Monthly Report: October 2026 Albums

Tuesday, November 10, 2026


 























1. Joyce Wrice - Machiko
Dernst "D'Mile" Emile II and the artists he produced make up a pretty significant share of my favorite R&B of the 2020s, and October brought a bounty of albums produced in part by D'Mile from Joyce Wrice, Lucky Daye, and Victoria Monet. I know albums that come out at the same time weren't necessarily made at the same time, but it makes you wonder if this guy ever sleeps. "On Time" and "Dangerous" are some of my early favorites but really just about every track sounds great.

2. Remi Wolf - Mud
The last time Remi Wolf released an album in 2024 I thought it was pretty good but didn't really stand out from all the other quirky major label alt pop that's constantly coming out. Mud really grabbed me from the first listen, though, just really huge hooks and interestingly textured production and she really knows how to stack harmonies and get a lot of expressive range out of her voice, "Champagne" and "Covered In Mud" are some of my favorites so far. 

3. Victoria Monet - Frequency of Love
I don't necessarily expect an artist's output to follow their biography too closely, but I remember Victoria Monet's longtime relationship ended after she released Jaguar II. So I wasn't necessarily expecting the follow-up album to be so sensual and romantic, but I'm not complaining, I haven't heard an R&B album that sets the mood so thoroughly in a while. One of my favorite moments is how "Almost" repurposes Brandy's "Almost Doesn't Count" for a lyric about not quite getting all the way to an orgasm. 

4. Meshell Ndegeocello - Synonym
I feel like it's kind of a generational hangup that I'm not very interested in cover songs or albums made up entirely of covers, but I've tried to get over that as I've delved more into '60s and '70s records. Duet albums in particularly always just seem like an easy commercial move, but Synonym is a wonderful record that does so many creative and unpredictable things with the concept, like a one drop reggae arrangement of Human League's "Don't You Want Me" featuring Cat Power, or a psychedelic soul version of Ja Rule and Ashanti's "Always On Time" with Khruangbin's Laura Lee. She even sings my favorite George Jones and Tammy Wynette duet with Brandi Carlile, it's just a feast of interesting choices from and for real music lovers. I've really taken Meshell Ndegeocello for granted and go through her whole catalog at some point. 

5. Brothers Osborne - Watertown
I respected the way Brothers Osborne tried some different things on their Mike Elizondo-produced 2023 self-titled album, but I will admit that I was happy to see that they worked with Jay Joyce again and Watertown is kinda back to their signature sound. The album is kind of a love letter to the beautiful part of the Cheseapeake Bay where John and T.J. grew up, and "Ain't Killed Me Yet" has one of my favorite John Osborne guitar solos ever. 

6. Lucky Daye - Aloud!
I don't think this is Lucky Daye's best album to date, but all four have been great, I think he's been on as good a run as just about anybody in R&B over the last decade. 2024's Algorithm really deserved more love than it got, and even after switching from RCA to Warners it doesn't feel like Aloud! is doing any better commercially so far, but there's potential there, "Fly U Out" with Leon Thomas or "Knockin" with Muni Long and The Paradox could definitely be hits. 

7. Todd Snider - My Second Rodeo
Given that they were friends and labelmates, it was pretty cool that posthumous John Prine and Todd Snider albums came out on the same day in October. Prine's Found Dogs is mostly alternate versions of songs that sounded better elsewhere, nice but inessential, but My Second Rodeo is a collection of songs Snider was working on shortly before he died, with some overdubs by members of his band. I like Snider's less polished off-the-cuff side, so I enjoy the vibe of this record even if the vocals are really subdued and demo-quality and it would likely have been better if he'd lived to finish it himself. 

8. Quavo - Qromelife
Pharrell doesn't have anything to prove at this point, but I like that he still will get on these prolific tears every few years, and he produced two albums that came out in October. I was cautiously optimistic about the John Legend album he did, but I don't think it really worked, sounded too much like someone else singing Pharrell's scratch vocals. But I always thought Migos and Pharrell made a good combination on "Stir Fry" and I like this a lot more than Quavo's other solo projects, there are a couple clunky beats but it's a good bright palette for Quavo's melodic style.  

9. K. Michelle - Jesus & Whiskey
K. Michelle was ahead of the curve, releasing her first country songs in 2016 and talking about making an entire country album long before that 2023 crossover moment when Beyonce and Past Malone and seemingly everyone else was suddenly making country. Now it's here and it's quite literally too little too late, a slim 29-minute album released years after the bandwagon came and went. I'm glad she finally put it out, though, I've always liked the Memphis twang in K. Michelle's voice and she goes all out, yodeling and piling on the pedal steel. "Handle On It" is the one that I think could be a country radio hit if an established Nashville artist recorded it, or if people were more open minded to giving K. Michelle some country airplay. 

10. Zach Bryan - Young Manhood and Other Donatable Organs EP
Everything Zach Bryan does feels so overwhelmingly supersized -- he released a 78-minute album this year that he's already followed up with a 29-minute EP (longer than the K. Michelle album!), which debuted at #2 on Billboard and will be supported with an upcoming stadium tour. But I like these songs, apparently some of the first he wrote after he quit drinking, particularly the more rock band-oriented stuff like "Dog Days" and "Backwards." I don't think "Lies" with Lana Del Rey is very good, though, like I think those two artists could've come up with something better together that maybe fused their respective sounds better. 

The Worst Album of the Month: Kid Rock - Halfway 2 Jesus
An easy target, but it really does piss me off that Kid Rock covered one of my favorite country songs of the past decade, Cody Johnson's "'Til You Can't," at that MAGA Super Bowl halftime show thing, with a stupid new verse about the Bible, and he reprises that on this album. It's also depressing that Jimmie Allen, who I used to be a fan of, tries to kickstart his comeback on this album, three years after his career imploded amidst some disturbing allegations. Most of all, though, it really shows how soulless this pivot to wholesome Christian music is when Kid Rock used AI to generate the 'gospel choir' backing vocals. 

12:36 PM

Monday, November 09, 2026

 





My latest Live For Live Music articles: a list of the 10 best solo albums by the members of Pink Floyd, and a This Week In Live Music History piece about the time Phish opened for Alex Chilton in 1990.  

12:08 PM

Friday, November 06, 2026


 











My Spin column Deep Cut Friday is about X's "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts" this week. 

3:43 AM

Thursday, November 05, 2026

 





The latest episode of Total Ship Show is out now. We talked about the Brewers, Halloween, Patrick Stewart, daughters, dogs, y'know, no big whoop. 

