Houston-based psych-rock duo The Shrubs return with "Let Us In", a frantically catchy single that basically sugarcoats a societal breakdown in layers of infectious fuzz. https://open.spotify.com/album/4DHZnz49JHoaX6Ce0uAdd6?si=xvATg3GHRyS6lHn1pLjiNw Miguel and Sophie have a fascinating knack for dragging fifty-year-old analog reel-to-reels and gritty cassettes into modern digital landscapes. Here, they have engineered a massive, heavily distorted wall of sound that races forward with a sweaty, desperate urgency. You catch...

Listening to Cat Cork’s "Simple Song" is a funny thing; the title is a clever piece of misdirection, a plain brown wrapper on a package containing an entire life. This isn't some breezy, three-chord singalong for a lazy afternoon. It’s the sonic equivalent of discovering a shipwright’s meticulously drafted blueprint, detailing the construction of a human spirit from the first plank of childhood to...