Sometimes you just need a track that gives you permission to stop being nice. There is a specific kind of freedom in realizing you do not actually have to pretend to like everyone on your feed, and that realization hits like a physical shockwave the second this beat drops. It is loud, it is funny, and it completely refuses to apologize for taking up space....

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...