Consumer Guide: March, 2024

Intelligence that values the lubricious, blues‑soaked fun and politics, engaged yet also casual flow that's too smart for cute, and songs situated in day‑to‑day dilemmas and disappointments.

Thomas Anderson: Hello, I’m From the Future (Out There) If you’ve never checked out this longstanding postcollegiate singer‑songwriter, I hope a stanza will solve that problem with no further ado: “I was asking Gilda Radner when I met her in a dream/Is this manna from heaven or is it just ice cream?/I try hard to believe but I’m failing every time/I woke up to my eight‑track playin’ ‘Angel Number Nine.’/And the Devil’s playing pinball and he’s winning every game/And the bowling alley Baptists just ignore him all the same;/I did everything I knew but I tilted every time,/And I’m tired of breathing smoke so I think I’ll step outside./And may God keep the faithful who search the interstates/For a girl in a Pacer with Oklahoma plates/Now I don’t mind the wait ‘cause you see we have a date/So don’t be surprised if we’re not home/Til very late.” Got it? A MINUS [Available here.]