The Modern Jazz Quartet – Lonely Woman: In the liner notes, Raymond Molly wrote that the title track “is colored … with a gentle tint which excludes despair.” MJQ’s decision to exclude despair was an egregious error. Branford Marsalis introduced me to “Lonely Woman,” and I spent countless hours in front of my speakers absorbing the loneliness, the sadness, the confusion, and yes, the despair with which he and his band colored the song. Anyone who has experienced loneliness, especially long periods of it, knows that the solemn reds and blues of despair are essential to its palette. To exclude despair is to fundamentally misunderstand Ornette Coleman’s composition and wash it in beige. As for the rest of the album, I made three efforts to listen but it faded into a beige background every time.
Phoebe Bridgers – Lost Weekend: I still have a lot to unpack on this album, but I listened three times and it got better each time. Bridgers found a sense of continuity that runs across the entire record, and I’m excited to spend more time with it.
Noah Kahan – Stick Season: The last thing I expected to find on Stick Season was the feeling I get when I discover a favorite Ben Gibbard lyric, a lyric that shouldn’t work but somehow does. I didn’t find much of that feeling on Death Cab for Cutie’s I Built You a Tower but I found it here with lines like “I’m in the business of losing your interest and I turn a profit each time that we speak.”
Siskiyou – Siskiyou: I bought this when it came out but it didn’t grab me and I never tried again. It’s not something I’d listen to every day but man, this is a good album. “This Land,” their reinvention of Woody Guthrie’s staple, stood out. Maybe it jumps out because it’s familiar, but it’s also haunting on a lot of levels, including some social levels that exist differently in 2026 compared to 2011.
Ought – More Than Any Other Day: The band captured a ton of energy on the recording but this just isn’t my thing, especially not with so many references to Talking Heads (who irrationally annoy me).
The National – Alligator: I finally get the album. It’s an album for being in your 20s, living in NYC, striving for something big and scary, and being cocky enough to think you’ll get it. Alligator isn’t the best album I’ve ever heard but it was worth the effort I put into it and I know I’ll listen to it more.
Old friends who made it into rotation this week: HAAi: DJ-Kicks
Record store finds this week: I went to my local shop for a copy of Lost Weekend and ended up with a signed copy! I also found a used copy of High Violet by The National.