SONG TIP

Self-Aware

Riverside

I don’t know if Riverside is the best rock band in the world, but they’re certainly up there. Never heard of them? Don’t blame yourself. For whatever reason, rock music has dropped completely off the map. Hey, times change. In any case, a Polish quartet given to progressive instrumentation, melancholic atmospherics and ALWAYS infectious songcraft, Riverside will in January release a new CD. In the meantime, one of the first singles is “Self-Aware,” a remarkable tune with a haunting neo-reggae break (can reggae BE haunting?) to go along with a fantastically hooky main riff, Deep Purpley organ swells and vocalist/bassist Mariusz Duda’s soaring melodies. Oh, and there are even some background “oh-oh-ohs.” A perfect song to blast into the new year.

— Rick Koster

BOOK TIP

Our Missing Hearts

Celeste Ng

Celeste Ng became a literary supernova with her books “Everything I Never Told You” and “Little Fires Everywhere,” both dealing largely with fractured families. Her latest, “Our Missing Hearts,” has a son, father and mother as its central characters, but its real focus is the creeping dangers of dictatorial rule and of anti-Asian hate. Bird Gardner, 12, lives in a version of America that, after a mysterious calamity called the Crisis, has passed something called The Preserving of American Cultures and Traditions Act, which leads to a chilling of free speech and a sharp increase in anti-Asian violence. Children are being separated from the parents that the government suspects of being anti-American. Bird’s mother, a poet whose parents were Chinese immigrants, has disappeared. The scenes of anti-Asian hatred are wrenching, and Ng conveys the fear and secrecy that comes with living in almost a police state. But “Our Missing Hearts” feels more about ideas than characters, and it’s consequently less involving than her first two novels — “Our Missing Hearts” is missing that beating heart.

— Kristina Dorsey

TREE TIP

Sior’s Christmas Trees

27 Boston Post Road, Waterford

Open 9 a.m.-8 p.m. daily

What the hell’s a “tree tip”? Well, I’m one of those Ancients who misses the sort of fantastic holiday decorations and customs that inspired songs like “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” And it occurred to me: Where are all the Christmas tree lots? They used to pop up everywhere on the day after Thanksgiving. Green Friday! In the modern world, they seem to have mostly vanished. That’s why it makes me happy that Sior’s Christmas is back for their 30th year in the lot next to Supreme Pizza in Waterford. John Sior has proffered finely scented trees and wreaths for 30 years. “O Tannenbaum” was composed for places like this.

— Rick Koster