A grab bag of songs I’ve loved lately.

Katie and Allison Crutchfield cover Grimes’s “Oblivion” for Rookie

Ducktails “Letter of Intent” (and the entire Flower Lane album, for that matter, it’s so great.)

Iron and Wine “Low Light Buddy of Mine”. I’m still learning to love the new Iron and Wine album, Ghost On Ghost. I think the first quarter of the album is a struggle for me to truly enjoy because it’s a bit too sweet, but the rest is great and a few songs are really wonderful.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. “Dark Water”

The new Kisses album, Kids in LA, was released this week and I do believe they have your summer album covered! It’s hard to pick a favorite but “Adjusts Glasses” is pretty great, but maybe because I just like hearing my girl Zinzi so front and center on it.

Have a great weekend, friends!

Balmorhea – Pyrakantha [official] from Colin Kennedy on Vimeo.

The new Balmorhea video for the lovely “Pyrakantha” gives me warm fuzzy feelings for my dear city.

I thought a new Tycho video meant a new song from them, but alas it’s just a new video for a song from the last album. But a beautiful video for a great song it is.

Official Trailer (2:45) from Andrew Bird: Fever Year on Vimeo.

The Andrew Bird documentary, Fever Year, looks really great. I think he seems like a really interesting person whose talent amazes me, so it’s bound to be a good watch. The scene where he starts to sing “Sifters”, one of my favorite songs off the last album, gives me chills. And documentary bonus: Annie Clark!

Let’s listen to Sifters just because it’s so beautiful.

It took everything in me to not post two music posts last week, and I think I’ll have a lot of those moments this spring as it’s going to be a great season of new music.

The new Junip album comes out tomorrow in the US (out now in Europe!), and up until today it was streaming on Pitchfork, so I was obsessively listening to it the last few days. It’s near perfect.

Somehow the new James Blake album, Overgrown, was released without me hearing a blip about it after the Retrograde single stole my heart. I worried that meant it wasn’t the best, but that is not at all the case – it’s spectacular. I’d say that it’s just as haunting, but maybe a bit more approachable and less sparse than the last album, which I love but can only be in certain moods for.

The new Kurt Vile album, Wakin On A Pretty Daze, is just as good as I hoped it would be. I think it will be the anthem of my spring and summer here in LA, I foresee some long drives with the windows down with it playing on the stereo. I have tickets to see him live in a couple weeks, I can’t wait.

Also I love how weirdly adorable this video is and how Kurt is probably a cool dad:

It’s time for another grab bag, people. Not really new music, think of it more as a mini mix of stuff I’ve favorited on Spotify lately. Mostly for wedding reception purposes, I must admit. My brain is consumed, save me?

Bjork/Crystalline (Omar Souleyman Remix)

Aloe Blacc/If I

Luke Temple/Make Right With You

Low/Plastic Cup

Melody Gardot/Goodnite

Buena Vista Social Club/Candela

Have a great weekend!

Two albums on rotate this week that are in a similar vein:

The new Phosphorescent album, Muchacho. I love the opening song, “Sun, Arise.”

I’ve always been just a fringe Devendra Banhart fan, but his new album, Mala, really hits the spot for me. I’m obsessed.

Haven’t been up on too much new music lately (ok, besides the new Justin Timberlake album, but that feels redundant to share) but I’ve been on a jazz kick all week. My favorite Peggy Lee song for your Friday. Have a great weekend! Headed back to Joshua Tree this weekend for our six (!) year anniversary. More on that later.

I already thought that husband and wife Keiko Brodeur (aka Small Adventure) and Malachi Ward were some of the most visually talented (and nicest) people I know in LA, but then they go and blow my mind with their musical talents. Their band, The Denouement, put up songs from their wonderful album Cartography and I am particularly in love with the beautiful song “Go Dark” that features Keiko’s mad violin skills.