The kittens are in the dining room, sharing a chair that looks out a window at bushes home to several bird families. Crazy Maisie remains quiet, but of late Mo the Squeak has started to speak; his voice is a high-pitched wisp of a thing that wavers like a theremin when he desires something. (He’s much like LL Cool J: He needs love. Plus food. And play.) As of last night, he now also mews and meows, making the stereotypical sound cats use to communicate with people. I’m sure Maisie is working up the nerve to showcase her vocal prowess to us, too; they’re siblings, after all, and where one goes the other always follows.
Adopting them is, hands down, the best thing to occur in our lives in 2025.
This morning’s soundtrack comes courtesy of Juliana Hatfield, whose Lightning Might Strike is slated for release this Friday; the Early, aka Alex Lewis and Jake Nussbaum, whose new three-track EP, Cusp, conveys either the sun cracking the sky or a snowstorm setting up shop atop the Delaware Valley—I can’t quite make up my mind; Sarah Power, whose classical-minded In the Shadows I wrote about last week; and Kassi Valazza, whose From Newman Street is one of my favorite albums of the year.
It’s amazing how well the albums and EPs interlock with one another. Juliana’s, which I’ll spotlight in the days ahead, relies on fuzzed-up guitars, chugging rhythms, and plenty of her patented harmonies and whimsy; the Early—who I also intend to feature soon—are all about ambient textures and reverberations; Power’s EP, on the other hand, represents the calm after the storm with a series of peaceful piano-led prayers; Valazza’s songs, for their part, also sport a soothing veneer—but, too, a powerful undertow.
The playlist, such as it is, is the result of happenstance, I should mention, not intention. I’ve noted before that while I rely on Apple Music for much of my music needs and wants, the bulk of my listening actually occurs beyond that tracked ecosystem. I rely on the barebones (and free) Vox app to play forthcoming albums sent my way, Bandcamp purchases, and CD rips and downloads housed on an external SSD. I add one album or EP, then another, and continue on, only clearing the collection when it becomes overly cluttered—about once every week or so. I scroll to what I want to hear.
That said, the Apple Music Replay stats—though obviously diluted—are a good representation of my listening year, which included a plethora of new(er) favorites listed alongside my old standbys—Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen, primarily. (Paul McCartney and Neil Young, among others, would be listed, as well, if not for my fragmented listening habits). I consider each and every song, whether recent or from long-ago, a blessing.
Last, there’s this: The Old Grey Cat is wrapping up its best year yet. It may not rack up Rolling Stone-like numbers, but it’s accrued more than 100,000 page views in 2025—the first year for that. (I missed that mark by 222 in 2024.) That artists, often via publicists, continue to trust me to rhapsodize about their works means a lot.
The Old Grey Cat 
Congratulations! Tom Kraemer and his partner have taken on a kitten in the recent weeks as well…there are always some kittens that could use some invested apes. (Our two adult cats are enough, both adoptees in adulthood, and particularly since our younger one had some hard times before coming to us, and takes an unfortunately combative attitude with all other cats…our elder cat won both the fights we saw by the time we broke them up, but that doesn’t deter our less intelligent younger cat…elder cat is smarter and bigger, and now old enough to not want to put up that litter waste. So we segregate them, not too tough in this house, if annoying.
Now to get to the music!
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