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...

Love Ghost and The Skinner Brothers have dropped their new single, “Worth it,” and it arrives not so much with a knock as with the splintering crack of a door being kicked off its hinges. This is the sound of the emotional floor giving way. It’s a raw-nerved piece of alternative rock that scrapes at the psyche, possessing the same comforting quality as a...