The moment the jaunty guitar kicks in on John Smyths’ new single, "Now I'm Wiser", you feel a familiar, comfortable warmth. It’s the sound of a good chair in a bar where the floor is sticky with spilled truths. And then the story starts, a classic yarn of a hard-living past yielding to a peaceful present. Smyths, a Dutch ex-metalhead singing country out of...

Independent Los Angeles artist Fiore has dropped her new single "Baccarat Rouge", a seductive arrival ahead of her upcoming debut EP, "Heart on Fire". Originally from Dana Point, Fiore specializes in dragging our deeply internalized emotions out into the open, mapping the quiet things we feel while merely surviving the day. https://open.spotify.com/track/2Vjb2MrEoEwwYYeFEMLy0b?si=ngbV4UBkQjSbPlAtyPuMWQ She leans heavily into alternative pop and dark R&B on this outing. A thick,...