Harmony Holiday is a writer, archivist, and multi-genre artist living in Los Angeles. Her fifth volume of poems, Maafa, was published this month by Fence Books.
1
GABRIELS, LOVE AND HATE IN A DIFFERENT TIME (self-released)
These accusatory soul ballads, which swoon with the erotics of unconditional forgiveness in a voice that envelops like a hand as a blooming rose reaching out from the middle of the throat—this is the only band I need for a while, a oneness trio. Vocalist Jacob Lusk gives me hope that we won’t have to harbor nostalgia for the textures of the 1960s forever. Tenderness toward existence is possible now.
2
MOODYMANN, “KEEP ON COMING” (CircoLoco)
The not-a-drill sound of a drill—ing hook baiting you forward like an amphetamine, the coaxing of a dancer addicted to his own motion—this song turns synths, tambourines, birdcalls, and chants into a perfectly glitchy and overcrowded summons to get back outside and fall in love on the dance floor.
3
NALA SINEPHRO, SPACE 1.8 (Warp)
I was filled with irrational optimism when I first encountered Sinephro’s touch and cadence on the harp. We don’t have to compare her to Alice Coltrane or Dorothy Ashby or Brandee Younger, but it should be noted that Black women playing the harp could mend the fraying universe. There are eight versions of space offered here, and each trembles and thrills with the warm suspense of ancient marionettes unraveling.
4 SEMIRATRUTH, MIRA (self-released)
With the faint howls of captured spirits lurking behind idyllically sultry raps paced like a day spent together, Semiratruth invites us inside her around-the-way style, and we humbly follow her.
5
JAMAEL DEAN, “ÈS·Ù” (Stones Throw)
A Yoruba creation story reinvented for the chaos of today, this song advances the tradition of the wordless vocal to become a duet for keyboard and ghost. The first few chords scatter like sudden tropical rain, and the vocals sneak up on them to revel in the storm.
6
LITTLE SIMZ, SOMETIMES I MIGHT BE INTROVERT (Age 101 Music)
Me too. We love a self-aggrandizing, well-adjusted, maladjusted introvert with the flow of a thousand angels in chorus.
7
ACTRESS, KARMA & DESIRE (Ninja Tune)
Anything Actress puts out is among my favorites. Karma is my favorite, desire is my favorite, and the subdued hysteria of this music that balances retreat, agony, and total self-abnegating ambition to produce beauty deserves our favor.
8
JOHN COLTRANE, “A LOVE SUPREME PT. IV —PSALM” LIVE IN SEATTLE, 1965 (Impulse!)
Without Coltrane, I don’t think I would believe in prayer. Whatever phantom recordings of his are living in basements and attics, they are all better than the best thing you’ve ever heard. Black Christ has risen again.
9+10
KANYE WEST, DONDA (GOOD Music/Def Jam) and NICKI MINAJ, BEAM ME UP SCOTTY (Republic)
Let’s not omit our fallen angels. Controversy stalks these two disgraced and canceled favorites, coloring every sound in scandal, and yet mainstream rap would be nothing without them. Donda is an erratic elegy by a man who is not done evaluating loss and gain, who is stepping outside of his name and into phantoms, while the reissue of Beam Me Up Scotty reminds us what vengeance sounds like when most of what we hear in rap is mere malice.