The Austin-based songwriter Alex Winters turns the terrifying act of emotional surrender into a towering alt-rock confession. There is a specific kind of silence that occupies a room right before a heavy truth is spoken aloud. It is thick, suffocating, and entirely self-imposed. We build fortresses out of our past traumas, stacking bricks of deflection and mortar of avoidance to guarantee nothing can ever hurt us...

Crozier's new single, "The Dream," has arrived, and it’s rather like finding a surprisingly vibrant, yet faintly melancholy, postcard tucked inside an old, dog-eared travel guide for a country that might not even exist anymore. There’s an undeniable jauntiness to its classic rock bones – you can hear the phantom limb of a Wilbury shuffle in its gait, perhaps a smidge of early Kinks-ian...