With “Island Lantern Festival”, Tony Frissore manages to soundtrack a specific kind of mental vacation I didn’t realize I was overdue for taking. Ostensibly an instrumental nod to the Lunar New Year and the hopefulness of renewal, this piece operates less like a celebration and more like a gentle exhalation. https://open.spotify.com/album/3n43BcxSnavYKC0wt28GNu?si=E_50eQ_lQomyHT1RsD2Jrg It starts wet with the actual crash of ocean waves before slowly drifting inland. I...

Robin Swann’s new single, “Flaunt You,” lands with the deceptive sheen of polished indie pop, but listen closer – there’s grit under its fingernails, a heart beating anxiously beneath the bright synth layers often crafted with collaborator Xander Lee. It captures that peculiar, stomach-flipping vertigo of falling headlong into a love that feels both utterly destined and terrifyingly risky. You know the feeling, like...