"America" from Dave Clark drops like a chipped ceramic mug onto a linoleum floor, not exactly a bang but you feel the thud. It's not about sparkly flag-waving; that much is clear from the first plucky guitar notes. It’s a story woven in threadbare folk chords and tinged with the static hum of some plugged-in grief. https://open.spotify.com/track/7nSYreI8IQDkOgvGjTvjwy?si=bbfaa8073f824d01 There's a man in this track, though you never...

Julia Kate, a 20-year-old sojourner in the land of melodies (a.k.a. a songwriting student at Berklee), just dropped "fake friends," and my initial reaction was… did a sentient Instagram filter write this? Not in a bad way. More in a "wait, is this the matrix?" way. https://open.spotify.com/album/5x6CaYde9gncmDI5KpIKkQ?si=2gYl_dQ4SFm3vAVffdX5Vg The song’s theme slaps you in the face, gently. It explores how, in our curated, perpetually-online existence, actual connection...