At 2 a.m., the smallest thought can take over the room. Stargazer understands that escalation on Insomniac, a debut single that compresses insomnia, anxiety and emotional isolation into 2:27 of alternative rock, emo, electronic production and hip-hop-influenced delivery. It moves with the pace of someone trying to outthink their own fear, then finding that the mind has already sprinted ahead. The song refuses the easy...

Listening to Shotgun Driver’s new EP, “Jester Privileges”, is like finding a glitter bomb in a padded cell. The four songs present a disorienting, strangely compelling contradiction. On the surface, the alt-pop framework pulses with an upbeat, almost defiant energy; this is the slick, rock-tinged anxiety of a Machine Gun Kelly track built for open-road brooding. But beneath it, the narrative, carried by those...