January Records: Rooted in Force

January’s Featured Vinyls

New Albums: 

BANKS, Off with Her Head — modern, self-possessed power
Brandi Carlile, Returning to Myself — anchored, communal strength
Bon Iver - SABLE, fABLE — restraint as force

You know I always need to highlight Taylor and Fleetwood: 

Taylor Swift Folklore — quiet authority
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours — endurance through truth

Rooted Force

This year, my phrase is Rooted in Force. strength that comes from being grounded, not hardened.
Power that doesn’t rush, doesn’t shout, and doesn’t need permission.
The kind of force that holds because it knows where it’s planted.

This month I am highlighting 3 new records I added to the mix. These records speak directly to that.

BANKS brings force in motion. Yes, there are bangers but they’re controlled, intentional, and self-possessed. Her music carries confidence without apology, power without chaos. Her Pacific Northwest ties make that strength feel familiar, like weather you respect and adapt to. There’s elegance and grit living side by side, and I love that she never asks you to choose between them.

Brandi Carlile embodies a different kind of rooted power, steady, grounded, unwavering. Her music feels tied to place and people, to community, Easy Street energy. There’s a certainty in her voice that doesn’t need proving. It simply exists. Both women, in their own ways, represent strength that comes from knowing exactly where you stand.

Bon Iver’s SABLE, fABLE is beautiful and forceful in the best way. It doesn’t demand attention, it earns it. This album trusts restraint, trusts silence, trusts the listener. It reminds me that softness can still carry weight, and that presence doesn’t require volume.

Taylor Swift’s folklore belongs here too. I think it's her most grounded work, a quiet declaration of confidence and craft. Story over spectacle. Stillness over noise. Power that unfolds slowly and stays with you. It’s an album rooted in trust: in writing, in feeling, in letting things breathe.

And then there’s Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. An album built inside tension, truth, love, and fracture and still standing decades later. This is a rooted force forged under pressure. Not fragile. Not tidy. Just enduring. It’s proof that strength doesn’t always come from ease; sometimes it comes from staying, creating, and telling the truth anyway.

Together, these records feel like a listening practice.
Music that stays grounded while reaching outward.
Soft without being weak. Powerful without being loud.
Rooted, emotional, enduring.

That’s Rooted Force.