3:42 PM

Movie Diary

Wednesday, November 04, 2026















a) The Invite
I must admit I was a teensy bit skeptical about all the praise for this, simply because I've so many Seth Rogen relationship movies that eventually devolve into unpleasant yelling as a hollow emotional climax. But wow, this was great, a rare example of a director/actor stealing every scene in their own movie, but it feels like it was just organic that Olivia Wilde got a lot of the biggest laughs.

b) Animals
I think Ben Affleck is one of the smarter, more insightful movie stars we have, but I think anyone, including him, would admit that he's pretty hit-and-miss, both as an actor and as a director. This got panned bad, I think partly from the bad timing of them clearly being inspired by the same Kurosawa movie that Spike Lee just did a remake of, but honestly I thought it was decent, there were enough twists and suspense to keep me engaged until the end.

c) Hokum
When I suggested a while back that Adam Scott has been too good in comedies too long for me to be able to fully buy him in dramas, a lot of people recommended this recent movie to me that I hadn't heard of. A pretty good inventive horror movie, although I don't feel like I'd pin it as a great Adam Scott performance, the role just didn't require much of him.

d) Blackberry
I was kind of a Matt Johnson agnostic after watching "Nirvanna The Band The Show," but this is a pretty good movie, definitely of a higher quality than most of the recent dramas depicting the origins of corporate brands. John has a good eye as a director, although I think the indie rock score was stupid, filling your movie with Slint and Strokes songs like you're making a mixtape just feels kind of childish, and Jay Baruchel's stupid fake gray hair and Glenn Howerton's stupid fake male pattern baldness really take me out of the story. 

e) Cotton Candy Bubble Gum
This low budget comedy on Amazon was a good time, I would like to see the creative team from this movie get a cable series or something, Morgan Jay is hilarious in it.

f) Babes
I think it's kind of funny that Ilana Glazer has written two films, a psychological horror movie about motherhood, False Positive, and a goofy comedy about motherhood, Babes. The latter is definitely more in her comfort zone but I kind of like that motherhood seemingly inspired her to sort of a yin/yang pair of very different films about the experience. This was Pamela Adlon's first feature after directing many episodes of "Better Things" and she was a really good match for this script and cast, a very funny and likeable movie.

When I'm writing about an artist sometimes I'll go look on the streaming services if there's a documentary about them that I can put on and get some ideas or context from. I didn't really feel like I had to do that for my recent Little Feat piece because I've already read (and written) so much about this band, but it was a good excuse to watch this. Little Feat have a new documentary coming out soon with Jeff Bridges narrating that I'm looking forward to. But this lower budget one from 2015 was more interesting than I expected, the surviving members of the band didn't participate but they got great interviews with people that knew Lowell George well, including Van Dyke Parks, Martin Kibbee, George Massenberg, Russ Titleman, Pamela Des Barres, and Ira Ingber.

h) George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Another doc I watched while writing about its subject. George Harrison seems like such a sweet and funny guy, I really felt like Scorsese captured his story well, especially from the perspective of some of his friends who loved him most.

i) Gone With The Wind: The Remarkable Rise and Tragic Fall of Lynyrd Skynyrd
Yet another doc I watched while writing about its subject, kind of on the low budget side but it had some good interviews with band members and gave me a deeper appreciation for how Ronnie Van Zant put that band together and refined its sound.

3:41 PM

Monday, November 02, 2026

 





I've had a few new posts up on Live For Live Music in the last few days. I wrote a beginner's guide to Little Feat that I think could be a useful introduction to one of my favorite bands. I made a list of the 10 best solo albums by members of The Police. And the latest This Week In Live Music History is about the first night of George Harrison's 1974 Dark Horse Tour. 

6:53 PM

Sunday, November 01, 2026

 




I wrote a list of Zara Larsson's 15 best songs for Complex. 

10:00 AM

Friday, October 30, 2026

 





This week my Spin column Deep Cut Friday is about The Damned's Television diss track "Idiot Box," and I also wrote 10 Songs That Probably Aren't on Your Halloween Playlist (But Should Be). 

7:02 PM

Monthly Report: October 2026 Singles

Thursday, October 29, 2026


























1. Zach Jon King - "Get To Drinkin'"
Georgia singer-songwriter Zach John King's debut album, released in August, is really good, and the lead single just finally became a top 5 hit on country radio. The fact that "think" and "drink" rhyme has been exploited maybe a little too much by country songwriters over the years, but I like how "Get To Drinkin'" is pretty fast for a slow song and a good lyric, I love the line "It ain't all the time, just right now and then." Here's the 2026 singles Spotify playlist I update every month. 

2. Tyla - "Is It Love" 
"It" has been very big in Tyla's catalog lately, her last few singles have included "Is It," "She Did It Again," and "Is It Love." This song is one of her very best, I feel like she's a better vocalist than a lot of the people she gets compared to, the way she keeps switching octaves to end each line of the verses with a higher note is so great. 

3. Weezer f/ Wednesday - "We Might As Well Be Strangers"
I like The Gold Album, it only has one of those annoyingly self-conscious fourth wall-breaking Rivers Cuomo moments (he sings about the demands of a hit-hungry label CEO over an "Undone" soundalike) and is otherwise easily one of Weezer's better later albums. The 2014 Weezer/Best Coast collaboration "Go Away" went viral this year, so making another breakup duet with one of this decade's indie rock ingenues, Wednesday's Karly Hartzman, seems like a shrewd idea the title character of "C.E.O." would approve of. But it's got a great riff and a lyric that feels cuts pretty deep emotionally even though Cuomo at one point rhymes "Nietzsche" with "I need ya." 

4. Ella Langley - "Loving Life Again" 
In addition to "Choosin' Texas"'s record-breaking run at #1, "Be Her" spend 24 weeks in the top 10, and I'm glad that one of my favorite songs from Dandelion, "Loving Life Again," became the album's third single and is doing well. 

5. Olivia Dean - "A Couple Minutes"
"A Couple Minutes" is another third single from a huge album that I'm really hoping doesn't get lost in the shuffle as the first two singles continue to do numbers, it's such a lovely, restrained song that really shows how subtle and nuanced Olivia Dean's vocal performances can be. 

6. Cardi B - "Ah Ha" 
Cardi B waited a full ten months after the release of Am I The Drama? to start releasing new non-album singles, which is more time than Invasion of Privacy got ("Money" came out just six months later). Will we wait another seven years for another album? I have no idea, but I'm glad she's back to releasing singles. Lately it feels like everything Cardi says in a song or online is taunting a less successful female rapper, and it's starting to remind me of Nicki Minaj in unpleasant ways (hurt people hurt people!). "Ah Ha" literally ends with Cardi yelling "nana nana boo boo," which takes my opinion of the song down a notch, it's really annoying, but otherwise I like it. 

