by Shannon Smith

When Alex Warren stepped onto the Stagecoach Festival stage in April 2025 to debut his new single “Bloodline,” joined by genre-crossing phenom Jelly Roll, there was already a hum in the air. That hum has grown into a full-throated track with an emotionally charged pop song with elements of country hybrid that stares generational trauma in the face and dares to write a new ending.

“Bloodline” delivers an emotionally gripping blend of pop structure, country grit, and folk-pop lift. It’s a story song about generational pain and the defiant hope that says: you can stop the cycle [...]

By Steven Miller

In the genre-straddling landscape of instrumental post-metal, narrative form can often feel buried under atmospherics. But on Flickering Resonance, written and performed by guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw, guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, bassist Bryan Herweg, and drummer Larry Herweg, Pelican opts for something more deliberate: music built like architecture, with movement, pacing, and contrast engineered into each section.

Recorded by Sanford Parker, mixed by Scott Evans, and mastered by Matthew Barnhart, the album’s sonic clarity and dynamic control serve its compositional. This is not music that [...]

by Shannon Smith

Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke’s collaborative album, Tall Tales, arrives as a multi-layered sonic exploration, combining Yorke’s introspective lyricism and distinct vocal timbre with Pritchard’s electronic soundscapes. Known for their critical interrogations of modernity and technology, the pair navigate terrains through a unique auditory lens, merging unsettling textures and ambient beauty in equal measure.

From the outset, “A Fake in a Faker’s World” presents a sophisticated sound reminiscent of Radiohead, with the synthesizers building a claustrophobic atmosphere. [...]

by Shannon Smith

In naming their fifth studio release Lucius, the band (Jess Wolfe, Holly Laessig, Dan Molad, and Peter Lalish), invites us to listen and look inward, at them, and consequently, at ourselves. This self-titled album, released May 2, 2025, emerges like a handwritten letter sealed in wax, unfiltered and vulnerable, its sonic palette washed in sunlight and shadow. Recorded between Altamira Sound and Sounds Like a Fire in Los Angeles, it balances the intimacy of home recording with the glisten of professional touch, mirroring the album’s central theme: to be both raw and refined, honest and shaped.

Like striking a match in the dark, [...]

by Steven Miller

In Granada: Spanish Music for Violin and Piano, violinist Elsa Grether and pianist Ferenc Vizi offer a program of Spanish classical music. The compositions flow from folk roots to modernist aspirations with expressive convergence of heart and mind. What emerges is a curated conversation between eras, styles, and musical worlds. Grether and Vizi understand that this music sings from the soil, dances in salons, and meditates in moonlight.

Andaluza (Seguidida Española) by Joaquín Nin, Grether and Vizi establish their rhythmic sensitivity to the music’s folkloric [...]

by Shannon Smith

Ally Venable has carved a niche in the blues-rock genre with her electrifying guitar skills and commanding vocals. Her previous album, Real Gone, achieved significant acclaim, reaching #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart. With Money & Power, Venable collaborates with producer Tom Hambridge and features artists like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Shemekia Copeland, aiming to deliver a potent mix of musical prowess and social commentary. The album will be released on April 18, 2025 on Ruf Records.

“Money & Power” stands as a bold anthem of female empowerment. Venable describes it as a [...]