Melbourne's TJ Howlett throws a shovel full of coal-dusted reality into the guitar-driven blues-rock furnace with his "Not Mine" EP. Two songs. Just two. But, my word, they carry the weight of generations. Suddenly, I'm thinking about Dorothea Lange's photographs, only... louder. https://open.spotify.com/album/6lCrWQGWQo9LsVDL94CR4k?si=97afEOrjR1WPe9AVG2pfgw "Not Mine," the title track, and then "Drinking Man" – they're not just following each other; they're wrestling in the dirt. This EP...

Guess Pre's "Clarity." The name itself feels like a punchline missing its joke, or maybe the setup to a philosophical riddle I'm not equipped to solve. Gregory Stanton, the Wisconsin-based artist behind the moniker, has served up a nine-track album that's… well, it's trying to be a lot of things, and surprisingly, mostly succeeding. https://open.spotify.com/album/2hV27eRxEJp08kML02uRW1 This isn't background music for folding laundry. It's more like the...