Sometimes the most honest music comes from the spaces between certainty and doubt. Blake Kelly knows this territory well. The Charlotte-based artist has spent his time moving between basketball courts, college classrooms, and recording studios, collecting experiences that fuel his latest EP, Guidance. "Left or Right" serves as the centrepiece of this four-track collection, and it arrives with the kind of laid-back confidence that suggests Kelly...

Arn-Identified Flying Objects Alien Friend caught me entirely off guard with his single, "John in Roses' Deep". Since setting off on his own in 2020, the Swedish solo artist and former REDMOON singer and guitarist has frequently stirred acoustic Americana and electric power pop together. Here, though, he unearths a pitch-black, traditional murder ballad. https://open.spotify.com/track/0t1vuoXfweiH62utynIwEt?si=aIBBxd2ESI-DrcivYHMIrg The track revolves around a rhythmic, stubbornly cyclical melody that sets...