Listening to T-RAN and his new single "Don’t Stop the Fight" creates the sensation of finding a frantic heartbeat returning to a steady, confident rhythm after a near-miss on the highway. There is an immediate urgency here, a sonic landscape that refuses to sit politely in the background. https://open.spotify.com/track/7BAbhLJoHZYcwAMH6BvnhV?si=1d371859cf294456 The production fits the moniker of "gospel firestarter" perfectly, though perhaps not in the way you’d expect...

Amara-Fe has definitively shifted from the messy business of becoming into the absolute certainty of claiming with her new album, "A Queen’s Ambition". The rising solo artist, tethered to deep musical roots extending through Mission and Dallas, Texas, arrives fully formed here. There is a palpable weight to her cinematic R&B and electropop arrangements. You can almost feel her surveying her territory, setting borders,...