Amanda Petrusich

From the daily newsletter: an interview with the man behind Bon Iver. Plus: chaos and conspiracies in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene; making phone photography dumb again; and a vet who helps people say goodbye to their pets.

The artist Justin Vernon discusses his new EP, “SABLE,” the dream of a happy adulthood, and his worry that he’s purposely repeating a “cycle of sorrow.”

Chris Martin, the band’s front man, discusses reading Rumi, making music like an apple tree grows apples, and the band’s new album, “Moon Music.”

The artist once made songs that were dexterous and funny. Her latest album includes tracks that sound like they should be in the background of a deodorant commercial.

The artist discusses resisting the neutering effects of technology, his breakup with a bandmate, and his new album, “Manning Fireworks.”

The legendary folk artists discuss rescuing their tapes from a catastrophic storm, singing as if they have one mouth, and making music that’s like a pebble tossed in a river.

Cottrill was soon offered a deal with The Fader’s record label; she released an EP, “Diary 001,” in 2018, followed by her first full-length, “Immunity,” in 2019. The winsome single “Bags,” which features Danielle Haim on drums and was co-produced by Rostam Batmanglij, is about being impatient in a love affair—wanting more, wanting everything, but growing frustrated when the other person doesn’t express the same urgency. “Can you see me using everything to hold back? / I guess this could be worse…

Almost a year after “Five Seconds Flat” was released, the single “Ceilings” went viral on TikTok. McAlpine, who was brought up in a suburb of Philadelphia, wrote the song while she was in London, working on an EP and muddling through a breakup. It tells the story of a relationship’s heady and intoxicating early days, when everything feels possible but the ground is still unsteady. The song’s narrator bites her tongue rather than confessing devotion too soon: “I don’t wanna ruin the moment / Love…

Eilish is known for taking her time in a song, sometimes crawling through a melody as though it were a bowl of molasses, and she often chooses to sing in a whisper, letting a note hang in the air before it dissipates entirely. Her vocal style reminds me of an evanescing cloud of smoke after someone blows out a cluster of birthday candles—beautiful, fleeting, a little bit haunted. Yet, on “The Greatest,” Eilish belts and bellows. “I waited / And waited,” she wails, her voice getting bigger and bi…

My sense is that Albini thought of himself as a shepherd, and regarded the work with a corresponding humility. He was not a sentimental guy. He was snide and withering and judgmental, sometimes grossly so. He could be incredibly mean. The line between righteous provocation and poisonous needling is thin, and Albini occasionally misjudged it. (In 1987, he formed a band called Rapeman, which dissolved two years later; he once complained online about an encounter with the rap group Odd Future, repe…