There's a curious jolt in hearing a title like "Us Against The World" from an act called The Cockney Cowboy. The name itself is a glorious contradiction, a pairing of gritty East London reality with the wide-open romance of Nashville. You half expect a joke, but what Justin Vella delivers is a dead-serious, straight-shooting country ballad that smells less of hay bales and more...

Right. So, Lillestrøm. Norway. Land of… well, apparently, intensely yearning folk-rock anthems now. Thomas And The Angry Hearts, shepherded into existence by Ronni Le Tekrø (of TNT fame, remember explosions?), have dropped "It's You," and the title isn't kidding. The whole thing is an extended, sometimes dizzying, ode to someone. https://open.spotify.com/track/29tj0tp8ydyTqXWuzvWEzv?si=7jGWO1lfQGWrz21iFr4kgA This isn't a casual, "hey, you're nice" kind of thing. This is full-blown, operatic (in...