There is a specific kind of quiet you find in the Midwest, and listening to Derby Hill and his self-titled release, "Derby Hill", feels like stumbling into that quiet after a long, noisy shift. It’s not the silence of emptiness; it’s the silence of after. After the argument, after the paycheck clears, after the sun goes down over the Detroit skyline or a Chicago...

Julia Faulks’ new EP, “Colours”, doesn’t so much present a palette as it does the messy, satisfying work of mixing the paints yourself. It's a six-song study in emotional reciprocity, a sonic accounting of what it costs to love and what it means to be loved in return. https://open.spotify.com/album/6o7E8t0HKQCUiu9uINpATo?si=612B0YA9TJCuKfH-ndCupg Faulks operates in that murky, humid space she calls the “in-between,” where affection curdles into obligation and...