The Beauty in Grief
French Afro-pop heaters, giddy punchline rap, and “Carrie & Lowell” revisited
Hello and welcome to the latest installment of Five Albums, the weekly feature for paid Hearing Things subscribers in which we recommend you the new records that you need to hear. As music journalists, the question we get most often from friends is how to stay on top of what’s new and cool. This is our attempt to provide a practical answer.
This week’s selections are all over the map, as is often the case with our (now 100% independent!) staff of worker-owners. There’s an album for everyone, whether you prefer fiercely futuristic party-pop or heartbreakingly austere singer-songwriter music. If there’s a thematic throughline here, it’s in two very different artistic expressions of grief and the grace that can be found within it: one a new reissue of the aforementioned singer-songwriter modern classic, the other an instrumental opus that filters contemporary malaise through gorgeously bleak electronic textures and a sci-fi concept about the last living human on earth. But don’t worry: It isn’t all so heavy. Let’s get into it.
