Reviews

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…

Chizabam’s Trauma for Sale is a 17-track Southern rap-soul record built around an unusually heavy ledger: childhood, grief, survival, faith, and everything that gets carried long after the crisis itself is over. Born in Atlanta and now based in Dallas, Chizabam grew up between a Nigerian father’s discipline and a…

Winnipeg’s CAR287 return with “End Of The Day,” the first single from an upcoming five-song EP following their 2025 debut album, Looking Through The Lens. Recorded at Winnipeg’s CTRL Space Records, the track takes a simple feeling — finding the person you genuinely want beside you — and turns it…

Oslo collective Soul Zimon & His Kozmic Combinations strip country music back to its warmest, most human elements on “Wild River Rose,” a gentle single built around memory, mortality and the struggles of ordinary life. Formed by two brothers and a close friend, the project draws from country legends such…

Sehore dives into the strange, unstable relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence with “IA,” the first single from the art-pop and experimental pop project’s third album. The track makes its subject feel fragmented and slightly uncanny, using an unusual rhythmic structure to reflect a world where machines can imitate human…

UK-based songwriter and composer Michael Waters has built his work around emotional storytelling, memorable melodies and the space between reflective ballads and feel-good pop. His songs have already found international attention, with compositions such as “A Baby Of My Own” and “The Boy Who Really Loved You” reaching the World…