The thing about this album is how personal it is. She does a love/breakup/relationship record, which is such the overplayed theme, but somehow her treatments seem fresh. This track has the folk song turned lush rock anthem that gives a good flavor of the album. A song like “House Full of Empty Rooms” shows just how good she is at covering this well-worn territory, and just might make you cry.

We’re bringing the site back. I’ll welcome you back, not with a bang, but with beauty. Simple yet deep is hard to accomplish. On this track, Pale Seas bring a low-fi bedroom song to you, but with rolling ripples of sound making it something more, but not too much. It’s hard to listen just once.

Warpaint is a sort of cynical counter to another So Cal band, Local Natives. Hazy folk music gets run over and washed out by this group. If Superchunk was the TWBM autumn antidote, Warpaint is all about reveling in the long shadows, streaming sunlight, and early dusk.

Do autumn leaves, acoustic guitars, and hipster beards have you down? Don’t worry! Superchunk just released a new album. The Merge Records founders are back after nearly a decade. They aren’t afraid to crank up the distortion pedal, let a big guitar riff fly, and sing with all they’ve got. Thank you Superchunk for lifting my spirits with rock and roll, real rock and roll.

Led Zepplin’s Robert Plant brings a mellower, middle-aged sort of dirty rock sensibility to this roots revival project. Sure, it doesn’t have the raw sexual energy of the Mighty Zep. But there is a subtle, angry drone in the background here letting you know they could erupt if they wanted to, but sometimes you just want to sit in your rocking chair on the front porch with Patty Griffith, Buddy Miller, and Robert Plant.

PS – don’t miss the Low covers.

The album cover says it all here. Americana meets soul with a musical deja vu that will make you think you’ve heard this before even if you’re listening for the first time. The opening track posted here sets the tone for the album. If you like this, you’ll like the rest.

Here’s a little Ethiopian Jazz, dusty with African sands and rich with the smell of far-away spices. It is impossible to not feel cool while listening to this.

The story goes like this: philosophy major turned slam poet turned MC. This is an interesting hip hop album. There are club jams, rock songs, chamber quartets, and choral harmonies. Tying it all together is Dessa’s intensely personal, and poetic flow. Remember Dessa. She’s bound for bigger things.

The Gaslight Anthem are something like the Hold Steady with tattoos and blue collar jobs instead of Eddie Bauer shirts and college-degrees. I know they’re from New Jersey, but their blend of punk rock and Springsteen anthems tell me something important about the rusted and vacant refineries that litter the Cleveland cityscape, and the neat but worn-out houses sitting on tree-lined streets throughout the city.

This song has an optimistic bounce that belies its rust-belt melancholy – like the shiny reminiscing that obscures the sadness of nostalgia. So start this week with the bright side of some memories of the friends, music, and places that make you think kids these days don’t know what they’re missing.

Nothing beats accidentally discovering a band you love. Way back in 2008 I stumbled across this resurrection of The Band. Then last week I stumbled across their latest EP You’ll Find No Answers Here and I got to relive a little of that original serendipity. This track is short but full of the sweetness that make me love this band. Let their mellow acoustic groove rock you for two minutes and your Monday morning will be better for it.