Some doors do not close with a slam. They remain half-open, daring a person to walk back through them after the room behind them has grown small and airless. The past can be persuasive that way. It offers familiar furniture, old names, a version of comfort that asks too much in return. "Backwards, Baby," the latest single from Caitlin Kent-Halliday, begins from that human pressure...

Lab Rat, the brainchild of Australian solo artist Dylan James, drops "Rolling Loud" onto our auditory plates, and it's... a lot. Like finding a half-eaten burrito in a washing machine – unexpected, a little messy, and you're not quite sure how you feel about it. It's alt-rock grunge rap, the musical equivalent of a Frankenstein's monster stitched together with ripped denim and existential angst. https://open.spotify.com/track/2nj7SwgzSJUCoaGKBKLLeT?si=8c79aa48403b479c The...