. Don’t know what you want, don’t know what I want, don’t know what you want from me.”
  • The Delines, “Sitting on the Curb” – The torchy collaboration of Willy Vlautin and Amy Boone continues to paint gorgeous overexposed visions of people falling through the cracks and the no-bad-track Mr. Luck and Ms. Doom sustained that remarkable streak. “Don’t you know flames destroy everything in their wake? There’ll be nothing left at home when you come back realizing your mistake.”
  • Jenny Hval, “All night long” – I’ve been a fan of Hval through her more experimental and traditional singer-songwriter strains and I especially love work like this that braids those strains together. “What do I know? I’m lost in absentia. Dancing on my grave. What would happen if I fell, if I fell through?”
  • Housewife, “Life of the Party” – This Toronto band had escaped my notice until this year’s Girl of the Hour which I found full of sharply carved gems like this one. That rhythm and the voice are at the heart of what keeps me coming back. “Play a game of 20 Questions but I couldn’t answer one, like ‘Where are you going, how does it feel to look back on everything you’ve done?'”
  • Lisa Curtis, “Nothing More to Miss” – I try to keep myself open to new art (music especially) from a lot of channels but a perpetual source is recommendations from friends. This Columbus artist Lisa Curtis hit my radar courtesy of pal Vera Cremeans – also a hell of a singer, she features prominently in the theater best of – and I was stunned by the quality of the song and voice. I can’t wait to hear more from Curtis. “I let myself think that life is better when I am your bitch. But one day I’ll get better and there will be nothing left to miss.”
  • Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ featuring Ruby Amanfu, “Room on the Porch” – The Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ collaboration continues to highlight their strengths and this song adding the great Ruby Amanfu is a beautiful, warm exemplar. “All of our friends are now your friends, that’s how we do it here.”
  • Valerie June, “Trust the Path” – Valerie June continues to reshape soul music in her image while paying all tribute to the shadows she grew in on her astonishing Owls, Oracles, and Omens with evocative, sympathetic production from M. Ward and a band including Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits) and Josh Johnson (Jeff Parker, SML) always centering her voice and songs. “Promise me you’ll venture toward unknown, every step a new discovery shown.”
  • Alabaster Deplume, “Invincibility” – Poet and saxophonist Alabaster Deplume gives us a chambery mood record and this song – with a vocal arrangement from Donna Thompson – keeps haunting me. “You can make asunder me all the same, sing all you like, it won’t be my name.”
  • Maya Delilah, “Actress” – The first full-length from this British Blue Note artist reminds me of everything I loved about the ’90s/’00s soulful trip-hop/acid jazz era where this kind of smoky mid-tempo tune was in every lounge or chillout room. This version is better than I’ve heard anyone pick up those threads in many years. “I’m falling off the stage to play me in real life. Come get a single take without the lights ’cause I’m running out of places to hide.”
  • Vandoliers, “Life Behind Bars” – The Vandoliers’ astonishing Life Behind Bars was a reinvention and a restatement of purpose in addition to being their strongest set of songs. This title track is the kind of buoyant but unsparing stagger down memory lane that got me into alt.country/Americana in the first place. Perfection. “I’ve spent my life behind bars and moving cars. I’ve stayed out all night shooting stars and earning scars. Yeah, I’m guilty as charged.”
  • I’m With Her, “Year After Year” – The first I’m With Her record I liked quite a bit but not as much as the solo careers of Aoife O’Donovan, Sara Watkins, and Sara Jarosz, all of whom I’m a huge fan of, but the group’s return Wild and Clear and Blue laid waste to those reservations. “Passing ’round the guitar; fire crackles and roars. And the faces through the flames are all ones I adore.”
  • Tunde Adebimpe, “Magnetic” – Adebimpe’s Three Black Boltz isn’t a wild departure from his work with TV On the Radio but it’s at just enough of an angle to scratch a different itch. In a more just world, hooky dancefloor filler would have been coming out of every idling car all summer. “I was thinkin’ about the human race in the age of tenderness and rage. Had me seekin’ for an extra page.”
  • Lily Bloom, “Kerosene” – Columbus harpist/keyboardist/singer-songwriter Lily Bloom put out of the best debuts in a while, Spirits, and this smoke-cured-velvet single is a shining example of the pleasures within. “Cast a look like obsidian; see what you’re trying to hide. Your speech is like a penumbra, trying to see what’s on the other side.”
