Music critics and Hearing Things founders Jill Mapes, Andy Cush, and Ryan Dombal decide whether songs by SZA, Bob Dylan (via Timothée Chalamet), and Aphex Twin are Waste or Taste, and offer some recommendations to help you emotionally kick off another new year. Topics include doing mushrooms at a bachelor party in rural Virginia, the post-Luigi Mangione rise of pop songs that lust after criminals, and feeling like Jesus in the mosh pit.

Hearing Things is a new independent home for music and culture founded by journalists Andy Cush, Ryan Dombal, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Dylan Green, and Jill Mapes. Read more at hearingthings.co.