Listening to RIOT SON’s new single, “Loneliest at Best,” is a curious exercise in emotional time-travel. The sound pulls you back to the early 2000s, to a time of angular guitars and heartfelt, frayed-collar vocals. It has that nervous, shimmering energy of indie rock that always sounded best on a pair of wired headphones, the beat prodding you forward even as the lyrics confess...

There is a specific kind of sweat you only generate in a dive bar after midnight, and DownTown Mystic seems intent on bottling that exact humidity with "Hard Enough (Remix)". It hits you immediately a sonic shove to the chest that feels like a double shot of something brown, burning, and absolutely necessary. Robert Allen, the engine behind the moniker, isn't interested in polishing...