  • Kassi Valazza, “Your Heart’s a Tin Box” – This Portland singer-songwriter expanded her arrangements and tonal palette on From Newman Street, and this loping, dreamlike take on the struggling artist travelogue held onto me from the moment I heard it. “Disassociation. They want you to think you think too much.”
  • Ashley Ryan, “My Crazy” – A stellar example of contemporary country, the “First time I’ve felt this way” tropes with a crystal clear voice and a fast-shuffle beat propelled intertwining banjo and fiddle lines. “Like my crazy’s got some making up to do.”
  • Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson, “Going to Raleigh” – This reunion of 2/3 of the original Carolina Chocolate Drops in tribute to legendary North Carolina musician Joe Thompson was a combination of scholarship and pleasure that was nearly unequaled this year. And a rare instrumental on this list that felt like it really only made sense in the “Songs” bucket.
  • Olive Klug, “Train of Thought” – Another shuffle but threaded with samples and a fascinating effect on Klug’s vocal. “I’m just peeking through the darkness waiting for the end to start; there’s this strange librarian smashing all the windows of her car.”
  • Born Ruffians, “Mean Time” – This Toronto band had somehow slipped under my radar until this year – doubly surprising because someone who’s been signed to both Warp Records and Yep Roc feels like I’m squarely in the center of that Venn Diagram. The soundworld they created on Beauty’s Pride, of which this is a strong example, I found really evocative. “A drop of rain on the window; a sudden burst of chemical bliss. Fresh plastic and Coca-Cola mist.”
  • Model/Actriz, “Vespers” – This Brooklyn post-punk quartet’s second album, Pirouette, hit every button I want from that genre, and I felt like this picked up on the electronic textures of the previous track and flowed into the silkier use of electronics and slightly downshifted driving rhythm of the next. “Now give thanks to theatre who I beseech religiously. Are you her? ‘Cause God gave me poise enough for the sharing.”
  • Maren Morris, “Bed No Breakfast” – This, the first single I heard from Maren Morris’s terrific divorce record Dreamsicle, hits a perfect blend of gauzy, post-Quiet Storm textures and a grinning, unsparing lyric I’m always a sucker for. “Sun is coming through the curtains, think I heard a bird chirping. Won’t you sleep better at your place?”
  • Kali Uchis, “Silk Lingerie” – The sustained keyboard chords and slow-creep drums of this highlight from Uchis’s Sincerely, P.S., set up her torchy vocal perfectly. Made for a pour of good bourbon, a medium strength cigar, and a loosened tie. “These pretty tears got my heart super soaked. I start to drown from the inside out.”
  • PinkPantheress, “Girl Like Me” – Raising the pulse a little with this shiny dance-pop miniature. “Think of me: you can’t pay for therapy. Nothing left to bleed; you spent all your clarity.”
  • Mekons, “Private Defense Contractor” – A similarly slinky groove from post-punk originators Mekons tied to grim sociopolitical commentary. “In my fantasy world, the owl has flown. Cryptic signs say: crawl under the throne; May the Happy Church hold you; police, priest, your body forevermore.”
  • Sweet Megg, “Bridge and Tunnel (Dance With Me)” – One of my favorite newer Nashville singer-songwriters; great band, great arrangements, voice that recalls Stevie Nicks and Linda Ronstadt but doesn’t sound like anyone else. “Take me out in the morning, take me home at night. Take me without warning, working hands feel alright.”
  • Erika de Casier, “Lifetime” – I liked the way the horn section of the previous song dissolved into the mist and an insidious drum pattern that kicks off this intoxicating tune from the Danish singer. “It lingers in my body when I realize that love is all we have.”
  • Sarah Borges and Eric Ambel, “Mercy of the Moon” – Jeremy Tepper’s death in 2024 was a huge loss to the Americana world (as an organizer of the Outlaw Country Cruise and of Sirius XM’s Outlaw Country Radio) and the New York roots music world lost one of its greatest advocates and connectors. This tribute single from Sarah Borges and Eric Ambel reminds us we also lost a hell of a songwriter and they knock this one out of the park. “I try to fight it but now I know: it’s out of my control. And I can’t even get my guitar to stay in tune; I guess I feel I’m at the mercy of the moon.”
  • Dierks Bentley, “Well Well Whiskey” – Once in a while, Nashville superstar Dierks Bentley lines up with my tastes beautifully and this example – whose title probably flagged me in the eyes of many of you reading this – is his voice in its lowest, snarliest register riding a beautiful tension-and-release arrangement. “Damn if I don’t miss you, damn if you ain’t here sitting at the bar, making it hard for this boy to drink a beer. Well, well whiskey, looks like we meet again. Well, well whiskey, what trouble we getting in?”
