Adrianne Lenker

Rather than pining after lost childhood friends, or stressing over finals, listen to this list of songs instead. Reach for some earbuds, press shuffle and learn to survive the cruel nature of winter.

Here are six songs to soak in as the season’s sorrow begins to strike.

Big Thief transported its Bay-Area-hailing fans to the wooden Catskills home recording studio where its past albums magically came into fruition.

On Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, Big Thief offers a glimmer of redemption, constructing eccentric beauty in its form and execution.

With her sophomore LP Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa put the pop music genre on her shoulders — and needless to say, she carried it without wavering.

As fall comes to a close and holiday music starts to take over every station, let’s take some time to sit back and appreciate the transitional nature of the fall season and the queer female music that matches it.

Music beat reporters Vincent Tran and Crew Bittner are here to provide you with a few recommendations, as well as a playlist, of highlights you might’ve missed in the music world this past month.

Putting on Songs and Instrumentals feels less like listening to an album and more like hearing raw emotion flow into your ears.

In June 2017, the band Big Thief released their second studio album, titled Capacity. Even more than their first, it is an album of whispers, of details that reach through devastation toward some kind of intimacy. It is the album of the 2017 fire season.

Music is always hard to put into words, but there is an ethereality to Big Thief that makes it well-suited for joy, heartbreak and everything in between.