Audren, the French multidisciplinary artist and self-described “good witch,” has released her new funk-pop single, "Smile, People Smile." The track arrives as the fifth preview from her upcoming full-length album, "Think Freedom." Instead of letting us stew in the mess of a disrupted world, she delivers a bright, highly syncopated remedy meant to shake off our passive waiting. https://open.spotify.com/album/1hLUUln8LHiAnIGBYdy9rM?si=utgL1M6VQpK4KxkFWDs7iw Audren rejects standard commercial formulas here, opting...

Mike Stewart Theory’s new single, “It Reaches Us,” feels less like a piece of music and more like a strange meteorological event happening inside your head. You’re immediately dropped into a groove that has the smooth, shoulder-rolling confidence of 80s soul, but something is off in the atmosphere. The air is thick with a psychedelic haze, a sense of temporal displacement that is both...