In “Who Do I Turn To?,” Joy Oladokun takes deep-rooted pain and pushes it to the surface, creating a poignant tune with only her voice alongside a piano. However, it’s not a simple song at all—hearing her meditate on repeated, unanswered questions is like hearing an echo in an empty home, only finding security in the fact that you are present, yet completely alone. 

“I’m tired of turning on the news / And wondering why it happened again,” she sings, expressing her exhaustion. In a society where systemic racism is only now becoming prevalent for the comfortable majority, Oladokun asks her listeners: “Tell me who’s gonna make it right / When the good ones are to blame.” Her words are not masked by any intense instrumentation, but rather come fully exposed: “If I can’t turn to God / And I can’t turn to you / Who do I turn to?” A portion of her publishing royalties will be going to Launchpad Nashville, a shelter that LGBTQ youth can turn to in times of need.

The intro of “Your Reply” could soundtrack that unmistakable last shot of every feel-good teen movie, in which the protagonist asserts that everything really is turning around. It’s a change of tone for Frances Quinlan, but it’s a welcome experiment from the Hop Along bandleader not often described as cheery. The song has none of her signature snarls but makes up for it with an extra helping of her signature verbose wit. “The author, I read, fell from a window many stories high / Stretching out to feed pigeons or a stray cat depending on the website,” she sings, her delivery charming and unconventional. After a jaunty, singsong chorus, the most pleasant moment in a wholly pleasant track comes when Quinlan, stuffed with chicken and wine after dinner with her aunt, stretches out a verse to simply add, “Dinner, by the way, was divine.” Of the song, Quinlan said, “The speaker is frustrated at coming so close to understanding another person completely, but perhaps only just missing the mark. But still what a gift that is, to come close.”

Orion Sun creates gorgeous energy in her latest single “Ne Me Quitte Pas (Don’t Leave Me)." The singer, also known as Philadelphia-based Tiffany Majette, crafts a track filled with loving and deliberate harmonies that surround the listener in a warm embrace. The hook repeats, “It feels so good to know ya / It feels so damn good to know ya,” reminiscent of the feeling of being in love for the first time with someone new. Majette’s smooth voice radiates a calm storm—soft sentiments wrapped up in honest words that are as awe-inspiring as they are relatable. The production has a vintage feel at the start, calling back to other songs of the same title while still owning its unique sound and meaning. As Majette’s collection of songs continues to grow this year, we can look forward to more soul healing hits like this one. In the meantime you can check out her amazing first album A Collection of Fleeting Moments and Daydreams and her self-produced music video for “Ne Me Quitte Pas (Don’t Leave Me)."

“I was gifted a book by somebody who loved me / About a man who got even with God,” sings David Keenan, and then the story begins to unravel. In “Unholy Ghosts,” a standout track from his latest album, A Beginner’s Guide to Bravery, we follow Keenan through meetings with a one-eyed tramp and a drunkard playing a wooden piano, his turns of phrase and run-on sentences treating the listener to vivid imagery developing patiently. “I wrote this song on a train from Amsterdam to Cologne, finished it as the train ceased to move, brought it in me to a Chapel in Cologne, sang it for the first time, left the Chapel with a liberated German bible under my arm as a souvenir,” he wrote in a Facebook post, demonstrating that his daily life is as fanciful and his daily speech as poetic as his songwriting. A comparison to Glen Hansard is almost too easy, but not unfair to either party, both fitting the mold of buskers with ideas too big for their streetcorners. The arrangement of “Unholy Ghosts” is booming, nearly to the point of spilling over, but beneath it all we hear David Keenan for who he is: an ambitious musician shouting his heart out.

It must be daunting to be related to the composer of some of the world’s most memorable melodies. If intimidated, Ethan Gruska,grandson of famed film composer John Williams, doesn’t show it. Already making a name for himself as a producer, “Enough for Now” is a welcome insight into his identity as a songwriter, while showing off his obvious production talents. Little instrumental nuggets, like that unmistakable trill of a violin, remind us that Gruska co-produced Phoebe Bridgers’ earthquake debut, Stranger in the Alps. Whereas that album’s strongest moments lie in its sonic subtlety, Gruska, in an in-studio video, compliments the track’s renowned producer, Tchad Blake, on his ability to make songs “aggressively come through the speakers.” The relentless drum patch, either digital or an intentional imitation, harkens back to The Postal Service, whose debut album’s title, Give Up, shares a sarcastic resignation with Gruska’s lyrics. “Maybe I’ll try / Maybe I’ll die trying,” he sings, enlisting the help of Bridgers herself. Tapping into the same nostalgia as Bleachers or Stranger Things, Gruska sees this solo effort as a success, telling Stereogum, “It has that irreverence I wanted, despite its sweetness.”

Anaïs Mitchell has an uncanny ability to bring new life to old stories. Fresh off of a Best Musical win at the Tonys for Hadestown, a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, she wasted no time before embarking on her next project. Bonny Light Horseman, a collaboration with Eric D. Johnson (known for his work in Fruit Bats and formerly The Shins) and Josh Kaufman (known for his work in countless critical indie darlings like The National and The Hold Steady), uses traditional folk songs as a jumping-off point for lush ballads that could find a home on an album by any one of the group’s innumerable associated acts. Their latest, “The Roving,” is a well-executed entry into the modern tradition of indie-folk, but elements of it stem from centuries ago. Of their process, Johnson joked, “These 500-year-old lyrics are so deeply applicable. ‘The Roving’ could be the plot of an ‘80s teen movie… How incredible is it that as humans we still just want to love and have sex and feel sad and fight?” The group’s debut album, due out January 24th, began and was mostly completed at the 37d03d event hosted by Justin Vernon, Aaron Dessner and friends. They, along with even more members of the April Base extended family, appear on Bonny Light Horseman’s collection of “semi-trad folk jams,” modernized with Mitchell’s signature touch - “We added a singalong chorus so everyone could bond about this.”