Megan Wheeler’s new single, "Now That I'm Gone," arrived. Not via carrier pigeon, thankfully, though wouldn't that be a marketing strategy? No, it arrived in the usual, utterly un-magical digital way, yet somehow, managed to feel like a little explosion of confetti made of pure, defiant self-respect. https://open.spotify.com/track/2m3tz4bSNELxdIbTjRWc92?si=546c28793c4443bc This isn't your typical "woe-is-me" breakup ballad. Wheeler, often drawing favorable comparisons to the songwriting queens, that Holy...

Resilience doesn’t sound like thunder – it crackles like dry leaves underfoot or hums over wires in the dead of night, waiting. In "Lightning In A Bottle," Eli Annina reaches out to this elusive voltage, siphoning its essence into three minutes and some change of atmospheric perfection. The Finnish-born, UK-based songwriter doesn't plead or break; she breathes, swims, and leaps, turning a migration into...