by Shannon Smith
Broken View finds Sam Barber building songs slowly and pushing them outward. Every arrangement on Broken View begins with something grounded that expands. Starting with acoustic sounds and close vocal phrasing before drums, layered guitars, steel, or fiddle broaden the emotional field around it. The record’s power does not come from oversized hooks or polished melodic repetition. It comes from the motion the song’s bring. Letting the rolling tom patterns, opening choruses, suspended guitar textures, and Barber’s ability to let a vocal line strain slightly against the groove without losing the story underneath it [...]
by Shannon Smith
Grace Ives has spent the past several years turning archetypal formats like the nursery rhyme, the ringtone, and the nine-to-five into a repertoire of oblique pop standards. Her 2022 breakthrough, Janky Star, captured the raw, youthful excitement of a newcomer, praised by critics for its experimental edge. Three years later, Girlfriend arrives as a more confident, cohesive statement. As Ives herself put it, looking back on the earlier record: “I was a baby.”
The album’s cumulative effect is of belting to the radio in your car, a high-drama pop monument to trying, flopping, and trying [...]
by Shannon Smith
Megan Moroney’s Cloud 9, released February 20, 2026, via Columbia Records and Sony Music Nashville, arrives as a clear statement by an artist confident in her voice. Across fifteen tracks, Moroney writes from a place of emotional clarity. The result is an album that pairs candid storytelling with polished country-pop production, capturing the feeling of someone who has learned how to breathe again and be comfortable with who they are.
Moroney’s greatest strength has always been her ability to make country storytelling feel conversational, and Cloud 9 amplifies that skill. Her lyrics are easy to relate [...]
By Shannon Smith
On Dreamer+, Sassy 009 confirms what attentive listeners have been sensing for a while now: this is an artist who no longer treats production as a backdrop, but as the primary narrative force. Across twelve tracks, she builds a unified sonic language where beats, synths, vocal processing, and transitions work together as a story of evolving forms. This album develops moments with intent.
What stands out immediately is cohesion. Dreamer+ flows with a confidence that comes from knowing exactly what sonic world it inhabits. Even as guest artists enter the frame, the album never splinters [...]