  • Joshua Ray Walker, “Dance With Who You Came With” – It’s a measure of Walker – already one of my favorite honky-tonk voices to come out in the last decade – that he took on my most reviled country subgenre (post-Buffet Tropics Nostalgia) and used that frame to paint one of my favorite songs of the year in this updating/revisioning of “Save the Last Dance For Me” that lands somewhere between lower Texas and “the islands.” His supple voice and good humor actually make me want a blender drink and a hammock. “You can dance with who you came with, or you can dance with me. Let me spin you ’round the dancefloor or you can dance with me.”
  • WITCH, “Nadi” – Turning the groove up a little bit with this heater from Zamrock all-stars WITCH.
  • CIVIC, “The Hogg” – Another Gonerfest veteran, Australian rock powerhouse CIVIC returned with their raging, pummelling Chrome Dipped. “Sunshine on the ocean floor; catch glimpses on our favorite walk. Hand in hand, feel the breeze and the wind on the shore of the wars we once fought.”
  • MSPAINT, “Surveillance” – MSPAINT continue their explorations into samples, rapping, and synthetic textures on their ferocious No Separation and while I had some reservations on the nu-metal vocal harmonies the songs always won me back over. “There’s no prescription for scorched earth.”
  • Kae Tempest, “Breathe” – I knew Tempest as a poet before I knew they even made music and this self-titled album reminded me what a crucial voice they bring to society. “How many hells must a person inhabit before they can see their life hangs in the balance?”
  • Buscabulla, “Incredula” – Always delighted to hear this Puerto Rican Duo return with new music and Se Amaba Asi was every bit as good as those first couple of EPs that made me fall in love with them.
  • Natalie Bergman, “Gunslinger” – Formerly of Wild Belle, I liked all of Bergman’s My Home is Not in this World album, but this song – co-written with Daptone rhythm section Homer Stenweiss and Nick Movshon, who played on most of the record – crushed me immediately and still does. “I picked him up and dusted him off when another might have left him for dead. He had whiskey on his tongue, he was parched by the sun; I never should have given him a chance.”
  • US Girls, “Firefly on the 4th of July” – The over-sustain on the organ throws the groove off on this in an extremely appealing way, unbalancing the listener and making us lean in; and that leaning in is more than rewarded. “The world’s a dream we’ve all unseen.”
  • Sunny Sweeney, “Diamonds and Divorce Decrees” – A favorite country singer of mine returned with a record Rhinestone Requiem easily among her best work. “I’m stuck between ‘I Do’ and ‘I’ll Never Do That Again.'”
  • Marc Ribot, “Map of a Blue City” – A lot was made of “Marc Ribot sings!” in the lead-up to Map of a Blue City when he’s been singing for a long time – I first heard his voice on a record buying Shrek’s Yo! I Killed Your God! in college – but there’s definitely more of a singer-songwriter element to the tunes on this beautiful record that feels very of a piece with the rest of the New West Records catalogue. “It’s not a blue map, it only looks that way. It’s a map of a blue city.”
  • Joshua Redman, “Borrowed Eyes” – Another rare instrumental on this list but Redman’s singing sax tone and the clarity and conciseness of the writing made it feel right, especially as a slightly warmer counterpoint right after the Ribot.
  • DANA, “7 Years Bad Coke” – Bringing the intensity back up with this high water mark noise-disco rager from the best, most nuanced record by my favorite Columbus band. “Man, I thought this shit was supposed to be fun.”
  • Dave East and Young Chris featuring Ransom, “Kiss the Sky” – I liked the way this beat felt following the more corroded Dana track and I loved the interplay of voices. “Look in his eyes, hit him, let him kiss the sky.”
  • Jessie Murph, “A Little Too Drunk” – A perfect pop song, no notes. “I’m’a call all my old bitches and tell them it’s love.”
  • Amanda Shires, “Lose It For a While” – Shires came back after a string where every record was better than the last and outdid all my expectations with one of the all-time-great breakup records, up there with For The Roses and Hot Buttered Soul. “Maybe they were meant to go until they’re gone. Maybe they were nothing at all, not even tears, until they got here.”
  • Margot Price, “Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down” – Bringing the emotional content into a more sunshiny place, Price takes Kristofferson’s aphorism – the man shows up in a sample that feels like a blessing – and flips it into a bop that’s just as defiant and powerful. “They wanna wear your rhinestones, man, they ain’t got the backbone. Those tone-deaf sons of bitches, they don’t know your rags from riches.”
