A Masterclass in Musical Mourning Transforms Personal Loss into Universal Catharsis "Fare Thee Well" Larry Karpenko comes as a surprise, like a handmade letter tucked inside a library book: personal, frighteningly clear. This album is an elegy for Sharlene, a missionary, mother, and friend who died at age 43 of cancer. It does not just mourn; it breaks down loss with the care of an artist...

The title of Rusty Reid’s new single, "Attitude Change," has the sterile ring of a corporate warning, which makes the desperate, heart-on-the-floor plea within it all the more jarring. This is the sound of the final straw, a melodic ultimatum delivered while someone else in the room is looking at the baby, or the TV, or anywhere but at the person whose love is...