Reviews

Wanderlust is the sound of a life packed into a suitcase and shaken across borders until it glows. Scottish-based artist LUISA, a classically trained pianist, producer, and military spouse, spent 2019–2025 living in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Ukraine, and Albania. Instead of just collecting photos, she collected sounds from street…

“Tequila at Dawn” is the last round at your favorite bar turned into a three-and-a-half-minute anthem. New Mexico songwriter JCCutter leans into his country-rock side here, trading in his usual grit and survival tales for something a little looser, louder, and funnier. It’s a mid-tempo, bar-room burner built for road…

“Just Different” is the moment in Richard Green’s trilogy where the camera zooms in on the teenage version of yourself—the one who never quite fit, who thought “different” meant “wrong.” Splitting his time between Milan and London, Green has been building a reputation as a shape-shifter, writing everything from neoclassical…

“Mi Sangre Baila” is the moment Ivelisse Del Carmen stops looking at Puerto Rico from a distance and lets it blaze straight through her. After more than two decades abroad, the Puerto Rican singer finally names herself as part of the diaspora, and this track is what happens when that…

“Leviathan” finds Andy Smythe doing what he does best: wrapping big, knotty questions about power, justice, and the future of humanity in a tune that feels like a street parade. The British singer-songwriter and alt-folk storyteller is gearing up for his eighth album, Quiet Revolution, a record that looks AI,…

“Soft Animal” finds UK artist Kwun trading cosmic fireworks for something far quieter and, in many ways, braver. After the ecstatic motion of “Cuíca” and the expansive energy of “Sovereignty,” this first single of 2026 slows everything down and pulls the listener back into the body. It’s the sound of…

“The Game” by Michele Braid Topcu is a spotlight cutting through pitch-black. It’s stark, cinematic, and absolutely unafraid. Now based in Melbourne, the Scottish-born, Paris-seasoned vocalist has lived many lives, as a showgirl for David Guetta, the voice behind a global dance anthem, a Page 3 model, and a world-touring…

“We’re All Lost” finds Audren stepping back into the spotlight with the calm authority of someone who’s walked through fire and learned how to turn the heat into song. A fiercely intuitive French-based artist with deep roots in indie pop, jazz, and neo-soul, she’s spent years crafting music “for musicians,”…

“An Exception” finds I Forget Myself stepping into a sharper, more distilled version of his alternative rock universe. Now several albums deep and based in Hong Kong after growing up in South Africa, he’s an independent lifer: singer, writer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist in one. With over a million Spotify streams…

“Hide Inside The Moon” finds Mortal Prophets slipping even deeper into their strange, shimmering universe, where nothing quite sits in daylight. Led by New York composer and producer John Beckmann, Hide Inside The Moon plays like a nocturnal fever-dream: part psychedelic dream-pop, part noir soundtrack, part drifting ambient mirage. Beckmann…