1. Father John Misty: “She Cleans Up”
Last Wednesday, the singer-songwriter Father John Misty played Manhattan’s storied Beacon Theater for the first time. Toward the end of the sold-out show, he told the crowd he wanted to commemorate the occasion with a tribute: “Here’s five minutes from Jerry Seinfeld’s set from his Beacon run last year.” Classic Father John Misty banter — and not true at all, since he immediately launched into another of his own wryly incisive tunes. FJM (whose real name is Joshua Tillman) certainly has a way with a Harry Nilsson-style ballad, as he demonstrated throughout the Beacon set, but one of my favorite moments of the night came when he played this verbose rocker from his latest album, the wide-ranging 2024 release “Mahashmashana.” Elaine Benes dance optional.
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2. Time Wharp: “Lupron”
It remains by far the most imaginative, technically impressive live cover I’ve seen so far this year: One late January night at Berlin, a small venue in the East Village, the experimental musician Kaye Loggins, who records as Time Wharp, used loop pedals and a distorted electric guitar to build a completely singular instrumental rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Coyote.” You will, unfortunately, just have to take my word for it, since that seems to have been a one-off performance. But this luminous, hypnotic track from Time Wharp’s excellent 2022 album “Spiro World” gives a sense of Loggins’s style and her inventive virtuosity.
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3. This Is Lorelei: “Perfect Hand”
The headline act of that Berlin show — a benefit for Los Angeles wildfire relief organized by the collective NYC4LA — was This Is Lorelei, the prolific indie-pop project helmed by the New York-based musician Nate Amos. Though Amos is in another band I like, the art-rock group Water From Your Eyes, I confess I overlooked This Is Lorelei’s 2024 album “Box for Buddy, Box for Star,” despite several friends telling me they thought it was up my alley. They were right, though it took me seeing This Is Lorelei live to realize it. But now I can say: Amos has a receptive ear for melody, an off-kilter sense of lyricism and a keen instinct for unexpected sonic details — all of which can be heard on this track from This Is Lorelei’s most recent album.
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4. Mustafa: “Name of God”
In late February, I caught the second of two sold-out nights that the Canadian folk singer and poet Mustafa played at Brooklyn’s Crown Hill Theater. It was an intimate show and a rare occasion; though Mustafa has been releasing solo music for about five years now — my colleague Jon Caramanica named Mustafa’s debut EP “When Smoke Rises” his favorite album of 2021 — this was his first headlining tour. Mustafa’s music tackles heavy, highly personal themes like grief, faith and the toll of gang violence, and he admitted in a recent Pitchfork interview that having to revisit those feelings each night onstage was taxing. At his Brooklyn show, Mustafa balanced those emotions with amiable, surprisingly funny stage banter. The contrast only made the ache of his songs, like this highlight from his lovely 2024 LP “Dunya,” that much more piercing.
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5. Katy Pinke: “You Are There (Blossom Dearie)”
The opening act of that Berlin benefit show was a New York-based singer-songwriter I hadn’t heard before: Katy Pinke, whose spindly guitar playing, angular melodies and fixed gaze kept the audience rapt. She just released an album, “Strange Behavior,” which shows off her unique songwriting perspective, though I’m particularly enchanted with the way her poised, airy falsetto dances across this cover of a tune penned by the jazz musician Blossom Dearie.
