Have you ever felt a strange sense of nostalgia for a time you never lived in? Like a phantom limb for a past that isn’t yours. It’s a peculiar sensation, that anachronistic ache. Listening to “Lost,” the debut album from Dallas artist Jake Vera, evokes a similar feeling. It’s a record built with the tools of the 21st century, a collaboration forged in the crucible of...

RoofTop Screamers’ "Blink of an Eye" has a way of unpacking itself in your mind long after the last note fades, like finding a single, unexplainable sequin on your collar hours after leaving a particularly vivid party. It struts in with this curious collision of sounds – a pinch of power pop’s bright-eyed yearning, the jagged, insistent pulse of new wave, a defiant shimmer...