This is the kind of breakup track that checks your pulse before you have time to act fine. Drew Swords comes in hot on "Better Without Me?", a 3:32 indie rock single that turns one ugly little question into a full-body rush: what if someone really did get happier after you left? That thought can ruin a perfectly good afternoon. It can also make a chorus...

Maraad’s new album, “BUFF”, is a strange and beautiful paradox, an object forged in the very fire it’s meant to protect you from. Each track is presented as a "buff," a bit of protective magic for the spirit, but the energy humming underneath feels less like a polished shield and more like the faint, determined glow around a figure in a centuries-old altarpiece—somehow both...