Listening to Cuzoh’s new single, “Slow Down,” feels a bit like holding your breath without realizing you’re doing it. The Hempstead-born artist has crafted a piece so deceptively smooth in its Hip-Hop and Soul blend that the grim story coiled within it strikes you a second too late, like the aftershock of a distant tremor. It’s a ghost story told about someone who is...

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...