7. Noodah05 - "Around Me"
An Atlanta AutoTune rapper sampling a 2010s dance pop hit sounds like an eye-rolling way for a rapper to break through on the charts. But Tove Lo's "Talking Body" is a classic to me, and I kind of love that after Noodah05 interpolates its melody for a bit, Tove Lo's own voice pops up on "Around Me," which I really wasn't expecting the first time I heard it. 

8. Future - "Konnichiwa"
The pre-release "Radio" and first video "California Girls" were the initial hits from Future's The Real Me, but it feels like the dark hedonistic banger "Konnichiwa" will probably be the song people really remember from this album. 

9. Dave f/ Tems - "Raindance" 
People who listen faithfully to UK rap seem to hold Dave and his 2025 album The Boy Who Played the Harp in high esteem, but I didn't really get into it when I listened to it, and I mostly just like his breakthrough US radio hit for the Tems parts. 

10. The Jonas Brothers - "Listen When Sad" 
The Jonas Brothers' unsuccessful debut single "Mandy" was a full-on pop punk song, but that song flopped and they've mostly been successful making things that sound nothing like it for the last 20 years. So it was surprising to hear the Jonas Brothers namecheck Taking Back Sunday on a vaguely Warped Tour-sounding song, even if it's closer to something Yellowcard or Something Corporate would do than TBS. 

The Worst Song of the Month: Jelly Roll - "Hands Up"
There's nothing really surprising about Jelly Roll namechecking Rage Against the Machine song titles in a cheesy inspirational song about his destiny, but I still hate it. 

3:41 PM

TV Diary

Wednesday, October 28, 2026

 




Robert King and Michelle King do some of the best writing on TV, but the fact that they always do it on CBS with cheap-looking sets and weirdly airless direction is frustrating, just once I'd like to see them film a show on location with a decent cinematographer or get HBO money. In any event, their new show "Cupertino" is pretty great, it still kind of has the feel of "Evil" even though Mike Colter is now a lawyer taking on powerful Silicon Valley companies instead of a priest investigating demonic possessions. I was already way on board with the first episode, and in the next two episodes Busy Philips and Renee Elise Goldsberry joined the cast and it's real must-see TV for me. 

"WandaVision" remains a high watermark for Marvel TV projects but my expectations for a new show starring Paul Bettany without Elizabeth Olsen were low, like who cares? I will admit, though, this is kinda fun, particularly James Spader in the flesh as a human avatar of Ultron, and seeing Diane "Philomena Cunk" Morgan in the MCU is very entertaining. But where "Cupertino" has timely storylines about the concept of 'sentient AI,' "VisionQuest" all hinges on sentient AI characters in a kind of dated old timey sci-fi trope way, which I'm afraid I've become a bit of a humorless crank about. I just can't buy in to the premise in the same way, even for the sake of a silly fun story, when people believing their ChatGPT can think and feel is such a huge problem right now, Weird Science doesn't even hit the same. 

A really interesting Apple TV show, at first I thought it was going to be just this droll British sitcom with Pearce Quigley as a guy in his 60s working a retail job. But then it takes this odd turn where he grows homunculi in jars to consult them for answers about his girlfriend who disappeared several years ago. And then there's still a fair amount of funny everyday scenes of Quigley's character at his job talking to his co-worker, played by the very pretty Lauren Patel. 

d) "Below" 
A Newfoundland fishing village being terrorized by a huge sea creature with tentacles is such a great premise, even moreso with Mackenzie Davis doing a thick Newfie accent, just Canadian excellence all around. What I've watched so far is good but sometimes frustrating, like it's one of those things where they see video proof of the monster pretty early on but instead of showing people footage they just run around the town yelling about it and sounding crazy. 

e) "Minimum Wage" 
"Minimum Wage" is a mockumentary sitcom on Netflix with new "SNL" cast member Grace Reiter and, I think just occasionally in some episodes, Randall Park. It's closer to a good version of "Tires" than a bad version of "The Office," if that makes sense, like it just feels a little low budget and slapdash, but the cast is reasonably charming and the humor doesn't lean on edgelord shit, and 

f) "Carrie" 
I just watched the 1976 Carrie movie this month and haven't read the book, so I won't act like I have a dog in the fight of whether this story has been adapted too many times now. But I generally like Mike Flanagan's stuff, and even if this doesn't reach the heights of my favorite Flanagan things (Oculus and "Midnight Mass"), it's pretty good. I've gotten through 6 of 8 episodes so I haven't seen how the big climax of the story goes in this version, but he's managed to make a much longer build-up to that iconic moment pretty interesting in a modern context. It was also cool to see that Haute & Freddy, who I interviewed last year, are a recurring musical theme, Flanagan 

g) "Crystal Lake" 
I'm generally a fan of talented actors doing horror, but I think Linda Cardellini is too good for a vaguely self-important Friday the 13th prequel series about Jason's childhood. 

h) "High Value Target: The Hunt For Sadam"
This is decent and I don't think doing shows or movies about American military missions is inherently jingoistic or problematic. But it's weird to air this show right after the 25th anniversary of 9/11, considering that one of the direct repercussions of 9/11 was the unjustified Iraq war. 

i) "Ludwig"
I've never watched "Peep Show" so I mostly know David Mitchell from the "are we the baddies?" memes. I like this BBC mystery series that's now in its second season, though, he's good in a semi-dramatic role. Mitchell plays a crossword puzzle designer who poses as his missing twin brother, a policeman, while trying to find his brother, and inadvertently finds out that he can solve murders with his analytical gift for puzzles and pattern recognition. Sometimes they get a little overly cutesy with that premise but it's a really good show. 

j) "Nobody Wants This"
This is still an enjoyable show but I think the aspects of it that were always a little irritating are maybe more pronounced now. I liked Morgan and Sasha's platonic friendship in the beginning of the show and don't really like that they seem to be headed towards an actual romance in the season 3 episodes I've watched, but at the same time it's more fun to watch them together than Noah and Joanne.  

k) "The Diplomat"
I was pleasantly surprised that "The Diplomat" made the cut for NYT's recent 100 best TV shows of the 21st century. Shows that started in the late '90s but mostly aired post-2000 like "The Sopranos" were disqualified, and I suspect "The Diplomat" would have made the cut if "The West Wing" were eligible, but I'm still happy about it, the dialogue and the acting and the plotting is always so compelling, some of the season 4 storylines have really had me on the edge of my seat. 

l) "Get Jiro!"
I didn't know Anthony Bourdain co-wrote a graphic novel for Vertigo in 2012 about a dystopian future where food is currency and sushi chefs are extremely powerful, but the Adult Swim adaptation is pretty cool. 

m) "Haunted Hotel"
"Haunted Hotel" isn't my favorite animated sitcom on Netflix but it's definitely one of the better ones, glad it's back for a second season. It kinda cracks me up how much Skyler Gisondo's character sounds like Bruce McCulloch. 

n) "Odd Squad"
This is a Canadian show from about a decade ago where kids solve problems with math, my middle schooler found it on Netflix recently and really enjoys it, the kid actors have some pretty good comedy chops. 

