Features

“Divine Intervention,” the latest single from South London’s elusive 2nd Magpie Project, turns a past love into a slow-burning, shoegazing funeral march, where memory, grief and devotion seem to occupy the same space. It is an expansive and deeply wounded piece of alternative music, built for the hours when the…

There is something fitting about a song called “Free” beginning without words. For Dutch alternative outfit The Meir, the track first arrived as a musical idea between Lars Zebregs, Bo Bodewitz and Raf Jansen, before eventually finding the lyrics that gave its atmosphere a sense of direction. The result is…

With Scenes from a Well Worn Path (Side Two), Banbury singer-songwriter Music by Jeremy continues a sprawling 24-track musical journey through pain, grief, joy and fear, but there is nothing particularly weary about the way these songs confront life. If anything, the record feels energized by curiosity that keeps poking…

Prison Of Modesty is an album that’s been waiting decades to get out. Martin Kuiper’s rock debut is an unusually long-brewed project, with songs written as far back as 1998 and others taking shape in fragments over the years. Released after Kuiper began his recording career at 49, the album…

At 15, Piper Connolly already seems to understand one of pop music’s oldest tricks, which is that sometimes the messiest feelings make the catchiest songs. On she’s too much!, the Los Angeles-based alt-pop/pop-rock artist turns the chaos of growing up into six tracks packed with sharp hooks, guitars, humor, insecurity,…

Heartbreak can be loud, messy and theatrical, but on Hopeless Romantic, Portsmouth, Virginia artist ninemansion takes a more intimate route, turning longing into something that feels almost like a private archive. Across the EP, love lingers through unanswered calls, recurring memories, guilt and the stubborn inability to simply move on.…

Arizona-based MANTHILL steps into more melodic, spiritual territory with God’s Creator, a three-song release that stretches their post-grunge and post-metal instincts into something more searching. The industrial weight is still there, but this time it comes wrapped in atmosphere, melody, and questions about faith, choice, fear, and what we make…

Los Angeles artist AquariO makes electronic pop that refuses to put a pretty filter over emotional messiness. Working somewhere between alternative dance, futuristic pop, dark humor, and outright catharsis, the singer and songwriter turns inner turmoil into something you can actually move to. “Get Some FCKN Therapy,” released September 25,…

New Orleans-based musician and songwriter Cypress Key brings decades of musical curiosity into Magazine and Jackson, a heartfelt rock and folk EP about growth, generational struggles, mistakes, and the uneasy process of starting over. Drawing from a history that stretches from punk and grunge to hip-hop, Afrobeat and stripped-back acoustic…

The Dead Hearts return with “In The Back Seat,” a new alternative rock / post-grunge single about the moments when life feels completely beyond our control like being a passenger in a car with no say over where it is heading. The song combines heavy, driving guitars with melodic vocals, a…