Over the last few days, I’ve been having long conversations again. Catching up with Paul and Em, I keep having similar conversations over and over again. Ennui seems to be everywhere. Obviously the world feels like it’s on fire, but also there’s the distraction machines in our pockets that don’t even seem to generate joy in the way that they used to. We are more online than we ever have been but the online spaces that used to drive joy fail to do that.

I’ve been listening to less music than I used to. Gone are the days of constantly blasting through endless playlists and several albums a day. I’ve been trying to cut down my Spotify usage, instead opting for music I’ve downloaded on my phone. But I only have so many songs on there, and sometimes I’m missing the song that’s so deeply engrained into my brain that I can’t listen to anything else.

Hanif Abdurraqib is one of my favorite writers — he’s a poet and essayist who brings his passion for music into his work and loves to talk about the subject. He recently started a music podcast and spoke at length with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco about covers! In their conversation, they had this inherent reverence for the cover format — a way for an artist to show their own fandom and appreciation for the work of another artist.