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WINSTON HIGHTOWER 100 Acre Wood LP (Perennial/K)

Plenty of tapes and home recordings background the burgeoning public unveiling of Winston Hightower as the deliverer of all that promise of American lo-fi pop, but it’s still hard to really square with how masterful Winnie boofs it on 100 Acre Wood (his second for P/K), taking our troubadour out of Ohio into the Olympia woodlands labcabin to record a fresh set removed from his tranche of pre-recorded gems. This is exactly what Hightower’s music warranted – a consistent studio environment made to sound cozy and homespun, where these sweet riffs and tender tunes can sprout. Affects turn into habits, and then personas, with The Red Crayola, Modest Mouse, Galaxie 500, the Softies and Robert Pollard fighting for space on the windowsill – a fight everyone wins. Part of a modern pop renaissance, though one that doesn’t need the artifice of some of the newer K stablemates – he knows exactly what treatment each of these songs need. The more personal things get in these woods, the closer you’re pulled into the orbits of trauma and safeguards surrounding the narrator of songs like “High School” and “Lay Low” (top 10 song of the year, pop division). Promises kept – this is a really unique and special record, and touches upon so many things I hold dear about this corner of music.

LUPO CITTÀ Inverno LP (12XU)

Boston’s jewel, the seldom-heard trio Lupo Città, follows up the blasts of their 2024 debut as they move in closer. Guitars still snarl and zing when needed, but largely out of defense against a shitty world; vocals are largely delivered in unison and harmony, or otherwise somewhere in the din, songs shimmer and reflect between the three of them, and everything sounds so much nearer and huddled together, facing one another in the triangle of heavy hours, in solidarity, in love, in care, in those times when the sun is down and the fear looms at the edges. Guitar ballads and rockers present as accountable, as a unity pact. Riffs repeat like mantras until the bad times fade (the six-note figure and two chords in the hook of “Profile,” whoa ... worthy of Silkworm, possibly Richard Lloyd, a feat nearly impossible by any modern yardstick), and even the most hard-charging tracks (“Can’t See,” “Nap at Dawn”) soften in the face and cadence of the lyrics and how they’re sung. Maybe even better than their debut, even if only that we know what this band did and can now hold that in relief to a newer, closer version of themselves. Jenn, Chris and Sarah document a fragment of life, a shared sentiment, and a reminder that it’s easier to get through this life together.

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