With the new album "Climax", Decadent Heroes captures the precise sound of an artist exhaling after holding his breath for an eternity. Italian musician Luigi Chiappini has spent years building this instrumental rock project, using his electric guitar as a leading voice. Here, he reaches the exact point of creative evolution where a player abandons the exhausting pursuit of external validation. He trades showing...

Some love songs sit politely in the corner. "When I'm With You" walks in with bright guitars, a racing heart, and that slightly ridiculous confidence people get when a crush rewires their whole day. Nick Pappalardo's new single, takes its spark from his early gigging days in Brooklyn and NYC, where one meeting with a Brooklyn girl gave him the emotional fuel for a full-on...