Esther Rose was on a long solo drive when she started writing the opening title track of Want, her stunning fifth album. At first, the words seemed almost like a joke, something to keep herself amused as the miles passed. “I want a puppy, but I don't want a mess. I want to know where I’m going without GPS,” she sang from behind the wheel. Soon, the idea snowballed into a list of desires that spanned existential, spiritual, and mundane; romantic to platonic to familial; at once wildly ambitious yet piercingly relatable; all set to a catchy melody that blends her pop instincts with country storytelling and the raw immediacy of a basement punk show. In other words, she was on her way to another classic Esther Rose song. This precise blend has made the Santa Fe-based artist one of her generation’s most beloved songwriters: someone whose live shows are known to conclude in mass tears and group hugs. Still, something was different this time. “For me, these songs felt like revelations,” she explains, comparing the 11-song record to a memoir, alive with kinetic storytelling and personal insight. In its newly direct and stirringly nuanced writing, you’ll hear about rock bottom encounters, shifting relationships with substances, evolving perspectives on adult partnership, and, as evidenced by those early lines in “Want,” a few jokes along the way. Vivid and bracing, Want places you in the passenger seat while each of these feelings arrive.

“Sun was made for coming out, even though the night is long.” Aperture – The Head And The Heart’s sixth album and first since signing to Verve Forecast – is the affirming work of a band finding again its shared footing, reaching unimagined levels of camaraderie and mutual risk as one. With every song fortified by the sense of beginning again, Aperture is The Head And The Heart’s most vital and poignant album. Featuring tracks like the album’s beautifully arcing opener “After the Setting Sun” and the mighty anthem “Arrow,” Aperture is a stunning testament to the collaborative work of a band who decided to let in the light, return to their roots, and forge a new path, together as one.