Alright, buckle up, because Nissu's Memories just teleported me… somewhere. Nissu, a Brazilian-born, Dublin-based pop artist, has dropped this six-track EP, and it's like opening a particularly well-organized, yet emotionally chaotic, scrapbook. https://open.spotify.com/album/6Kbr8PFQrTu0J2GmK8o5uz?si=AwyU0he-RWWnjgcxHeMQDw The EP, Memories, supposedly functions as an “open diary,” they say. He tackles love, friendship, that whole pandemic thing, and the general rollercoaster of being a person. But does it achieve being truly...

There's a specific kind of bleak bartering that happens at 2 AM, and Rusty Reid’s single “Piece of the Action” builds a whole four-minute economy around it. This isn't a song about the sweeping grandeur of romance; it’s a clinical look at turning “dissatisfaction” into “a transaction of love.” The language is deliberate, almost like a contract being signed on a napkin under a...