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain, who's made some excellent movies including Jackie, produced this Netflix series and directed some of the episodes. It's a pretty compelling show about a woman who can see ghosts. That title kind of cracks me up, though. 

An amusing Spanish series on Netflix where there's a murder on a resort and an actor who's played Sherlock Holmes gets involved in the investigation (and again, I feel very immature because I think the Spanish title, "El Problema Final," is funny).  

An Italian teen drama about a military academy, didn't take much interest in it. 

This Turkish show is about a mother who hires a mysterious nanny, watched a little but never really got far enough to find out where the plot was headed. 

I liked this Hindi-language series on Netflix, kind of reminds me of an old-fashioned American sitcom, a little cheesy but some snappy dialogue. 

t) "Lovesick"
This Mexican series is I guess based on a historical romance novel, kind of not a genre I take to very often but it seemed alright. 

This Dutch mystery series is one of the better Netflix imports I've seen lately, kind of had like a "White Lotus" vibe, good dialogue and big personalities. 

This K-drama about two teen pianists at a music school is pretty good, I'm a sucker for stories where people bond through music. 

One of those very stupid reality shows where content creators have to survive in the wild. Dire. 

A very very stupid "Traitors"-style reality show where celebrities and vaguely fame-ish people do mafia movie-themed challenged. I felt bad for Debi Mazar that she's in this. 

I don't know why I put this on, I feel like we've all collectively heard enough about Mike Tyson at this point, I couldn't even muster enough interest to appreciate that the effort made at this being a serious definitive docuseries on him. 

Decent HBO docuseries about the grisly murder of a Louisiana pet cemetery owner's murder in the '80s, although maybe I'm stupid for wishing they used the Ramones song in it. 

3:40 PM

Friday, October 23, 2026

 




My Deep Cut Friday column for Spin is about "Found a Job" by Talking Heads this week. 

11:19 AM

Monthly Report: September 2026 Albums

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

























1. Tinashe - Popstar
As a longtime Tinashe fan, it's been really gratifying to see her go independent and wind up with the highest charting album of her career, but more importantly, Popstar is really fucking good. It was slightly frustrating that the last couple times she released music, they were these 20-minute mini-albums, but Popstar makes the most of its 40 minutes. There are no low points, but for me so far the high points are "Cloud 9," "Empty Stadium," and the whole stretch from "Crash Out" to "Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore." It really feels like she's been doing this long enough to have a real ear not just for different kinds of beats but how to juxtapose themselves with each other, so you've got Arca and Ricky Reed and Illangelo and DJ Camper productions on the same album that sound totally different but really good together. 

2. Julia Jacklin - The Gem
Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin has been on such a great run with her last three albums, not sure if her first album for 4AD, The Gem, is her best yet but it's up there for sure. The closing track "I Wish" is so direct and simple and devastating, was just kind of amazed by it the first time I listened to the album. Also really love the guitar tone on "The Hardest," the way the harp is draped over a taut rhythm section on "Real Life," and how delicate and detailed her vocal on "Angel Vision" is. 

3. AZ Chike - No Rest for the Wicked
I was a big fan of Kendrick Lamar's GNX and particularly the way he went all-in on West coast production and relatively unknown L.A. guest rappers for the first time in his career. All the guys who had features on the album got a big bump in visibility, and nobody's capitalized on as well as "Peekaboo" guest AZ Chike, who's over 30 and already had a deal with Atlantic, but signed a new deal with Warner and dropped a great album. Much was made of how Kendrick was an executive producer on No Rest for the Wicked but doesn't guest on it, but I think that choice totally works, you get to really focus on AZ Chike's bars and his story (although this album does have a genuinely great Tyler, The Creator verse). I love the bit on "Sky Rockets" where he gets his mother on the phone to laugh over a grim little anecdote with him, and "Lamb Truck Keys" is one of my favorite Pharrell tracks of his prolific 2026. 

4. Jae Stephens - Audacity
Texan singer Jae Stephens made one of my favorite EPs of 2025 and I'm glad that Def Jam finally gave her a chance to drop a whole album, she's kind of in that Janet Jackson lineage like Tinashe but her sense of humor drives her songs a lot more. The day the album came out, Johan Lenox told a hilarious story about Jae Stephens speaking in a British accent for an entire recording session, and now I can't unhear how much she sings in a British accent, or how much her music reminds me of UK girl group pop. 

5. Tove Lo - Estrus
Tove Lo's last release, the Heat EP with SG Lewis, was really good, so I kinda hoped Lewis would produce some of her new album. He doesn't, but it does kind of continue in that dancefloor-ready vein, even if my favorite songs are midtempo tracks like "I'm the Cake" and "If I Could I Would," which ends with Tove Lo humming a melody that I suspect is an homage to the classic "My Favourite Game"  her fellow Swedes, the Cardigans. I kind of wish the 50-second intro track "A Lot of Feelings, No Solutions" was a full song, it feels like it cuts out right when the momentum is building. 

6. Adéla - Prima
Slovak singer Adéla Jergova was one of the girls that auditioned for Katseye on the reality show "Dream Academy," and it feels like everything worked out well with her not getting picked for that opportunity. It's hard to picture Adela fitting into a group easily, and she quickly got a solo deal, and released a full-length album and got her first Top 10 hit, two milestones that Katseye are still waiting on. Adela is working that edgy-but-introspective Eurotrash vibe that Tove Lo and Charli XCX really pioneered for the modern pop era, but she's good at it too, it's cool to see her thrive. "Therapy" is an interesting vulnerable song, but it also has the same rambling-in-AutoTune-over-some-chords format of "Ally's Song" by Lil Dicky. 
 
7. MNEK - Bulldozer!! 
I really liked MNEK's 2018 debut album Language, but in the years since then he mostly did writing and producing and some guest vocals for other artists. So I'm happy that his work on Zara Larsson's Midnight Sun cleared the way for him to finally release a second solo album, "Oh No!! All The Boys!!" and "Lust4!!" are great. 

8. Beabadoobee - Pylon
I was a little confused why Beabadoobee's biggest 2026 single, "All I Did Was Dream of You," isn't on her new album. It makes more sense after hearing the album, which is overall more uptempo and indie rock, and in any case it worked out since Pylon is her second #1 album in the UK and first top 10 album in America. I love the sound of this record, "Sun Has Set" are "Radio" are some of my favorite things she's done since Fake It Flowers, and Hayley Williams and Bea's voices sound great together on "Nothing To Prove." 

9. Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts - Second Song 
The Chrome Hearts are basically members of Promise of the Real along with Spooner Oldham from the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Neil Young's first Chrome Hearts album, last year's Talkin to the Trees, was a sometimes difficult listen due to odd or clumsy lyrics, but Second Song is pretty lovely, I really enjoy the sound of Oldham on Farfisa and pump organ. Young's pretty far beyond any concerns of 'comeback' albums at this point, but I think this is one of the most accessible albums he's made since Harvest Moon. 

10. Riley Green - That's Just Me
Riley Green has been on a steady upward trajectory the last couple years, his fourth album is by far his highest charting to date and he recently became a coach on "The Voice." There's a nice unforced charm to his Alabama drawl, and he sticks to pretty earthy Dann Huff production instead of going too far in a pop country direction. 70 minutes is a bit too long for an album that just does one unambitous thing well, but at least the back half of the album has great songs like "P.O.S." and "Radio Road" to make it worth sticking with. 

The Worst Album of the Month: Nine Vicious - Sedition
I can't deal with this shit. Best I can do is four vicious, five tops. I lost any hope of enjoying this at the beginning of the second track. One of the worst things to ever happen on September 11th. Also, that line that got Rick Ross dropped from a Reebok endorsement deal 13 years ago? He says over and over on one song. 

5:01 AM

Monday, October 19, 2026

 





My latest This Week In Live Music History column for Live For Live Music is about Lynyrd Skynyrd's last show in Greenville, on this day in 1977, before the tragic plane crash. 

2:20 PM

Saturday, October 17, 2026

 





The 2026 Washington International Horse Show kicks off in Prince George's County on Monday, and I enjoyed talking to a few people involved in the event for a Baltimore Banner piece. 

3:37 PM

Friday, October 16, 2026

 





My latest pieces for Spin: I ranked Superchunk's albums, wrote a Deep Cut Friday column about Joni Mitchell's "Little Green," and wrote about the fall slate of Cleopatra Records new releases including Ministry and Rosetta Stone. 

3:36 PM

Movie Diary

Thursday, October 15, 2026

 






a) Tow
Much like her Oscar-nominated role in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Rose Byrne's performance in Tow is just a tour de force depiction of a woman being put through hell, albeit in a more grounded film based on a true story, I really think she's one of the best actors we have right now. Tow is basically a year in the life of a recovering alcoholic who was living in her car, until her car was stolen and a predatory towing company stuck her with a mountain of fees she couldn't pay off, and director Stephanie Laing tells this relatively simple but infuriating story with granular detail and so much heart and empathy, with really impressive performances from Byrne, Ariana DeBose, Octavia Spencer, and Dominic Sessa. 

b) California Schemin'
Last week I talked to James McAvoy on Zoom after watching a screener of his directorial debut California Schemin', and I really enjoyed both the movie and our conversation, he's a really sharp guy, I couldn't even fit some of his more interesting observations and turns of phrase into the piece. Seamus McLean Ross gives such a good intense performance in this that helps it pivot between comedy and drama effectively, I also really liked Lucy Halliday, who's also on "The Testaments."

c) Evil Dead Burn
Evil Dead Rise was such a success that I just assumed that they brought back the same writer/director, Lee Cronin, for the next movie. But French writer/director Sebastian Vanicek gives Evil Dead Burn its own distinct feel and tone, and as someone who generally likes violent, gory horror movies, I found this to be genuinely shocking and close to a sensory overload at times. There were a couple of scenes, particularly Luciane Buchanan was possessed, that I think would've been really impressive as the climax of a more conventional horror movie. But the whole thing was just so relentless, rarely more than a minute of respite from the constant stomach-turning violence and blood gushing, that I don't even know if I could recommend it to anyone but the most depraved horror junkie. 

d) The Thicket
A pretty decent western action movie with Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis from Elliott Lester, a British director who's done a ton of music videos and some forgotten Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jason Statham movies. 

e) Supergirl
This movie got dragged through the mud a lot after it didn't make much at the box office, but it was nice to just sit down and enjoy it for what it was. I wouldn't say it was better than Superman, but it felt a little more on target as far as a fun, simple vehicle for its title character, I liked Milly Alcock in last year's miniseries "Siren" and she plays Supergirl entertainingly as Superman's bratty little cousin. I could do without the frequent blaring generic alternative rock or the tiny alien with Seth Rogen's voice, though. And at least Marvel is recycling Robert Downey as a masked character, it's just weird that this movie has a villain who looks exactly like Aquaman. 

f) I Love My Dad
A very weird dark comedy where a guy is catfished by his own father (played by Patton Oswalt) who poses as his dream girl online. Didn't love it but moderately original and successful at making something entertaining out of its premise. 

g) Lorne
Last year NBC aired a whole bunch of documentary projects around the 50th anniversary of "Saturday Night Live," and I watched and enjoyed them all to varying degrees. And even though Lorne Michaels kept himself to a relatively minimal presence in those docs, it did seem kind of strange to me that there'd be another doc about just Lorne on Netflix a year later. But I'm glad I watched Lorne, Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville really found an interesting angle on him and made the rare documentary about comedy that made me laugh a lot. Lots of documentaries these days have animated segments to depict events that never happened on-camera, but doing them in the style of "TV Funhouse" with Robert Smigel voicing Lorne was an extremely inspired choice. 

h) Promising Young Woman
After watching Saltburn, I figured I should to back and see Emerald Fennell's even more divisive debut. And I guess it's been discussed a bit again lately because the Cornell rape case kind of resembles some of the story elements that were derided as 'dated' when the movie came out in 2020. And I have mixed feelings about it, I kind of see where the detractors were coming from, but some of the acting/casting and plotting were very good. 

i) Carrie
Before starting the latest TV adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie, I finally sat down and watched the classic 1976 Brian De Palma film. Having seen clips and parodies of this movie for my whole life, the biggest jumpscare was realizing that John Travolta is in it. "AH! Danny Zuko, what the hell are you doing here?" But seriously, Piper Laurie is amazing in this movie, what a performance. 

3:35 PM

Monthly Report: September 2026 Singles

Wednesday, October 14, 2026






















1. Rosé - "New Trick"
All four members of Blackpink have released a bunch of solo music over the last few years, it's almost like Wu-Tang the way they still tour and occasionally record as a group but most of the output and most of the hits are solo stuff. Rosé has had a little more of a pop/rock flavor to her stuff, I loved her 2021 debut single "On the Ground" and was disappointed that it kinda came and went, peaking in the lower half of the Hot 100, and I was kinda neutral about her massive hit "APT." I really like "New Trick," though, I hope it benefits from the momentum of "APT" even though Bruno Mars has nothing to do with it. Here's the 2026 singles Spotify playlist I update every month. 

