Dylan Forshner's new EP, “Hopeless Optimism,” presents itself not so much as a collection of songs but as a series of candid diary entries set to intricately picked acoustic strings. This five-song journey from the Welland, Canada artist begins in a place of palpable internal wrestling, where the lyrics – and Forshner’s delivery – map out the grim territories of being overwhelmed, using substances...

There’s a curious kind of cruelty beating at the heart of Emma Whybrow’s new single, “Amnesia,” and it is utterly exhilarating. Here is a massive, pulsing techno anthem—a thundering, four-on-the-floor declaration built for vast, sweaty rooms—and yet, tucked inside its propulsive machinery is an intensely private, bitingly personal act of dismissal. It’s like finding a handwritten "get lost" note folded neatly inside a fireworks...