Some pop songs are built for escapism. They offer a three-minute vacation from the weight of things. Paul Jenner, the creative force behind the musical project 50mething, seems uninterested in this kind of holiday. His work is consistently grounded in the here and now, tackling the social and political agitations of our time with a composer’s ear and a critical eye. His 2026 single, “You Can’t...

Patrick Hynes’ new single, "Baby’s High Again," doesn't so much arrive as materialize, like a half-remembered scent of bourbon and regret clinging to a velvet curtain. This “Midnight Country” he’s cultivating, it’s less dusty plains, more the blue, flickering light of a motel television at 3 AM, illuminating a room where decisions have been made, then unmade, then made again. Hynes, a Scot with...