At some point it became clear that one of the themes for the first quarter of 2015 would be The Return of the Male Piano Balladeer.

Upcoming records from Father John Misty, Matthew E. White, and new kid/not-kid Tobias Jesso Jr. (he’s 29) would all center on an archetype now associated mostly with the 1970s: the weary dude, wise beyond his years, spinning tales of love and loss from his piano bench before moving over to a barstool.

It’s an image that took hold during the '60s hangover, when baby boomers traded youthful dreams and started becoming their parents, a little less certain with each new season that they were, in fact, still crazy after all these years.

This highly personal, smaller-scale music was less about The World and more about the geography of a wounded heart. Jesso, Misty and White, in their own ways, are all drawn to a similar directness, a love of the well-written song composed and performed solo.