All Dogs - Kicking Every Day (2015)

Maryn Jones is a fucking genius. That’s not to discount the rest of the musicianship that goes into making an All Dogs song click, but none of it would work without that beating heart at the center of it all. Over the past few years, we’ve been subjected to a lot of howling, ’90s-inspired bands, but All Dogs is one of the best because of her influence. Through her words, her voice, her point of view, she makes every song come across like a fresh, open wound. Jones easily runs laps around most other writers in the game — her lyrics contain multitudes, always allowing for the possibility that she might be wrong, and oftentimes expecting that that’s the case.

Kicking Every Day is about trying to find a sense of comfort against seemingly insurmountable odds, about overcoming and sometimes feeding into weakness. There’s nowhere where this struggle is more apparent than on “Sunday Morning,” when Jones cries, “You can find me Sunday morning, all in pieces without warning/ Did the same thing, found nothing/ Now the falling isn’t stopping.” Jones is less concerned with the moment than with what comes after; it’s about the loss after a big break. “Don’t be surprised if there’s something gone from me,” she sings on closing track “The Garden.” “The sky was full of clouds today/ Take hold of me or I’ll disappear.”

Even at its darkest moments when it feels like Jones may slip away completely, she’s held up by her bandmates and friends. That’s what ultimately makes the record feel so cathartic — these songs crackle with an energy that makes the biggest obstacles feel passable. There’s darkness seeping in around every corner, but it’s met with the will to go on. The album ends on a hopeful note — “there’s always something new in the garden” — that suggests that there’s still a reason to keep kicking.