  • Robbie Fulks, “That was Juarez, This is Alpine” – Robbie Fulks returned to some instrumental colors and rhythms he’d eschewed on the last few records to great effect on Now Then. “Now the heat of the skies hits the back of our eyes til we run from the punishing air to reflect in the cool of the car: ‘There but for fortune…’ Such a hollow prayer.”
  • Patty Griffin, “Back at the Start” – If there’s such a thing as a weak Patty Griffin song, I’ve never heard one, and Crown of Roses is stuffed with winners, like this warm, propulsive gem. “Baby, it’s just you and all the umpires, hoping no one will notice that you don’t know what you’re doing.”
  • Charli XCX featuring John Cale, “House” – A collaboration I didn’t expect and one I really loved, Charli XCX leaning into her dark mythopoetic ballads, some of my favorite corners of her catalog, with a fountain-of-gravel assist from Cale. “Another world I created for what? If it’s beauty, do you see beauty? If there’s beauty, say it’s enough.”
  • Kronos Quartet featuring Allison Russell, Asha Bhosle, and Willie Nelson, “Hard Rain” – A stunningly gorgeous version of one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs tying together these distinctive voices and a chorus including Iggy Pop and Tanya Tagaq woven through a magical arrangement by Kronos Quartet. “I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest, where the people are many and their hands are all empty.”
  • The Sleeveens, “Drowning” – Irish-Nashville powerpop band covering my favorite Greg Cartwright song. It’s like this was made specifically for me. “Oh, I can’t tell you no lies – saw the spark of love in her eyes, then it died. Made me cry.”
  • Blueprint, “Black Plates” – Blueprint returned this year with a stone classic in Vessel and this paean to digging in the crates was on the playlist at every party we threw since the release date. “To you, just records; to me, a goldmine.”
  • Vybz Kartel featuring Beenie Man and Monster Twin, “Furnace Riddim (Brawta Mix)” – Vintage Vybz Kartel and Beenie Man with Monster Twin who I didn’t know as well.
  • JID, “What We On” – Growling seduction from JID’s consistently impressive God Does Like Ugly. “Knee deep down in that paint, call a holiday to the saints.”
  • Lorde, “Broken Glass” – stellar miniature from Lorde digging deep into her signature mix of heartbreak and groove. “I want to punch the mirror to make her see that this won’t last. It might be years of bad luck but what if it’s just broken glass?”
  • Demi Lovato, “Here All Night” – A marvelous, ridiculous club anthem with a metaphor more than strong enough for all the contortions Lovato has in mind. “I don’t want all natural, I want to go electronic, because if the music ever stops I might go psychotic.”
  • Cristina Vane, “You Ain’t Special” – Wry, subtle highlight from Vane’s excellent singer-songwriter record Hear My Call. “Honey, you ain’t special like your Mama said you was. And if you ain’t special, I ain’t got no more time for the two of us.”
  • Molly Tuttle, “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark” – Tuttle continues to grow into her voice as a songwriter, equaling her justly acclaimed reputation as one of the great bluegrass guitarists of her generation. The push-pull on this song is intoxicating. “If I was smarter, I’d up and leave, but I like to play with fire.”
  • Sabrina Carpenter, “Go Go Juice” – A sugar-rimmed tribute to the pull of bad decisions and a highlight off another gleaming, perfect pop record from Carpenter. “Some good old fashioned fun sure numbs the pain.”
  • Snõõper, “Worldwide” – Another burst of joy from Nashville’s rising pop-garage champs. The drum machine textures add a level of falling apart mystery to this record I really loved. “Do you really need me?”
  • Kid Cudi, “Mr. Miracle” – Cudi’s great memoir for me to check in on his material since the era when I was a superfan and he’s still putting out consistent, emotional earworms. “I was out and I was spinning, circles, I was dodging demons. Tell me, how did you defeat them?”
  • Jamie xx, “Dream Night” – Another instant dance-pop classic from Jamie xx. “I saw a dream last night, bright like a falling star.”
  • Moviola, “Kid Familiar” – A beautiful tune from Moviola’s breathtaking Earthbound, with a patchwork quilt of a subtle groove and glowing with mystery. “The flip side’s a charmer, the disc jockey said.”
