Bill Callahan
My Days Of 58
(Drag City)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

STARTING in 1990, Bill Callahan has been releasing albums at a prodigious rate — first as Smog and since 2007 under his own name — many of which have been lauded by the critics.

My Days Of 58 further refines the qualities that make the now 59-year-old Texas-based singer-songwriter one of the most distinctive artists in popular music — namely his baritone vocals, deadpan talk-singing, and wry wordplay, all overlaid with a winning kind of countrified indie folk.

The recent death of his parents and cancer treatment informs several of the tracks, from the difficult conversation he has with his deceased dad on Empathy to the reference to the “demon inside me” on The Man I’m Supposed To Be.

Like the greats he echoes (Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash), it’s ultimately the human condition that’s at the core of Callahan music.

The Delines 
The Set Up
(Decor)
⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

DESCRIBED by songwriter and guitarist Willy Vlautin as “the wayward, misguided and lonely sister” of the band’s last album, Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom, The Set Up might just be the best thing The Delines have released so far.

Fans will know that’s a big claim – since their superb 2014 debut, the Portland outfit have been perfecting their sound, putting out a series of records of exquisite country soul.

Two things stand out: Leadsinger Amy Boone’s world-weary vocals and Vlautin’s storytelling. Like many of the great songwriters, Vlautin, who is also a successful novelist, is an expert worldbuilder, writing sympathetic cinematic sketches of lost souls on the losing end of the American Dream. Here he shines a light on some of the casualties of the deadly opioid epidemic.

Often unbearably sad, it’s an impeccable, grown-up set.

Beck
Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime
(Capitol/EMI)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

RELEASED as a Valentine’s Day gift, this mini-album from the shape-shifting Beck is a welcome surprise — his last studio album was way back in 2019.

A compilation of deep cuts, covers and a couple of new tracks, it’s undoubtedly a romantic set, with the now 55-year old US musician treating listeners to a much more direct, affecting style compared to his ultra-cool, raised eyebrow imperial phase in the 1990s (think Devil’s Haircut or Sexx Laws).

Standouts include his take on the ’50s torch song I Only Have Eyes For You, his run through of Your Cheatin’ Heart by Hank Williams, and a cleaned-up version of Daniel Johnston’s lo-fi True Love Will Find You.

If you like this release then I strongly recommend Beck’s emotionally desolate 2002 record Sea Change — his Blood On The Tracks, many contend.