Willow Stonebeck
Single: the artist ren – Doin’ Fine!
There’s a flirtatious playfulness to this song and a comfort with vulnerability/nakedness to the production that makes this an absolute smash.
Single: Fleeting Colors – Autumn
I listened several times just to have a grasp of what the hell was happening (complimentary).
A goofy bird in flight, Wendy’s, and death
“Sometimes something as utterly and completely silly as a fucking goose can bring home all we’ve lost.”
Single: DOGDAD – Ritual
This song is so fucking energetic I’m tempted to write the review in all caps.
Single: W. Y. Huang – Running Into Walls
this is like a mug of warm tea grew up and decided to become a song.
Single: Trouble, the new single from Chris Fox & the Beasts, goes down easy
For fans of Wilco, Jackson Browne, and ampersands; it goes with pretty much anything at all.
Single: Bucket – Good Intentions
A song that’s both incredibly at home in a Tony Hawk game and also, uh, has really great pedal steel in it?
Album: Human Barbie’s “Paradise” Might Be The “Odyssey” Reboot We Need
Nobody’s cosplaying here—Human Barbie’s blend is really uniquely theirs.
Single: Hovvdy – Try Try Try
“Try Try Try” is — sorry for this joke — effortless in its production, serving a complete song in which one can appreciate the subtle choices from section to section.
Heirloom by Nathan Evans Fox, A Reckoning with Country Music
I hope you didn’t set out hoping for a Pitchfork-style bit of evenhanded music journalism because I am going to, as the kids used to say, stan the hell out of this man.
Single: Layer Cake – Numb
The willingness to just say that you’re in love, or that you want to be. We didn’t have to fucking wink at everything.
Put it on repeat: “Longer Than Spring” by For Breakfast
With its circular chord progression, For Breakfast’s new track could be twice as long in length and I’d have no regrets.
EP: Panthercaps – Against the Super Ego
The Berlin-based trio’s debut EP is not a hyper-compressed, heavily produced artifact: It’s a little closed in, a little naked, and it rips.
Rethinking Stereotypes of Austin, Texas: Very Busy People’s “Ordinary Night”
There’s a willingness to put yourself out there, a not worrying about seeming so damn cool that puts the listener on his side.
Single: Julez and the Rollers – I Don’t Know You
The new single from the LA rockerz and rollerz is so fun, it could serve as a theme song for an imaginary sitcom.
Single: Family Worship Center – Malibu by Midnight
The high-flying single from “rock and soul commune” Family Worship Center is a beautiful blend of can-we-call-it-disco, R&B, pop, and flirtation.
Single: Nixon Boyd – Trouble of Your Own
Nixon Boyd’s new single is a balancing act between subject matter and, to quote the kids, “vibes.”