Listening to Bloomfield Machine's new seventeen-track instrumental album, “Copium,” feels a bit like stepping into a terrarium during a quiet downpour. The title itself suggests a kind of modern, knowing self-delusion, the balm we apply just to get by. Yet, the music crafted by Huntington Beach’s Brian Kassan is far too sincere for pure cynicism. This isn’t the sound of giving up; it’s the...

There’s a strange comfort in calling your personal disaster a fairytale, and Jeremy Ryan’s new single, “My Fairytale,” lives entirely in that conflicted space. This isn't the storybook of our youth; it's the grim, dog-eared version one finds in a dusty attic, its moral hopelessly smudged. https://open.spotify.com/track/0qn6YtxVNcUmPZhjwxoCIb?si=ac355c4e77274635 Ryan sings of a rainbow devoid of its colors, an idea that for a moment made me think of...