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International

Devils and Demons Is Like the Best of Rock; Music That Literally Rocks You

There’s a long tradition in rock music of confronting your inner turmoil by giving it a suitably dramatic name. You don’t just feel bad; you’re battling demons. Possibly several demons. Maybe a devil or two for good measure. It’s a metaphor that has powered everything from classic metal albums to extremely intense diary entries. Which […]

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The World Inside Album Feels Like Sitting Across From Someone Who Is Smart, a Little Anxious, Deeply Sincere, and Trying Very Hard to Articulate Something That Doesn’t Fit Neatly Into a Chorus

There is a particular flavor of indie-folk that has dominated the last decade or so, and you know it when you hear it. It smells faintly of mason jars and reclaimed wood. It is emotionally vulnerable in a way that is very curated. Everyone is sad, but in a way that would still look good

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“Bad Girl” Is Catchy, Confident, and Rooted in a Story That Feels Real

There’s a long and slightly ridiculous tradition in pop and hip-hop of songs called Bad Girl. At this point it’s basically a genre title. You hear the phrase and your brain automatically starts filling in the blanks: swagger, a club beat, some vague commentary about attraction mixed with danger, and probably at least one line

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“falling off the earth” Is a Generous, Ambitious Piece of Songwriting

Jack Goldstein’s “falling off the earth” is one of those songs that initially walks up to you wearing a friendly, slightly scruffy Americana jacket, shakes your hand, tells you about farming in the 1980s, and then about halfway through, sets that jacket on fire and asks you to think about mortality. It is sincere, ambitious,

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Nothing Lasts Forever Is an Album That Finds Meaning in the Everyday

There’s a certain confidence that comes with making an album called Nothing Lasts Forever and having it land not as a dirge, but as something surprisingly warm, generous, and alive. Brock Davis’ latest record is deeply aware of impermanence, but it isn’t obsessed with doom or mortality-as-spectacle. Instead, it feels like the sound of someone

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Douby Is Loose, Free, and Confident in Its Own Rhythm

There’s a certain confidence that comes with looseness. Not the careless kind, but the kind that comes from knowing your instincts are sharp enough to trust. Douby, the debut album from DJ SoulChild AC, lives squarely in that space. It’s an album that doesn’t beg to be decoded track-by-track in a rigid order. Instead, it

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Survival Is Less About Grand Resurrection and More About Quiet Persistence

There’s something deeply dramatic about two former post-punk musicians from Glasgow reconnecting after decades apart and deciding, instead of quietly reminiscing about “the old days,” to make an album about surviving modern existence. It’s either the beginning of a midlife crisis or the start of something genuinely moving and on Survival, the debut album from

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Bedlam 1547’s newest track, ‘Summoning Mind,’ is the Nostalgia Hit we need

It’s rare to hear a rock track in the charts nowadays, that’s why I was happy to hear Bedlam 1547’s newest track, ‘Summoning Mind.’ Join me as I talk about this track in length and why it’s the perfect nostalgia hit. The track starts with this high distorted lead riff alongside that drum pattern that

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“Everyday” Doesn’t Glamorize or Exaggerate; It Observes

“Everyday” finds Larry Mossburg turning the mundane into something magnetic. Framed as a snapshot of daily life, the track doesn’t aim for grand statements or dramatic arcs. Instead, it zooms in on routine; habits, thoughts, small victories and refracts them through sharp lyricism and a beat that hits harder than the subject matter might suggest.

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If Auntie EP Is the Drought Breaking, It’s Not a Drizzle; If Anything, It’s a Storm

There’s a very specific kind of emotional pressure that builds when you’ve been “almost” doing the thing for years. Almost putting your own band first. Almost saying what you actually mean. Almost stepping out from behind other projects, other stages, other people’s spotlights. Eventually that pressure needs somewhere to go. That somewhere, in this case,

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