  • Hayes Carll, “Good People (Thank Me)” – A lighthearted, grinning stomp from Carll’s excellent We’re Only Human. “I know a guy, he’s always worried. He’s in no hurry to try and see how he might have a couple issues. Well. I’ll be honest, that guy’s me.”
  • Marissa Nadler, “Light Years” – Another stunning record from Nadler, leaning into her more expansive palette of the last few but bringing back some stabbing specificity. “You knew the ways you numbered the days, cruising the night trying to find her. Then you tried to erase all the x-rays you took. No reminders.”
  • Lido Pimienta, “El Dembow del Tiempo” – The chamber music flavors of Pimienta’s La Bellezza were a surprise after the panoply of grooves that originally hooked me on her songs but I quickly came to love this luminous body of work.
  • Jehnny Beth, “High Resolution Sadness” – I loved Savages and Jehnny Beth’s solo work continues to expand and explode in all directions. “The world is a sad machine.”
  • Lady Wray, “Be a Witness” – One of my favorite throwback soul records and another winner from Lady Wray, with an undeniable disco throb. “Hold on tight and don’t let go.”
  • Annie and the Caldwells, “Wrong” – Another gorgeous updating of vintage disco sounds by soul-gospel family band based in Mississippi produced by Columbus expat Sinkane. “I thought I was doing right, then I realized I was wrong.”
  • Curtis Harding, “Time” – One of my favorite soul-rock singers returned with a stellar slab, exemplified by this horn-drenched call to prayer and defiance. “I never thought I would get so low. You picked me up off that killing floor, let’s go.”
  • Sudan Archives, “Ms. Pac Man” – A slinky, funny track with delightful arrangement surprises. “Put it in my mouth, and my bank account! Fuck you on the couch in my favorite blouse.”
  • Hand Habits, “Lioness” – I also loved Hand Habits’ new record of originals, but this Songs:Ohia cover (in a remarkably strong tribute record) fucking haunted me. Brought out new colors in a song I’ve loved for decades and hit me harder with what I already loved about it. “If you can’t get here fast enough, I will swim to you.”
  • Garlic Jr., “FTH” – Hakim Callwood’s expansion of his art into music consistently delights me but this sing-along scorched-earth treatment of a Cleveland-based restaurant chain some of my dear friends have been directly mistreated by was my fist-pumping song of the summer. “I don’t care if the sky falls as long as TownHall falls too, that’s just true, I hate to break it to you.”
  • Lily Allen, “Pussy Palace” – Allen made a record I loved just as much as her astonishing debut, bringing the same wit and fire, and fusing it to everything she knows now. “Hundreds of Trojans, you’re so fucking broken.”
  • Des Demonas, “Des Demonas Against Fascism” – Des Demonas expanded their palette without sacrificing anything in their best record yet. The groove and deadpan vocal on this are unassailable. “Living in a world with no pain, no fear.”
  • Mon Rovia, “Field Song” – Mon Rovia’s blending of roots in Liberia and his relocated home of Appalachian along with indie-pop really came into its full power this year. “Baby, I’ve been working some things off, trying to get right for myself, not anybody.”
  • Cardi B featuring Kehlani, “Safe” – A muscular duet from Cardi B’s excellent second album. “When I spaz and crash, you ain’t gon’ dip, right?”
  • Bee Humana, “Oceanic Blues” – Beautiful example from Columbus noir tropicalia band Bee Humana growing leaps and bounds since settling in with a steady lineup of singer-songwriter Bee Shuman with Dave Holm and Sam Brown. “The devil took my hand and led me, led me to the bottom of the sea.”
  • ROSALÍA featuring Estrella Morente & Sílvia Pérez Cruz, “La Rumba Del Perdón” – I’ve got nothing to add to the LUX conversation, but I love it as much as the rest of the world does.
  • Kojey Radical, “Rotation” – This British R&B artist hit my radar this year with his leather-smooth Don’t Look Down. “Lady Luck just made me clap and I gave her a standing ovation.”
  • Erykah Badu and the Alchemist, “Next to You” – The Alchemist producing whole records really bore fruit and the synchronicity he found with one my all time favorite songwriters and vocalists, Badu, exceeded all expectations. “Follow me and we gon’ break the rules.”
  • Fred again… featuring Amyl and the Sniffers, “You’re a Star” – Fred Again’s moody collaged dance tracks found a perfect foil in Australian garage-punk superstars Amyl and the Sniffers and built a gloriously rough take on grime. “Hey, you’re a lit one, always been a big star, never been a dull one. You wanna get out of here.”
