Best of 2025: Hannah Cohen’s New Record is Greta Morgan’s Most Beloved of the Year

The singer-songwriter and author talks Earthstar Mountain

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. 

Greta Morgan is a songwriter, storyteller, and multi-instrumentalist who began her career at age 16 and has performed worldwide since. Her first book, The Lost Voice, is out now on Harper One. She fronted Springtime Carnivore, Gold Motel, The Hush Sound, was a touring member of Vampire Weekend, and has performed with Jenny Lewis. She lives in the Hudson Valley where she has been known to watch golden leaves float downstream on creeks for hours and say that every meal is the best meal of her life.

(Photo credit: Lenae Day)