CD TIP

ID.Entity

Riverside

As one of the last 19 people on the planet who still enjoys an entire album as a complete listening experience, I’m totally excited by this latest recording from the Polish band Riverside. Emerging from COVID — and before that the unexpected loss in a cardiac incident to guitarist Piotr Grudzinsky — the quartet has had a lot to process and resolve. This album, with nine cohesive and forward-thinking tracks, makes the complex sound flawlessly embraceable, and the melodies and lyrics are respectively beautiful and informed/decisive. Overall, it’s like Riverside took stock of the steps in their own evolution, distilled those components, and created something better than ever. (A word to the shrewd: Riverside, which rarely tours in the U.S., plays Boston March 14 and New York City March 16.)

— Rick Koster

TV TIP

Night Court

8 p.m. Tuesdays on NBC

The original “Night Court,” which aired from 1984 to 1992, was hilarious, quirky and smart. The remake … well, we’ll say it needs more time to find its feet. The new version is still set in a New York City night court where all sorts of kooky cases cycle through. And — hallelujah — it still has John Larroquette as the inimitable lawyer Dan Fielding, who’s older and maybe wiser but definitely toned down. Melissa Rauch portrays the daughter of the original judge, played by the fabulous Harry Anderson, and she is perkiness personified. The cast hasn’t quite jelled yet, though Lacretta, as a bailiff, will no doubt be the breakout star of the series. In addition to airing on Tuesdays on NBC, episodes of “Night Court” can be watched starting the following day on Peacock.

– Kristina Dorsey

BOOK TIP

Worse Than Myself

Adam Golaski

The author lives in Providence and teaches English at both RISD and Central Connecticut State University. His students are lucky because this dude can freakin’ write. “Worse Than Myself” is a collection of stories that can only (but inadequately) be described as deliciously unsettling. Golaski’s imagination is wild and the stories herein carom from horror to speculative to dark to exhilaratingly creative. But Golaski isn’t just jumping on the trampoline of Lovecraft or cramming himself in the shotgun seat of Bradbury’s soapbox derby racer. He carries his own narrative situations to term and then nurtures them with singular affection and, yes, a bit of cruel mischief.

— Rick Koster