The Retrographer, Issue 139 (June, 2 0 2 6)

Riley Downing, Sam and Louise Sullivan, The Bird Calls, Ryan Beatty, Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, Hovvdy, Prince, Olivia Rodrigo, Miles Hewitt, and more!

Author

Charlie Kaplan
July 08, 2026

Bulletins:

Ten Songs for June, 2 0 2 6 | Listen to these songs on Spotify and YouTube

“Landfill Poetry”, Riley Downing – Downing was, indeed, at one point a garbage man. Like the former postman John Prine, the placid inanity of the task proved to be both an endless inspiration for delightful songs and a quiet route for turning ideas over like empty cans.

“Down on Love”, Sam and Louise Sullivan – Andrew Frank sent this song mentioning Buckingham & Nicks, not to mention Paul and Linda McCartney. Just the right amount of interesting harmonic ideas and homespun hiss; new ideas popping up but not overstaying their welcome.

“To Everything There Is a Ceiling”, The Bird Calls – The partnership of Sam Sodomsky and Ryan Weiner opens another glorious chapter, a wayward bard with his trusty producer riding sidecar, “somewhere on the search for meaning… anywhere can be a garden of eden.” 

“Blast”, Hovvdy – In a few years, these Dallas boys will have a greatest hits of just windows-open-dusk-on-an-empty-state-highway-doing-10-under-the-speed-limit slappers. They’ve found their sound and are in no rush to reinvent themselves.

“Annie, Anything”, Ryan Beatty – h/t PW. Peruse the credits and you’ll find fingerprints of the biggest pop hits of the last few years, and yet a stunning show of restraint. Call it confidence; No need to work so hard to achieve transcendence or absolution from the edge of an empty bed.

“Lost Boys”, Phoebe Bridgers – Somehow ended up sitting on the floor of MSG at Bridgers’ lottery show just days before the Knicks won the championship where she debuted much of her upcoming album, and the immediacy of this song, despite being rendered on just two guitars and a keyboard, was undeniable.

“I Knew It, I Knew You”, Taylor Swift – Deep into her overkill era, it feels rare to hear something really exciting or new in Swift’s music. Thank goodness it (just a good song for a children’s movie) is here, a reminder at how special a conveyer she is.

“Stone”, Prince – …but really by Sandra St. Victor, Tom Hammer, and Jules Van Veen, recorded sometime in 1995. It can be confusing to hear something so princely, sung by Prince, but not from his hand. But would The Gold Experience have been burdened by this? Not close.

“Expectations”, Olivia Rodrigo – For how often Rodrigo is compared to 90s grunge like Alanis Morissette or Courtney Love, the best song on her new record sounds more like something from the mid-80s; The Human League, DEVO, or her beloved Cure.

“Say Goodbye”, Miles Hewitt – When you see Hewitt live, you feel him reaching out and narrowing the aperture to focus the room around him. Some of it is the palm muting on his guitar, some is his distinctive singing voice. Julian Cubillos and Jason Burger’s groove gives the arrangement a sturdy structure upon which to explore, swell, scream, explode.

MONTHLY

#138 May, 2026

#129.5 “Halley”

#126 May, 2025

#114 May, 2024

#102 May, 2023

#101 April, 2023 

#100 March, 2023 | The Feelies, “The Good Earth”

#99 February, 2023 | Judee Sill, “Judee Sill”

#98 January, 2023 | Pink Floyd, “Meddle”

#96 November, 2022 | RIP TOM PETTY

#95 October, 2022 | Cannonball Adderley, “Cannonball Adderley's Fiddler on the Roof”

#94 September, 2022 | Sheryl Crow, “Tuesday Night Music Club”

#93 August, 2022 | D’Angelo, “Live at the Jazz Cafe, London”

#92 July, 2022 | Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Southern Accents”

#91 June, 2022 | George Harrison, “Living in the Material World”

#90 May, 2022 | The Wild Tchoupitoulas, “The Wild Tchoupitoulas”

#89 April, 2022 | Joni Mitchell, “Taming the Tiger”

#88 March, 2022 | Young Thug, “Barter 6”

#87 February, 2022 | Stephane Grappelli and Stuff Smith, “Violins No End”

#86 January, 2022 | Nas, “God’s Son”

#84 November, 2021 | Milt Jackson with the Thelonious Monk Quintet, “Wizard of the Vibes”

#83 October, 2021 | For Against, “Coalesced”

#82 September, 2021 | Pat Metheny, “Bright Size Life”

#81 August, 2021 | The Chicks, “Fly”

#80 July, 2021 | Allen Toussaint, “Southern Nights”

#79 June, 2021 | Novos Baianos, “Acabou Chorare”

#78 May, 2021 | One Direction, “Four”

#77 April, 2021 | Bob Dylan, “New Morning”