2. Karol G f/ Judeline and Rusowsky - "Bby Wow"
Bruno Mars guested on a track on the album Karol G released in August, as did Drake, and both of those songs seemed like pretty big plays for a Latin pop superstar to cross over in America to a greater degree than she had so far. Instead, those songs peaked outside the Top 40 and it was a different track featuring two lesser known Spanish artists that blew the fuck up and spent a few weeks in the top 10, which was pretty cool just in terms of completely upending expectations. The drums on "Bby Wow" are from the Coolie Dance riddim that was on a few 2000s hits that were big in the U.S. (Nina Sky, Pitbull, Mr. Vegas, etc.), so that definitely helps make it accessible, but its popularity is still kind of surprising and the title is the only part in English. 

3. Modest Mouse - "Picking Dragons' Pockets"
When Modest Mouse signed to Epic Records 26 years ago, I thought they were the classic example of an indie rock band that had zero chance of making a radio hit but had enough critical cachet that a major label still saw them as an asset. And I will admit that "Float On" 100% proved me wrong, and they've continued to be a significant presence on rock radio in the decades since then, even if I haven't really loved their hits (I am comforted that "Dramamine," a masterpiece from their '90s indie era, is the #3 Modest Mouse track on Spotify). "Picking Dragons' Pockets," Modest Mouse sixth top 10 hit on alternative radio, is by far my favorite to date, it's very intricate but still catchy and has some classic vivid Isaac Brock lyrical imagery. 

4. The Linda Lindas - "Burning Out"
As I mentioned in a post last week, the Linda Lindas are one of two all-female bands currently enjoying success on rock radio after attracting international attention online when they were just kids. The members of the Linda Lindas were aged 10 to 16 when "Racist, Sexist Boy" went viral, and now they're 16 to 22, and it's been fun to hear their steady development as musicians and songwriters, their second radio hit "Burning Out" is really catchy. 

5. Key Glock - "Face Down"
It was kind of serendipitous, albeit in a sad way, that less than 24 hours after Memphis producer Tay Keith died in June, Key Glock released an album with five Tay Keith beat. I'm glad we got that album and that one of the Tay Keith productions has become a radio hit. 

6. Justin Bieber - "Speed Demon"
Justin Bieber released two back-to-back albums over a year ago, and the left-field Dijon produced Swag singles "Daisies" and "Yukon" wound up being way bigger than I thought they'd be, and one of the more conventionally clubby Swag II songs has only just recently become a radio hit. It's really grown on me, and it's kind of funny that he does some of his most Michael Jackson-ish hiccuping vocal ad libs on a song that shares a title with one of my favorite tracks from Bad. 

7. Kane Brown - "Woman" 
Kane Brown is a very hit-and-miss singles artist to me, but I like this one, it has a very slick bombastic '90s country Shania Twain sound to it, which was how I thought of it even before he followed it up with a collaboration with Shania herself. The chorus ending with "I got a woman and she got a man" kinda makes it sound like he's in the cuck chair, though, even if that's not how he meant it. 

8. Lucky Daye - "Nowhere Fast"
Lucky Daye and D'Mile have been on such a great run the last few years, I'm excited that Lucky's got a new album coming out this week, the lead single is great. 

9. BabyChiefDoIt - "Ghetto Love Story"
I enjoyed some of the darkly funny punchlines that teen Chicago rapper BabyChiefDoIt had on his Warning Shot EP last year. And his breakthrough radio hit has the same kind of barbed sense of humor even on a romantic song, some people have found the lyrics on this song kind of fucked up but I like the way he made something really catchy and danceable that isn't too saccharine. And Drake shouldn't be the only one mining these kinds of Ghost Town DJ's vibes. 

10. Lainey Wilson f/ John Mayer - "Phone, Keys, Wallet" 
Last month I wrote a piece for Publik / Private about the 20th anniversary of John Mayer's Continuum, and Mayer's been doing some more collaborative stuff this year, including production and guitar on two really good Lainey Wilson songs, and hopefully more for her next album. In the chorus, Wilson lists of a few things she needs in her life: "Jesus [Christ], [George] Jones, mama, my phone, keys, wallet, and you." But she speeds through that oddly phrased list so it sounds like she's talking about Jesus Jones of "Right Here, Right Now" fame -- apparently Mayer thought the same thing when they were talking about the song on a podcast. 

The Worst Single of the Month: Loe Shimmy - "Seduce You"
On one hand I understand and kind of respect that Drake seems to want to collaborate with the younger melodic rappers and acknowledge them as the next generation of his musical lineage. On the other hand, Don Toliver and especially Loe Shimmy are fucking terrible. 

5:00 AM

Monday, October 12, 2026

 





My new This Week In Live Music History piece for Live For Live Music is about the 30th anniversary celebration of Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden in 1992. 

6:22 PM

Saturday, October 10, 2026

 





The fifth episode of Total Ship Show, my podcast with my brother Zac, is out now. I talked about spending a day on the set of a movie that's going to be in theaters in a couple weeks. 

12:00 PM

Friday, October 09, 2026

 





This week on the Spin site, I interviewed James McAvoy about his directorial debut California Schemin' and wrote a Deep Cut Friday column about "Red Shoes by the Drugstore" by Tom Waits. 

11:59 AM

Thursday, October 08, 2026

 





I ranked the 25 best Beatles solo albums for Live For Live Music. I also started writing a new column called This Week in Live Music History, and the first installment is about two semi-secret shows the Grateful Dead played in Virginia in October 1989 as 'Formerly the Warlocks.' 

11:30 AM

TV Diary

Wednesday, October 07, 2026

 







HBO premiering a show called "War" on the first day of October is very U2-coded. This British miniseries is about the divorce of a power couple, and the casting is a little meta -- Sienna Miller became a tabloid fixture after Jude Law cheated on her, and Dominic West has played extremely divorced men in at least three other shows (West has been married for 16 years, but apparently there was a cheating scandal at some point which, again, fits his whole brand as an actor). The first episode was strong, I like the way they've pumped this up into the divorce of the century and there's all these different pressure points that are coming to the fore. 

I feel like a total philistine when I watch an adaptation of a famous novel without having read the book, but I'm really enjoying Zoe Kazan's Netflix miniseries of Steinbeck's East of Eden. Florence Pugh, Charlie Abbott, and Mike Faist are three of the best actors we've got these days and they're all just making a meal of their roles, especially Pugh.  

