A barback I work with (shoutout to Adam!) told me he had a music recommendation for me, and he pulled out his phone and showed me this album called embraced for a second as we die by Amanda Bergman. When I asked him what the vibe was, he said something along the lines of moody, 80’s, good singing, and I told him that I would always fall for an album with a title that’s a little too long and melodramatic. This song, “sick of time” is the one that got me. I’m a glutton for ballads about time’s cruelty, or time’s endlessness. Time Won’t Let Me Go by The Bravery pops to mind right now, a song from my middle school rock phase that I covered a few years ago when I was feeling old. I just think there’s something special about being able to describe one moment in time and making it feel like it’s a combination of all the moments you will ever experience, all wrapped up in one little morsel.
I put on “sick of time” last week as I was walking around downtown Brooklyn, on the first night of 2026 that you can actually call warm, as the sun set in deep pinks and purples that I didn’t notice until I saw people in front of me taking pictures of it and I turned around to watch for a bit. It was the perfect setting to admire the lyrical construction of this song, the way Amanda ties together her desire to keep her daughter young forever, the storm they watch come in over the horizon, the fear her daughter has of drowning in the thunderstorm:
Tears my sweaters, as we was
My child is my forever, an inherited sky
She′s framin’ big clouds by my side
To teach her ′bout endings is seemin’ unkind
It’s really nice, and it’s been stuck in my head for days now. I could listen forever to wistful ballads about time and childhood and rain.
Here’s some short reviews of some of the other things I’ve been listening to lately, a mix of songs and albums:
Unbelievably timeless song covered by an unbelievably timeless singer. We should all be saying thank you to Frank Ocean every day for writing this.
Love is the Main Thing – FONTAINE’S DC
Propulsive Irish rock, worth putting on when you’re in the mood for that sort of thing. I haven’t gotten through the whole album yet but I heard some other songs that were equally compelling when I first checked it out a few weeks ago.
Sunny, nostalgic reggae album that’s just delightfully made. Sneakily some of the best singing (and production) I’ve heard recently.
Another thing I’m a sucker for recently – rap songs with no drums. Give it to me all day every day, especially if the verses are decent. Lots of beats that are somehow engaging and interesting without having a hint of drums, and I enjoyed the smooth vocal theatrics here as well.
Truly fun little major label EP from Atlantic records. 17 minutes of smooth, enjoyable catchy dancehall and pop. Mahalia has a gift for writing really, really catchy songs.
Poppy put together an album that successfully mixed poppy, memorable choruses with chitzy metal tropes. It’s so much fun, and I loved this song the best.
Beautiful song. The fake “am I in the wrong key?” key change at the beginning is so perfect. Right now we (as audiences, consumers, whatever) love a mistake, even if it’s fake, as long as the fake is a good fake, a convincing one.
Aaaand a quick roundup of ambient & instrumental albums that I’ve found really worthwhile recently:
Aquáticos – Fabiano do Nascimento • E Ruscha V
a breath of life 
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