Afternoon Sister’s “Reset E.P.” starts with a clear promise: heavy guitars can sit beside a laid-back melodic pull. That push and release gives the Boise-area band’s debut its immediate hook. The five-song EP arrives through North Corona Records, with 14-year-old singer and songwriter Alice Esquibel at the front. Indie rock and dream pop form the coordinates, but the point is the movement between them. Each song...

D.D.R. (Divorced Dad Rock) hits the pavement running on "Blinded By the Blonde: Chapter One", turning the jagged debris of romantic wreckage into pure kinetic energy. The seven-song collection marks the latest outing from Indiana-based novelist and songwriter Stephen Paul, whose philosophy of "universal specificity" treats private heartbreaks as open-source emotional blueprints. Rather than wallowing quietly behind closed doors, Paul channels the soaring melodies...