I guess this is going to be an anthology series where each season is about a different famous situation where someone took hostages, from "The Shield" creator Shawn Ryan. The first season is about a story I'd never heard of, an Indianapolis man who was struggling financially and took his mortgage broker hostage and kept calling into a local radio station. The stuff with Jon Hamm as the radio host is good, and there's a whole great ensemble cast including Mark McKinney from "Kids in the Hall," but the hostage taker is played by Giovanni Ribisi, who I've concluded is not really much of an actor at all. 

This new Freeform series about girls with supernatural powers going to a school for witches is pretty cute and entertaining. 

e) "A Different World" 
I remember when "Grown-ish" debuted and my first reaction was that they made an "A Different World" counterpart to "Black-ish," but now we've got a modern reboot of "A Different World" that reminds me more of "Grown-ish" than the original '80s show. I also noted that the show opens with a "created by" credit for the young showrunner and not the original's creator, which is unusual, but I guess it's understandable that they want to remake a show created by Bill Cosby without the optics of Cosby's name being at the beginning of every episode. I like this, the new cast is solid and it's fun to see some people from the old show (although seeing Kadeem Hardison and Method Man in the same Netflix show just reminds me how pissed I was that they canceled "Teenage Bounty Hunters"). It's not as much of a soap opera as "Bel-Air" but also I think "A Different World" is just a lot more suited to this kind of reboot than "Fresh Prince" was. 

f) "Bite Size Terror" 
I like horror anthologies in general, it's a good genre for short stories. Each episode of Tubi's "Bite Size Terror" is between 6 and 11 minutes long, which kind of feels like that's just too short -- some of them just come and go without leaving an impression, while I invariably wish the good ones were longer. Pretty good overall, though, and I like that half of the ten episodes were directed by women, I definitely want to see more women directing horror and would definitely watch a feature from Jasmine J Johnson, director of the episode "Floral Remains." 

g) "Line of Fire"
When Peter Krause's character got killed off in the 8th season of "9-1-1," I was optimistic that he'd finally get to go work on a different show more worthy of his talent. His new show on NBC is kind of a formulaic network show about a family where everyone works for a different law enforcement agency, but hey, it's definitely better than "9-1-1." His daughter is played by Kat Cunning, who also has a role in a few episodes of "American Hostage," and she's just gorgeous, suddenly a very big fan of hers. 

h) "Best Medicine" 
I'll never get a "Sports Night" reunion but I'll settle for Peter Krause and Josh Charles both having shows in primetime. "Best Medicine" is a very frothy, silly little show, but I like it, they're really finding their tone and what makes the characters funny. Charles is the kind of actor who can do drama or comedy equally well, and a show like this makes good use of his ability to deliver a line like "This was an obscene waste of condiments!" with a straight face. And Eliza Coupe's character doesn't seem like she'll be sticking around very long, but I'm enjoying what she brings to the show for the time being.  

i) "Animal Control"
I blinked and this show is in its 5th season, and for the first time FOX started airing it in the fall, on Sunday nights alongside three animated shows, so I guess they've deemed it enough of a 'live action cartoon' to be in between "The Simpsons" and "Universal Basic Guys." And I never get tired of Joel McHale having indulgent little "Community" cast reunions when Ken Jeong or Jim Rash pops up on "Animal Control." 

j) "Scrubs"
"Scrubs" is not for everyone and I don't really judge anyone who doesn't like it. But I would say anyone who enjoyed the original series should watch the new seasons, they've genuinely picked up where they left off more. And I'm glad there's been a bit more of Perry Cox in the last few episodes, he's still by far the best character on the show whenever he's on it. 

A Korean thriller on Netflix, not bad but at this point I'm tired of agoraphobia being a plot device to keep a person 'trapped' in their home, I have no idea if real agoraphobics think it's problematic but I find it tiresome. 

A Spanish series on Netflix about two roommates who start to figure out that they're in love with each other while on a road trip, which just feels very contrived, but whatever, it's reasonably charming. 

Very weird Thai show where a woman who owns land agrees to sell it to a company if the daughter of the company's president will marry her, and it's supposed to romantic with this blindingly bright pastel aesthetic. 

A Japanese show about a guy "trailing his childhood love from the shadows," which, I don't know, kind of sounds like stalking to me, but again, this is supposed to be romantic in the context of teh show. 

A pretty good Japanese show about a sex therapist at a clinic who has his own private intimacy problems. I think the title is stupid, though, I genuinely turned it on wondering what the S and the X stood for. 

I think more of Netflix's foreign shows should keep their original titles instead of being translated into English, "Blodsoffer" is a much cooler name for a Swedish crime drama. 

For this, one maybe they could've left "series" out of the title of the English version, but it's at least more memorable like this, a reasonably charming Thai show about a romance between two art school students. 

This Colombian show just premiered over the summer and already has over 60 episodes, I can never keep up with stuff like this. I enjoyed the first couple episodes, though, fun pulpy thing about a singer and the wife of a politician falling in love. 

A Netflix show about French MMA fighters, it really just has a powerful whiff of people I'd never want to be around in real life. 

A reality competition modeled after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is weird enough, but like having an AI deepfake of Gene Wilder's voice and one of the original Oompa Loompas talking about how nice it is to hear his voice again, all of this is just offputting and gross. 

Another Nat Geo nature doc miniseries, I love all of these, some amazingly beautiful views in the first episode. 

I actually didn't really follow the 2010 Chilean miner crisis that closely when it was happening, so I enjoyed this doc (my first kid was less than a year old at the time, everything from that era is a blur). It's a miniseries but Disney+ listed the episodes as "season 1," which to me implies that they could send the miners back down there for more streaming content. 

I don't like that Netflix has recently been acquiring a ton of audio or YouTube podcasts and just putting them on their platform as if they're tv shows. However, this true crime pod is hosted by a British woman with an absolutely entrancing accent, so I'm watching it. 

"Last Trace" is overall a better podcast than "Outlore," but in this case the cute host doesn't also have an alluring accent, so I'm not watching as much of it. 

y) "Skip Intro with Krista Smith"
This is basically just interviews with stars of recent Netflix projects, which is an annoying advertorial kind of thing, like Jimmy Fallon doesn't only interview people from NBC shows, come on, be less shameless. That said, Krista Smith is a decent interviewer and she gets like 40+ minutes to talk to interesting people like Florence Pugh and Greta Lee about projects that I've watched. 

z) "Have I Got News For You"
Dave Foley was on the latest episode and was great, I feel like they do a pretty good job of booking guests. It always surprises me a little when they curse on a CNN show, but I'm pleased that in some way they get to be a little more frank and blunt about current events on this show than they often do on scripted topical comedy shows like "The Daily Show." 

