Geoff Westen’s album, “Music For My Friends”, thumps onto the scene like a dropped box of heavy disco balls – all shiny potential energy and the slight threat of chaos. It aims for that classic pop song euphoria, the kind designed to rattle car speakers and fuel late-night dance floors, an "aural assault" as Westen puts it. And it does pulse with energy, a...

There’s a peculiar, soil-and-metal chill to Rubanq’s new single, "Bury Me Deep." From the first few sparse piano keys, you’re not so much listening to a song as you are being lowered into its world—a quiet, frostbitten landscape where the roads are empty and the sun is just a rumor. The Swedish songwriter operates in that stark territory between grunge’s raw-nerve honesty and Americana’s...