Winnipeg-born Taylor Janzen is just 19 years old, but her music has a depth well beyond her years, as glimpsed on her painstakingly vulnerable debut EP Interpersonal. The singer-songwriter also co-produced the debut, which was mastered by Greg Calbi (Julien Baker, Arcade Fire, Big Thief). The intimate and diaristic release chronicles her religious upbringing and struggles with mental health, and the first track, “Stations,” which finds her breaking her silence against emotional abuse, was recently featured in the New York Times.

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›› ISSUE Feature: Live Performance & Interview with Taylor Janzen

Folk darling Julia Jacklin along with musicians Elizabeth Hughes and Ryan K Brennan form Phantastic Ferniture, giving her new room to play. “I’d gone straight into folk music,” says Jacklin, “so every experience I’d had on stage was playing sad music with a guitar in my hand. I thought, I would love to know what it’s like to make people feel good and dance.”

Phantastic Ferniture’s spiritual home may be the garage but they were born in a bar, specifically the hallowed basement of Frankie’s Pizza in Sydney. One late night in 2014, on Jacklin’s birthday, a group hug manifested amid the pinball machines, with all ten participants vowing to form a band. “Only four of us remembered the next day,” notes Hughes.

United by fern puns and a love of leisurewear, the band met up whenever schedules would allow, writing songs and playing smatterings of dates to an increasingly devoted audience. Eventually, it was decreed that this was no side project and an LP should follow.

The result is one of the most enjoyable albums of 2018. “It feels really good,” Jacklin says with satisfaction. “It’s like having an alter ego.” (Polyvinyl Records Co)

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Based on the NY Times bestselling book by Andrew Solomon, Far from the Tree is a staggering documentary directed by Rachel Dretzin that examines the experiences of families in which parents and children are profoundly different from one another a variety of ways. The film explores the inner workings, struggles, and triumphs of families with children who have Down syndrome, autism, dwarfism, and more. (IFC Films)

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From photographer and documentary filmmaker Lauren Greenfield and based on her 2017 retrospective of the same name, Generation Wealth investigates our societal obsession with wealth, fame, and status through personal stories from a variety of her past and present subjects. The intimate yet expansive film, which also finds Greenfield turning the camera on herself and her family, is part cultural anthropology and part redemption tale, ultimately attempting to deconstruct whether our addiction to wealth indicates a society in rapid decline. (Amazon Studios)

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LA-based Valley Queen’s urgent and intimate live performances have earned them a reputation as the new standard for California country music, and their anticipated debut, Supergiant, finds them honing their scrappy and nuanced sound. Brash guitars merge with lead singer Natalie Carol’s dreamy twang to create a soul-stirring album reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac and Florence Welch. (Roll Call Records)

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Following the openhearted intensity of 2014’s Cool Choices, Single Rider finds musician Jenn Champion bringing her technical skill and convention-shattering vulnerability to a new arena, resulting in a collection of anthemic and utterly danceable pop songs infused with her signature incensed emotion. (Hardly Art)

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The latest project from Norwegian filmmaker Iram Haq and the follow up to 2013’s acclaimed I Am Yours, What Will People Say is a powerful drama that reckons with issues of honor, family, and cultural norms. It follows sixteen year old Nisha, who lives something of a double life in socially progressive Norway until her conservative parents catch her in bed with a boy and send her to live in their home country of Pakistan. (Kino Lorber)

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The directorial debut from actor, writer and comedian Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade is a moving and candid portrait of adolescent girlhood in our modern world. The widely acclaimed film, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year, stars newcomer Elsie Fisher as Kayla, an introverted and awkward teenage girl attempting to navigate the dramatic highs and lows of her last week of eighth grade with the help of her devoted yet guileless single father, played by Josh Hamilton.(A24)

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