  • Robert Finley, “Praise Him” – Beautiful soul-gospel from one of the best still doing it. “I’m going out of my mind so I better testify while I can.”
  • Florence + the Machine, “One of the Greats” – Florence Welch keeps getting better and better, more specific and more outward-looking. The band and arrangement foreground the drama but also let the jokes in this, one of her funniest songs, land without overplaying it. Extra points for my old pal Chris Vatalaro on piano. “I wrote down all my fumbling visions, transmitted by a television, got everything I thought I wanted and cried hungover in a hotel closet.”
  • Neko Case, “Wreck” – I’m still unpacking Case’s Neon Grey Midnight Green but this song, with the sweeping strings, stabbed me in the heart the second I heard it. “And I know I can’t burn this bright forever so just stay til the end of the fireworks show.”
  • Colter Wall, “Memories and Empties” – Colter Wall with a perfect ’60s soul-honky tonk mixture and the kind of wry wordplay his voice fits around like a glove. “This path only leads to a barstool where your memory can be left behind. Replacing memories with empties again.”
  • Armand Hammer and The Alchemist featuring Kapwani, “Dogeared” – Another of those fantastic Alchemist records I mentioned earlier this one supporting the duo of Billy Woods and Elucid featuring Kapwani. A dusty, light-dappled memory play. “She finished her drink and looked at me inquisitively, asking, ‘What’s the role of a poet in times like these?’ I never answered, but it stuck with me all week.”
  • Rissi Palmer, “Old Black Southern Woman” – A beautiful grappling with lineage and self-determination from one of our finest country singers. “I want to be an old black Southern woman, the kind my mother never got to be.”
  • Kenny Barron featuring Cecile McLorin Salvant, “Thoughts and Dreams” – A perfectly carved jewel from pianist Kenny Barron’s Songbook record ord, with Cecile McLorin Salvant as vocal partner. “How sweet the memories that choose to linger: the scent of that one perfume in a moonlit room; the long night of longing ending.”
  • Jason Isbell, “True Believer” – For me Isbell’s Foxes in the Snow was his first record since Southeastern where I skipped more songs than played through multiple times, but this (along with “Eileen” and “Ride to Robert’s”) I think is a stone classic as good as anything he’s written, with a gut-wrenching vocal that really benefits from the album’s barebones ambience. “If I got a little loose, I just forgot to be afraid, but I started out a true believer, babe.”
  • Brandi Carlile, “A War With Time” – This standout from Carlile’s beautiful, contemplative Returning to Myself feels like it helps set a tone for this phase of her work. “I don’t remember the faces, just the anger and the haunted places. So alive I could taste it on the rain. Even the roaches come from somewhere”
  • Jerry David DeCicca featuring BJ Cole, “Good Ghosts” – DeCicca’s the best songwriter I can think of working today at incorporating his heroes (like pedal steel icon BJ Cole here) without being intimidated by them, creating a situation where their genius perfectly fits his song (not unlike one of his heroes Warren Zevon and man, what I wouldn’t have given for a late-period Zevon record JDD produced). His Cardiac Country deals with everything in the world, especially mortality (given additional urgency with the artist’s open heart surgery) with the same warmth and good humor he brings to everything. “Maybe I’ll see you in a dream of deep blue. In a town where no one’s lonely, populated by only good ghosts.”
  • Todd Snider, “The Human Condition” – Someone gone far too soon even though he left us a voluminous body of work, Snider’s valedictory High, Lonesome, and Then Some, was another weathered masterpiece. “I was born in the human condition, dancing like I don’t know how.”
  • Leslie Odom Jr., “American Tune” – A beautiful read on this Paul Simon song from one of our finest interpreters, captured on a gorgeous live record. “I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered. I don’t have a friend who feels at ease. I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered or driven to its knees.”
  • Willie Nelson featuring Rodney Crowell, “Oh What a Beautiful World” – Some of my favorite entries in the Willie Nelson catalog are deep dives into a single songwriter like the gorgeous Rodney Crowell songbook investigation-as-act-of-love album this duet gives its title. “It’s the rise and the fall of your clocks on the wall. It’s the first and the last of your days flying past. Oh, what a beautiful world.”
  • Mavis Staples, “Anthem” – A new high-water mark in matching singer with song. One of the great voices of faith over the last century making Leonard Cohen’s paean to believing because nothing is perfect, not in spite of it or out of some hope perfection is down the road, entirely hers. “Ring the bells, that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”