Friends, fathers, jagbags.

Imagine you're a new father, but even more than that—more than keeping another human being alive—you're also a singer-songwriter. Imagine you record an album's worth of demos at your kitchen table, singing and playing in hushed tones because shoosh, you'll wake the baby. Imagine that someone deems your songs worthy of an actual album release. Imagine the warehouse that's storing your stock of CDs burns to the ground. That's the story behind the original 2009 recording entitled "Bad Debt" by Hiss Golden Messenger (guy's actual name: M.C. Taylor), now finally seeing the wide release it deserves. It's uncomplicated, intimate and lovely.

When "Scenario" by A Tribe Called Quest came out in 1992, I was bowled over by then-new Busta Rhymes. "Who IS this guy?" I remember thinking. I mean, Q-Tip's got the husky, boyish sound on lock—his voice is already so stand-out—and along comes another equally unique, Chuck-D-level voice? It felt too good to be true. And now, with the release of "The Abstract and the Dragon," a retrospective of the Busta/Q-Tip rhyme relationship with some new tracks to boot, it's an embarrassment of riches. Much of this is their legendary collabs, but the new stuff—like "God Lives Through," an old track with new verses thrown on it—is just as good.

Here's the thing to know about the writing of Stephen Malkmus, whether with Pavement or his current band, the Jicks: it's mad Easter-eggy. You'll find plenty of surprises and delightful references if you look, and you won't have to look hard. On his latest, "Wig Out at Jagbags," it takes many forms. On the track "J Smoov," for instance, a sad trumpet plays what can be best referred to as the "nanny nanny boo boo song." This is what has always gotten me about Mr. Malkmus—he's able to throw so many jokes at you that you can barely keep up, and yet you find yourself marveling at how gorgeous and heart-string-pulling the guitar chord structures are.

Taryn Miller is an up-and-coming songwriter in the LFK (Lawrence, Kansas—can't imagine what that F is about). She goes by the name Your Friend and has a singular-sounding voice that's lilting, melancholy, clear as a bell...Bon-Iver-esque in the best possible ways. She pairs it with reverbed-out guitar and manages to get a lovely, much larger sound than your average solo performer. I definitely dig the effect of all that reverb on her voice, but I'm excited to hear what else she has to offer, because hers sounds like a voice that would sound great completely devoid of effects.