currently listening

I love the autumn music season because it always brings a windfall of new stuff from artists I adore. Guster took their sweet time with this new one but Easy Wonderful was totally worth the wait. I think "Do You Love Me" is probably one of the most optimistic songs I've ever heard (the video is even better) and "Well" digs up all those old Nick Drake LPs and dusts them off for the digital age.

Sufjan's new album, The Age of Adz is absolutely incredible. "Futile Minds" is a throwback to the vibe on the Michigan album but the most mindblowing track on the album is the 25-minute opus, "Impossible Soul." My favorite part is about 10 minutes in when everything falls away into Sufjan's shimmery, auto-tuned voice over a gentle pulse. I am always weepy and introspective after this part and I may have to chop up the file so I don't have to wait 10 minutes every time I want to listen to that one section.

And, last but not least, is the collaboration between Ben Folds and Nick Hornby, Lonely Avenue. The fact that both of these guys can, respectively, write music and lyrics that are so different (compare "Picture Window" with "Levi Johnston's Blues" for starters) is absolutely incredible to me.