Listening to Shotgun Driver’s new EP, “Jester Privileges”, is like finding a glitter bomb in a padded cell. The four songs present a disorienting, strangely compelling contradiction. On the surface, the alt-pop framework pulses with an upbeat, almost defiant energy; this is the slick, rock-tinged anxiety of a Machine Gun Kelly track built for open-road brooding. But beneath it, the narrative, carried by those...

Joe Rian has made a single for the moment the work shirt comes off and the car stereo goes up. “Think Yer In Luv,” is presented as an up-tempo, rock-and-roll-leaning blues track and the first release from his 2 October album of the same name. It is the promise of motion, companionship and a little room to breathe after a long week. Rian made the accompanying...