Stars Go Dim’s new album, “Roses,” has a peculiar effect; it settles into a room less like music and more like a change in the atmospheric pressure. There’s a plush, amber-toned sound here, a vibe so authentically steeped in 1970s groove that you can almost feel the corduroy under your fingertips. https://open.spotify.com/album/1KS8wbOx2wWw1ce0VdcMgV?si=VRrFtLJDQi-8gD8p8t1BlQ Chris Cleveland’s vocals, smooth and seasoned like worn-in denim, glide over bass lines that...

Listening to the opening of Michellar’s "Truth Over Lies" is like being dropped mid-sentence into a conversation you desperately need to hear. This track, which features Frankie El, doesn't ease you in; it puts you on the "shaky ground" it sings about, a state of profound vertigo that reminds me of the low, anxious hum an old CRT television used to make just before...