On Waiting Out the Storm, Jeremy Ivey apologizes for present society's destruction of the environment and wonders if racism still exists in the future and whether people still get high and have mental health issues.
On Shore, Fleet Foxes consist mostly of founding member Robin Pecknold. Recording with a band in the age of COVID-19 can be difficult. It was just time to make this record this way.
There's humanity skating across Deradoorian's Find the Sun, a collection of barely-touched ideas that allows listeners to float in place.
The Universe Inside isn't a typical Dream Syndicate album. The verse/chorus structure has been neatly sidestepped in favor of a free-wheeling, improvised, truly experimental approach, and it's marvelous.
Half Waif's second album, The Caretaker, takes a microscope and a scalpel to the mysteries and wonders of the quotidian, to great effect.
Although M. Ward didn't plan the songs on Migration Stories for this pandemic, they're still capable of acting as a balm in these dark hours.
On Aloha, Son Little ponders the ambivalence of life and love, and decides he could be right. Or he could be wrong. Either way, the music is soulful and comforting.
Son Little finds commonalities across jazz, hip-hop, soul, R&B, and rock. His latest album grew out of a setback, but he created a stronger, simpler, more ruminative set of songs. Here he talks about creativity and obstacles and how they work together.
On his new album, Best of Luck, folk music's Christopher Paul Stelling chronicles his period of transition in a way that could resonate deeply with listeners.
On The Neon Skyline, Andy Shauf reminisces about the bad as well as the good with the fuzziness of alcohol cushioning the blows of memory. Life continues, he notes, even if it doesn't always progress.
Rwandan folk trio, the Good Ones fight harsh reality with a sense of love and hope for their third album, Rwanda, You Should Be Loved.
For 26 minutes, folk's Darrin Bradbury creatively mines the preposterous to show the benefits of mentally coping with life's problems. Talking Dogs & Atom Bombs provides a kind of talk therapy for our collective disorders.
