Reviews

The Graceland Conspiracy arrives with a sound that might catch longtime followers of Colin Crooks off guard. Previously part of PBR Streetgang and currently playing with Belfast’s Bad Noise Monster, Crooks has traded much of his more abrasive musical history for atmosphere, space and texture on “We Are Chaos.” The…

Seoul-based solo artist appetiteapple has built Gratitudes almost entirely from the ground up, handling the songwriting, arrangements, production, mixing, mastering and even the album artwork alone. That DIY approach gives the record a distinctly personal foundation, but it is the album’s central idea that gives all that independence its emotional…

Sophia Garvey has never sounded particularly interested in making uncomfortable subjects comfortable. Her new single “Ur just a man,” featuring Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder, takes aim at the inflated mythology surrounding male ego and turns it into something deliberately cheeky, gritty and confrontational. The track comes charging in with…

Flo Frequency’s Infinite Light is built around the idea of returning to yourself. Across sixteen tracks, the London-based R&B artist moves through sensuality, romance, reflection, and conscious soul, with producer Nav Bhatt giving the record a warm, deeply rhythmic foundation. The album leans into rich low-end, glowing keys, layered harmonies,…

Tom Morfitt-White has been writing and singing for as long as he can remember, apparently starting before he could even talk. That early instinct has grown into a strikingly mature songwriting voice, and his debut EP, Love Me Now, shows an artist already comfortable turning complicated emotions into intimate stories.…

Chet Nordy, the DIY project of Freeland, Michigan multi-instrumentalist and producer Dave Nordstrom, turns a 15-year-old wedding song into a full-bodied rock love ballad with “For You.” Originally written as an acoustic piece for his wedding, the song now returns with electric energy while keeping the sincerity of its original…

Lisa Michelle Anderson brings together Americana, folk, and rock with the perspective of a songwriter whose roots may lie in Southeast Kansas, but whose life has taken her far beyond them.  Raised in a creative household, Anderson learned early to treat music as a space for imagination. Years spent living…

Christ and The Machines is the new project of songwriter Christian Licursi, whose work has received support from BBC Radio 1 and BBC Introducing. The project explores the uneasy space where faith, technology and human emotion overlap, but “To Live Unaffected” feels less interested in technology than in something much…

Austin-based guitarist and composer Sweet Beast reaches deep into the ancient Mediterranean on “Calypso,” a debut single that turns Greek mythology and asymmetric rhythm into something strikingly contemporary. Named after the sea nymph who keeps Odysseus on Ogygia in Homer’s Odyssey, the track imagines a world of treacherous roads, dangerous…

Jason Lenyer Buchanan’s Lazarus is a three-song Americana EP about loss, transformation, family and the uneasy possibility of finding something worth holding onto after life has changed shape. Released as Buchanan relocates from Wyoming to Oregon, it also marks a creative shift: after building his catalog around guitar, he turns…