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...

Seema Farswani’s single, ‘Got My Mojo Working’ featuring Dem-C, has been looping in my head, and it feels less like a track and more like a beautifully vexing predicament set to a very groovy beat. The premise is so disarmingly human, isn't it? This notion of possessing a potent personal magnetism, a kind of everyday folk magic that bends the world just so, only...