There is a distinct, almost anti-gravitational buoyancy to the latest release from Shelita, titled "I’m So In Love With You", that defies the typical heaviness associated with profound emotional declarations. Listening to this track is a bit like staring at the ceiling at 4 AM not in insomnia-induced panic, but in that rare, lucid state where the silence of the house feels protective rather...

Listening to John Keenan’s “Wreckage of the Past” feels like being handed the audio diary of a ghost who is not yet dead. This is an 18-song excavation of a psyche at war, made all the more intense by the knowledge that Keenan is the sole architect—producer, writer, mixer, and tormented protagonist. The whole project has the hermetically sealed, slightly feverish quality of a...