Rebecca Helen's new single, "Patterns In The Sky," landed in my inbox, and honestly, I wasn't expecting... this. This rising star from Cape Town – indie-pop, they say – has bottled something raw, something that spills out of the speakers and pools around your feet. https://open.spotify.com/track/2kIeEcxZK3GDPsuNXH4k70?si=vPJievz0R-u2_DumdjfUsA The theme? Grief. But not the movie version, with artfully placed single tears. This is the messy, inconvenient, "why did...

San Francisco’s queer honky-tonk institution Country Risqué returns to announce their forthcoming sophomore album "As the Crow Flies", leading the charge with an irresistibly bouncy single called "Motorcycle Johnny". https://open.spotify.com/track/09mrnJCwv6Rf3ZNjlEazVv?si=b3b7ec5d8e08487a There is a strange, captivating alchemy to this band. The vocal friction alone is brilliant: Miles Gordon provides a rich, formally trained warmth, while Daniel Bromfield leans hard into a languid, almost defiant deadpan. Supported by...