Maraad’s new album, “BUFF”, is a strange and beautiful paradox, an object forged in the very fire it’s meant to protect you from. Each track is presented as a "buff," a bit of protective magic for the spirit, but the energy humming underneath feels less like a polished shield and more like the faint, determined glow around a figure in a centuries-old altarpiece—somehow both...

Because we all struggle with the same things, we take it for granted that music will be easy to understand. A new song by Dre Carlan titled "Hope" was just released recently. In it, he recounts some of the more sensitive incidents that have occurred in his life. His parents struggled with their health while raising him as an only child, and it is the subject...