Winter 2024-25

I won't lie. Like a lot of people, I came to this album because of their song, Seasons, which is an achingly beautiful growl of raw emotions. If you're able to make it past that opening track, you'll find the album full of folk-synth sounds that take you to other enjoyable moods and places.

Recommended Track: Seasons (Waiting On You)

Hey, somebody got their chocolate in my peanut butter! As a fan of their prior collaboration in "The Girl and the Robot," hearing them together again really showcases how strong they sound together. This collaboration limits both acts tendency to produce navel-gaze tracks and more confidently express the best parts of themselves. I can only hope they meet up in this way again.

Recommended Track: Do It Again

The exuberance, passions, and myopia of youth. Finally being out in the world, making your own decisions. Your body is new and yearning for you to get out there and use it. You will always have things this together. This can't possibly end. None of this will end.

Recommended Track: Giddy Up

This album feels like the quiet, internal rush of discovering a new love. Even though your head is swirling, your senses are heightened and you can't keep them out of your thoughts. Have you hit the relationship jackpot? When can you see them next? Have you finally found someone thinking the same about you?

Recommended Track: Free at Dawn

When the outside world is frozen over with winter, it's comforting to have music that matches. Evergreen's icy pop pairs perfectly with long walks through the snow, alone with the difficult thoughts you meant to explore once you had the time.

Recommended Track: L.A.F.

Never have sad lyrics sounded so peppy and exciting. Like Neko Case and Rachael Price, Hayley Williams has a super-powered voice that transforms and elevates even the most middling of tracks into something special. I couldn't care less about the drama around Paramore and just enjoy their musical experimentation.

Recommended Track: Rose Colored Boy

I bask in the heartfelt joy radiating from this album. It is a sunset walk through the neighborhood, cars and pedestrians zipping by, as you enjoy the sun playing off of the trees as you walk under them. As its moods swing from shuffling dance rhythms to slower introspections, the vibe insists that everything is gonna be alright.

Recommended Track: Otherside

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

Apparently conceived during her exploration of Prague's nightclubs, Twigs has created an album that is creative and fresh. The production work is where this album really soars, reaching back farther than her contemporaries for pop and electronic influences and weaving each track into surprisingly different directions.

Recommended Track: Girl Feels Good

There comes a time in every middle-aged, music loving, dad's life where he has to admit, even if begrudgingly, that Steely Dan made some pretty great music. Their new affection might stop at one or two tracks but, if they are like me, they will find this entire album to be a tight seven-track masterpiece. Each track is pop enough to keep them accessible but jazz enough to reward deeper listenings.

Recommended Track: Peg

This sophomore album is a continuation of the same propulsive energy that drew me into their sound. The shoegaze-like distortion from their first album has been pulled back to reveal more of Molly Rankin's beautiful vocals and the album is all the better for it. I will always make time for earnest pop like this. Recommended Track: Hey