11:29 AM

Monthly Report: August 2026 Albums

Monday, October 05, 2026




















1. Erykah Badu & The Alchemist - Before the Wind Blows
Erykah Badu's discography was damn near flawless before that weird 2015 mixtape with multiple features from a Drake impersonator. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Before the Wind Blows is awesome, but I guess I'd kinda given up on hearing another great record from her when her last proper album was 16 years ago. People have become really weird about The Alchemist in his super-prolific second (third? fourth?) wind, on the other hand, so maybe I also underestimated that he'd know know how to get on Badu's wavelength, but he really understood the assignment. This often reminds me of New Amerykah Part One (4th World War), which is a big personal favorite, a headphone record where it feels like Badu is singing in your ear over these gently psychedelic beats. I think my favorite track right now is "What the People Say (Apostle 1)." 

2. Dinosaur Jr. - There Near
I already added There Near to my recent ranking of Dinosaur Jr. albums, and ended up putting it dead in the middle, which is high praise for one of the more consistent discographies of the last 40-something years. I think right now "Take Me With You" is my favorite song and "Clam Along" has my favorite guitar solo, I love when J just hits the ground shredding right at the beginning of a song. I also highly recommend Grayson Haver Currin's recent Pitchfork piece, easily the best and most insightful profile in the history of Dinosaur Jr. 

3. Rapsody - God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops
The second single Rapsody released from God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops, and the first one I heard, was "Apple Juice," and she sings that entire song without any rapping, so I went into this album wondering if it was gonna be the melodic experiment that so many rappers do now. But that song's pretty much a one-off, she's still rapping rapping and this is probably my favorite thing she's released in the 9 years since the classic Laila's Wisdom, "Free Yo' Mind" and "Never Break" and "Black Love" with Malice are great. 

4. The Warning - Everything's Falling
In August, Reprise Records released two very different but very good albums by the Warning and the Linda Lindas, two all-female bands that went viral when they were just passionate kids in a band and have built on that early moment of fame to become touring major label bands with great original songs and mainstream radio hits. In fact, Everything's Falling closing track "Kerosene" recently became the first #1 by an all-female band on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The Warning are a metal power trio featuring three sisters from northern Mexico and their sound just seems to get more powerful with each album, "Why Do You Like It When I Cry?" is a standout for me, Dany Villareal Velez gets to really sing and really scream at different points in the song. 

5. Sara Bareilles - Good Grief
I wish Sara Bareilles had an entire album that sounded like Good Grief's "Heartland," just her voice and piano. But I'm pretty happy with the relatively stripped-down sound of both this Aaron Dessner-album and 2019's Amidst the Chaos (turns out there's not really a whole lot of functional difference between T Bone Burnett production and Aaron Dessner production). Sara Bareilles is one of the few singer/songwriters who can actually make me cry, so I imagine the mortality-themed Good Grief may destroy me emotionally the next time I lose someone in my life. And "Salt Then Sour Then Sweet" totally lives up to the potential of a Bareilles/Brandi Carlile duet, their voices sound sublime together. 

6. Maggie Rose - Half Moon
I interviewed the Maryland-born and Nashville-based singer Maggie Rose two years ago, just before she got her first Grammy nomination for No One Gets Out Alive and was starting to write the follow-up. Her producer and co-writer for Half Moon is Daniel Tashian, who's done most of the Kacey Musgraves albums from Golden Hour onwards, and she's continuing to mine an earthy '70s sound that suits her voice really well. The first track "Used To It" hooks me right away, I love the way it just very quickly ramps up and gets pretty loud and intense. 

7. Busta Rhymes & J Dilla - Dillagence II
I don't know if you could call any of J Dilla's work underrated at this point, but I don't think his work with Busta Rhymes gets enough credit, the last 9 tracks of my Busta deep cuts playlist are all Dilla productions and they're all killer. Apparently Dilla gave Busta 300 unreleased beats before he died, and I guess he used some of them on the 2007 mixtape Dillagence but the tracks he used for the new sequel are largely unheard. So this album is a treasure trove just for the beats, but this is probably Busta's best work as an MC in decades, he really did a great job of curating a good variety of tracks and using his entire arsenal flows of voices. I especially the way he uses two beats to make one song on "Spazzz," the first part is crazy, and it's fun to hear Lil Wayne on a Dilla beat on "Talk Ya Shit." 

8. Carly Pearce - Honest Woman
Each Carly Pearce album has charted lower than the previous one, with her fifth album Honest Woman being her first to miss the Billboard 200. It's frustrating to see one of my favorite artists lose her footing in mainstream country, especially because I think they've underestimated the potential for "Daisy" or "You Can Have Him" to be radio singles. I don't like "Church Girl" because the chorus is structured so similarly to her 2020 hit "Next Girl," but there's a lot of great songs on here and Cary Pearce just has this visceral ache in her voice, sad songs aren't as important to country music as they used to be but she's one the best at them right now.  

9. E-40 - Turning My Money Over (Quadruple Album)
E-40 has slowed down his output over the years, Turning My Money Over is his second full-length solo project of the 2020s, but he loves to drop huge amounts of music at once. "Quadruple album" is a little deceptive since it runs less than 2 hours, he's actually released more music in one day a few times (including three albums totaling three and a half hours in 2012), but this is still just a bounty of great tracks in the classic late period post-hyphy E-40 tradition. If I had to pick a favorite of the four discs, I'd go with disc 2, "Blessed" and "Trunk Is Alive" go crazy. 

10. Ariel Marx - Furious (Original Score)
I've seen a bunch of things that Ariel Marx has scored, including Shiva Baby and the 2023 miniseries "A Small Light," which she won an Emmy for. But I really sat up and took notice of her music for the recent Hulu crime drama "Furious," which does not happen often with television scores, it's just so murky and otherworldly and enhances the story's dark, ominous mood, even the parts with jazz instrumentation has sort of an eerie '80s Tom Waits vibe. I was waiting weeks for the show's soundtrack to hit streaming services, and my only disappointment with it is that it's only 22 minutes long.

The Worst Album of the Month: Pat McAfee - The Diary of a Polarizing Figure
Pat McAfee became a sportscasting personality after retiring from the NFL almost a decade ago, and at this point he might be the only person that's on ESPN more than Stephen A Smith, but even Stephen A. never submitted us to a musical side quest. I was almost disappointed about how ordinary McAfee's wildly mocked debut album is, like a Jelly Roll record by someone with even less talent than Jelly Roll, but it becomes properly awful around that mid-album stretch of "Oops" ("I used to not have shit, now I got a bidet") and "Smokin" ("I be smokin', silence what they say/ I got a clear mind, yinz call it a haze"). 

6:36 AM