Hannah Cohen’s Earthstar Mountain is my most beloved record of 2025. It's funky and sensual in that Minnie Riperton, super-soulful, high-floating-vocal kind of way, and Hannah writes with an exquisite and sophisticated sense of melody. Sam Evian, her partner in life and music, lends his production and velvety grooves, and a dream team of super-close friends play and sing throughout, giving the record that contagious feeling of real human connection. The whole thing moves like a living organism: warm, textural, breathing.
Sonically, it holds the lushness of the Catskills, where both Hannah and I live. She was the first person to welcome me into this little mountain pocket of magic when I moved here on a whim in 2023 with only a few acquaintances.
My favorite song is "Rag" — the ballad of the record which is about the road we’ve both lived on, a recognition of the passing-of-time through the lens of seeing the intimate elements of the neighborhood change. "Mountain" is the most heartbreaking song that I've ever danced to. "Summer Sweat” captures that sticky, golden, late-July feeling so accurately that I can see the wildflowers heating up in the sun even though I am writing this in December and the entire hillside is white with snow. Earthstar Mountain is exquisitely written and produced, and it reveals new layers every time I listen.
Greta's book The Lost Voice is out now via HarperOne.
