Folk
Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
Punisher
Phoebe Bridgers
2020
This is a special album. It’s somebody’s deep favorite that they discovered at just the right moment in their confusing youth. Phoebe expressing complex emotions they could not otherwise recognize or understand within themselves. Maybe their friends love it too and they share their love together on a car trip. Or, maybe their friends don’t get it so they play it loud in the cocoon of their headphones. They cry to it and hug their pillow to it and they fall asleep with it playing on repeat. This is a special album.
Recommended Track: ICU
A La Sala by Khruangbin
A La Sala
Khruangbin
2024
This album is contemplation in the half-light between moments of the day. The sounds of your mind facing inward as your eyes look out to something beautiful that stopped you in your tracks and caused you to reflect for a time. As someone who doesn’t really care about lyrics, Khruangbin is a band I wish I had discovered sooner.
Recommended Track: May Ninth
Beasts of Burgundy by Squirrel Nut Zippers
Beasts of Burgundy
Squirrel Nut Zippers
2018
This album is a joyous celebration of New Orleans and the musical stew that formed the backbone of America’s homegrown musical cultures. Like a Mardi Gras night, high and low share dances through the dangerous strangeness that comes when nobody present is actually from here.
Recommended Track: Karnival Joe (From Kokomo)
Lost Songs of Doc Souchon by Squirrel Nut Zippers
Lost Songs of Doc Souchon
Squirrel Nut Zippers
2020
This album is proof that Jimbo Mathus still has the essential contrarian fire of a real artist blazing deep down in his belly. You can almost feel him resisting a peer pressure to backslide into rockabilly commercialism and it saves this album. The grit is essential and his refusal to polish it off infuses the tracks with a humanity that keeps me listening again and again.
Recommended Track: Purim Nigun
Dear Wormwood by The Oh Hellos
Dear Wormwood
The Oh Hellos
2015
The Oh Hellos set themselves apart with Celtic song structures and beautiful vocal harmonies. This album in particular does well at tapping into the feelings of picking yourself up after a fall.
Track recommendation: Soldier, Poet, King
Shore by Fleet Foxes
Shore
Fleet Foxes
2020
I was excited to hear a Fleet Foxes album that reaches the heights of their first release. These are the perfect haunting melodies for keeping warm in winter.
Track recommendation: Sunblind