The myriad methods humanity has developed for pain management can make it easy to forget that hurting isn’t always a bad thing. “If you’re going to keep participating in the world, and in your life, you have to commit to being hurt,” Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath explains. “And if you aren’t putting yourself in the way of potential hurt, you miss out on a lot of potential opportunities.” On her and Nick Sanborn’s new self-produced album Ow ∞, they’re drawn to the kind of rich experiences that leave you a little scratched up: young heartbreak and dramatic nights out, personal failures and professional struggles. Working largely in improvisation with a cadre of talented collaborators— including six different drummers—Sylvan Esso have landed on some of their most refined alt-pop to date.
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Haruomi Hosono: Yours Sincerely [Ghostly International]
Haruomi Hosono, the last living member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, feels ”a growing curiosity toward the unknown music that my new self will create, while also embracing the music of my former self—as if I now carry two musical worlds within me,” he says in press materials for his new album. On Yours Sincerely, he considers how to translate omoiyari into sound, pondering maternal compassion and unconditional love through a batch of wholesome songs. As Hosono fits a children’s choir, delicate melodies, and idyllic lyrics into the LP, the balance of craft mastery and childlike wonder is enough to make you well up
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Jhene Aiko: Westside Whimsy [Def Jam]
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