Album: Maria Palmqvist – Unlove Me 
Single: The Real Runna x HIGH – Alone 
Single: Secret Choir – better man 
Album: Maria Palmqvist – Unlove Me
This stark, brooding world will draw you in until you find yourself fully immersed in it. Dark at times, yet always beautiful.
Single: The Real Runna x HIGH – Alone
“Alone” splits its guitars across each ear before pulling everything into something warm and spacious, a burnout anthem that somehow still lifts you up.
Single: Secret Choir – better man
“Better man” hits gritty and direct from the first second, then opens into a hazy, slowed-down middle before snapping back, a song built for self-reflection on a long, lonely drive.
EP: starbelliedbug – Lash
The debut EP by the California dreamy rock band is a must listen for any shoegaze fan, touching on themes of confusion, ill-fated romance, isolation, and friendship breakups.
Single: Stevie Zita – down n out…
Zita returns with a new single capturing the suddenness of ennui and despair in soaring and serendipitous music.
Single: SP’s – Spirit World
“Spirit World” sounds like it’s beaming in from another dimension, and once those drums kick in, there’s no mistaking SP’s for anyone else.
Single: Genevieve & Milo – What a Wonderful Thing
Atmospheric folk with a near-operatic power vocal.
Album: hey i’m outside – Loud Ass Barking Dogs
Expanding on their powerful indie sound with Southern twang and skewed vocals, the Boston-area trio examines the full spectrum of emotion on their second album.
Album: Cold Wrecks – You Can’t Plan For This
Cold Wrecks has a special way of delivering a heavy heart; their lyrics feel inviting to an audience that covets big emotions.
Single: Greenbit – Your Time
Nonchalance is the key here. The lack of heavy percussion allows this tune to remain unbothered. You go and take your time, he says after he breaks up with his girlfriend. He couldn’t care either way. And it’s disguised so well under layers of languor that even you are not sure if he is actually this casual or if this is a façade. And that makes you put the song on repeat. Just to find out.
EP: The Mooches – Dance With Me Now
The Mooches’ new EP urges you to shake and shimmy through the troubles of the world, with four new ska-tinged tracks that make the album’s title more of a command.
Single: The BV’s – melancholy
‘Melancholy’ delivers the listener to a world of wan-faced, sun-shy boys in national health spectacles singing sad songs to even sadder souls sat in their bed sits.
Single: Peli Gene – Fall
Guitar melodies jingle and sparkle like confetti, creating an almost psychedelic vibe that coats your brain with heavy syrup.
Single: ØZWALD x Lucille Two – Comparison Ford
“Comparison Ford” is pure ear candy, sweet, psychedelic, and sad, the kind of song that puts you in your feelings.
Album: Shye – The Doves Came Home
Longing can breed hope. But it can also drive you to the brink of giving up entirely. Somewhere in between the two lies the bittersweetness of waiting. And waiting can loosen the cruelty of time. Or so Shye implies.
Single: Sidewave – The Surface
One of the two singles released in anticipation of Sidewave’s upcoming album, Dispel, The Surface promises a fire and portends a fall. Through its steeps down and steps up, though, there is an undiluted wish whose realization is a series of lacerating guitar solos that climb higher and higher and lavishing coordination between the riffs and the percussion that grounds the process. And the wish is to do something that is purported to be undoable. Simple as that. How hard can that be?
Single: The Republic of Wolves – In Margins
“In Margins” sounds like warmth with a shadow behind it, a loose, bouncy groove carrying vocals dreamy enough to make the sharp lyrics sneak up on you.
Album: tsubai – ilulissat
There is little to say about what the album tells you, but a lot to say about the way it makes you feel.
Single: MEANT MORE – This Town
“This Town” kicks off simple and vibrant, then explodes into loud, distorted chaos, a high energy pop-punk anthem built for driving away and never looking back.
Single: ROWA – Punk Tsugi
Inspired by the striking fashions of Ashton Michael, ROWA’s punk and electrothrash-tinged new single pits different forms of passion against each other.