#76 March, 2021 | Ty Dolla $ign, “Free TC”

#75 February, 2021 | Ghostface Killah, “Fishscale”

#74 January, 2021 | Minnie Riperton, “Minnie”

#72 November, 2020 | Sufjan Stevens, “Seven Swans”

#71 October, 2020 | Common, “Resurrection”

#70 September, 2020 | Herbie Hancock, “Thrust”

#68 July, 2020 | Cam’ron, “Purple Haze”

#67 June, 2020 | Jorge Ben, “A Tabua de Esmeralda”

#66 May, 2020 | The Meters, “Rejuvenation”

#65 April, 2020 | Eddie Kendricks, “People… Hold On”

#64 March, 2020 | Thelonious Monk, “Solo Monk”

#63 February, 2020 | Cat Power, “Moon Pix”

#62 January, 2020 | Yusef Lateef, “Eastern Sounds”

#59 November, 2019 | Frank Sinatra, “In The Wee Small Hours”

#58 October, 2019 | Steely Dan, “Gaucho”

#57 September, 2019 | Bonnie Raitt, “Streetlights”

#56 August, 2019 | Daft Punk, “Alive 2007”

#55 July, 2019 | John Coltrane, “Interstellar Space”

#54 June, 2019 | Big Pun, “Capital Punishment”

#53 May, 2019 | Paul Simon, “Rhythm of the Saints”

#52 April, 2019 | Dirty Projectors, “Rise Above”

#51 March, 2019 | Kate Bush, “The Sensual World”

#50 February, 2019 | Sonny Rollins, “Next Album”

#49 January, 2019 | Sade, “Diamond Life”

#47 November, 2018 | Curtis Mayfield, “There’s No Place Like America Today”

#46 October, 2018 | The Blue Nile, “Hats”

#45 September, 2018 | Lucinda Williams, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road”

#44 August, 2018 | Aretha Franklin, “Amazing Grace”

#43 July, 2018 | Teddy Pendergrass, “TP”

#42 June, 2018 | Dennis Wilson, “Pacific Ocean Blue”

#41 May, 2018 | Bobby Brown, “Don’t Be Cruel”

#40 April, 2018 | Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black”

#39 March, 2018 | Q-Tip, “Kamaal the Abstract”

#38 February, 2018 | Miles Davis, “In a Silent Way”

#37 January, 2018 | Beck, “Sea Change”

#35 November, 2017 | Slum Village, “Fan-tas-tic Vol. 1”

#34 October, 2017 | Steely Dan, “Two Against Nature”

#33 September, 2017 | Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, “Djam Leeli”

#32 August, 2017 | Billy Joel, “The Stranger”

#31 July, 2017 | Big Daddy Kane, “Long Live the Kane”

#30 June, 2017 | Janet Jackson, “Control”

#29 May, 2017 | Steely Dan, “Aja”

#28 April, 2017 | The O’Jays, “Back Stabbers”

#27 March, 2017 | Wire, “154”

#26 February, 2017 | Professor Longhair, “New Orleans Piano”

#25 January, 2017 | Elvis Costello, “Live at the El Mocambo”

#23 November, 2016 | Erykah Badu, “Mama’s Gun”

#22 October, 2016 | Donald Fagan, “The Nightfly”

#21 September, 2016 | Aretha Franklin, “Young, Gifted, and Black”

#20 August, 2016 | The Dave Matthews Band, “Under the Table and Dreaming”

#19 July, 2016 | Clams Casino, “Instrumental Mixtape II”

#18 June, 2016 | James Brown, “Love, Power, Peace”

#17 May, 2016 | Ali Farka Toure & Ry Cooder, “Talking Timbuktu”

#16 April, 2016 | RIP PRINCE

#15 March, 2016 | Prince, “Prince”

#14 February, 2016 | Big L, “Lifestyles Ov Da Poor & Dangerous”

#13 January, 2016 | Bill Evans, “Live at the Village Vanguard”

#11 November, 2015 | Donny Hathaway, “Live”

#10 October, 2015 | Paul McCartney, “McCartney”

#9 September, 2015 | Talk Talk, “Laughing Stock”

#8 August, 2015 | B.B. King, “Live at Cook County Jail”

#7 July, 2015 | Miles Davis, “Filles de Kilimanjaro”

#6 June, 2015 | Joni Mitchell, “Hejira”

#5 May, 2015 | Kanye West, “The College Dropout”

#4 April, 2015 | MF DOOM, “Operation: Doomsday”

#3 March, 2015 | Bruce Springsteen, “The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle”

#2 February, 2015 | Eric B. and Rakim, “Paid in Full”

#1 January, 2015 | Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers, “L.A.M.F.”

 

ANNUAL

 

DECENNIAL

 

THEMED