Listening to Shadow Person’s new album, "Chronic Disappointment", feels like staring into one of those fun-house mirrors, only to realize with a slow, creeping dread that the glass isn't distorted at all. This is the new normal, a warped reality we’ve simply adjusted to. The project, the thoughtful and unnerving musical identity of Will Chatham, doesn’t just hold this mirror up to the world;...

A rubber band ball, meticulously constructed and then unceremoniously dropped, that's what Outside Pedestrian's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" feels like. Not the ball itself, mind you, but the brief, elastic snap of unexpected order being momentarily... let go. We know the Bach tune. It’s a holiday staple, often served up with a side of polite reverence. But here, Anthony Fesmire’s guitar, David Lockeretz’s...