Fiona Apple was only 18 when she released her debut album Tidal 30 years ago in July of 1996. The decades since then have found Apple employing an evermore freewheeling approach—see the scattered percussion, homemade instrumentals, and dolphin whistle vocal trills of "I Want You To Love Me" from 2020’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters. In light of the freedom she currently enjoys, the seasoned session musicianship and restraint that defines the album can feel like a taming presence, a bit like bumpers at a bowling alley. But comparison in this case is the thief of joy; though Apple's music has only grown stranger and rougher-hewn in the decades since Tidal, her debut still holds up as a bracingly direct—and powerful–introduction to her purposed contralto and bass-heavy piano thundering.

“I don't want a record to sound like what everyone else is trying to sound like,” Scout Gillett says, and that means keeping her various inspirations close, allowing Neil Young, Lucinda Williams, and The Deftones to share space in her imagination. Gillett joined us virtually on a sunny Wednesday morning from her home in Los Angeles to discuss her new album, Tough Touch . . .

Throughout his career, Will Epstein has amassed film scoring credits, including an IDA Documentary Award nomination for his score for Nam June Paik: Moon Is The Oldest TV (2023), by attuning to the micro-moments on screen and crafting the music to match them. So it comes as no surprise that, with the release of his latest lyrics-forward album Yeah, mostly (out on Fat Possum Records), he applies this focused attention as well, sourcing his imagery and subject matter from life’s small moments that may otherwise go unnoticed as a person goes on living . . .

There seems to be something downright mystical about everything Anaïs Mitchell does. With Bonny Light Horseman's Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free, a double album and their third release to date, blends conversational songwriting and a cast of characters culled from our collective mythology to expand upon their already rich brand of storytelling and music-making. Anaïs joined us via Zoom from her family farm in Vermont . . .

Helmed by songwriter Karly Hartzman, Wednesday has evolved from an Asheville, NC solo project to a full-fledged band with five albums to their name. On them, Hartzman’s voice careens from a near yodel to a clear scream, sometimes within the span of a single song, melodic riffs periodically punching through. And lyrically, their latest Rat Saw God continues to embody that Southern smaller-town spirit, weaving in hometown references and encapsulating the teenage sweet spot of horror-meets-ennui specific to the band’s origin point. It’s music full of haunted spaces: Gothic, but not in the . . .