Single: Bucket – No Guitars
Nobody can fill Pavement’s shoes, but these Massachusetts basement rockers come as close as anyone can, wielding powerful guitars, a concise arrangement, and caustic-yet-insightful lyrics.
Greg Gobel
Single: Charlie Gearon – Need You More
Charlie delivers a low-key masterpiece; a love song shrouded in self-doubt, hesitation, and heartbreaking longing that takes us into a spiritualized other dimension.
Single: Ceylon Sailor – love is a detour
If love is a detour, then show me the orange signs, traffic barrels and arrows, because this track undoubtedly gets us to the destination!
Single: Sleepy – Clean Clothes
Sleepy’s first single since 2020 works equally well whether you’re driving down a long road in the dark or sitting on the porch with a drink in your hand.
Single: atmos bloom – Closer
It’s not easy to transform some sort of challenging emotional loss into a positive, upbeat, highly addictive indie dreampop beauty, but atmos bloom have done just that!
Single: sam hirst – Little Thief
The little hiss seeping out of sam’s amp warms up the mixture of cynicism, practicality, and matter-of-factness that lyrically smack you in the face.
Single: Steven van Betten – Jakob
One could reasonably wonder if such a short song can hold its own as a single and the short answer is, ‘Yes.’ This is minimax songwriting at its finest.
Single: Bad Western – Countdown
Frankly, this is current indie music at its best: it breathes; it applies tasteful effects to the guitars without being showy; it provides plenty of changes without coming across as pretentious.
Single: Kilo Tango – Sweet Tooth
‘Sweet Tooth’ is Kilo Tango’s two-part, springtime song of self-destruction turned to challenging yet joyful redemption.
Single: Vesuvian – Fortunate Death
Can dying really be this fun? Can a blood sacrifice to ensure a good harvest really be what we’re looking for? To Vesuvian, the answer is a glowing red ‘Yes!’
Single: Still Bones – Long Way
These Baltimore bones are anything but still; the skeletons at Druid Ridge Cemetery are dancing, ‘cuz this track rocks!
EP: figure eight – until the sun swallows the earth / hummingbird
There’s something special about this two-song, ten-minute EP from figure eight, Oakland’s optimistic ambient doomers. (Can we make that a new genre just for them?)
Single: Hiding Places – One Hand
Stretched out vocal lines, bitter electric guitar, a hypnotic acoustic/bass/drum loop, and wobbly background organ all drive this 6-minute daydream form Queens-based Hiding Places.
Single: St.Arnaud – Midwest Superstardom
Delectable slide guitar smothers this song like dripping hot fudge on your Midwestern summer evening sundae treat.
Single: Moody Moody – Versions
“Versions” is an evolving piece full of unexpected buried treasures, so pay attention till the end.
Single: Sun Era – Grounded
Sun Era follows up its 2025 single “Birds” by dropping a driving song that’ll help us get through another dark winter and roll our way into the springtime.
Single: Ceylon Sailor – the tiny wave
‘The tiny wave’ is a hit in a different quantum existence, where good music is cherished and autotuned pop-nonsense is never made.
Single: Hamabe – Ghost
A gentle, subtle, flowing, hypnotizing, engaging song featuring a phantom with long-term vision, empathy, and