A rubber band ball, meticulously constructed and then unceremoniously dropped, that's what Outside Pedestrian's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" feels like. Not the ball itself, mind you, but the brief, elastic snap of unexpected order being momentarily... let go. We know the Bach tune. It’s a holiday staple, often served up with a side of polite reverence. But here, Anthony Fesmire’s guitar, David Lockeretz’s...

Listening to Lucas Pasley’s new single, “Laissez-Faire Love,” is less like pressing play and more like easing into a worn-in armchair that has held the shape of a thousand thoughtful conversations. The title itself sounds like an economic policy for the heart, and frankly, it’s a brilliant one: a declaration of free-market emotional enterprise where partners are sovereign states, not colonies. https://open.spotify.com/track/1F6nq024Iy350xPVRxffIA?si=bYffZUblSyyCWPvf8dSBzA Pasley doesn’t sing about...