With the arrival of Archers New Rival and their single "Direction", I found myself tracing the jagged line of a crack in my ceiling, letting the melody dictate exactly how much that imperfection bothered me. The track initiates with a deception a clean, resonant melancholy that feels safe before suddenly mushrooming into a thick, distorted wall of heavy texture. It reminds me, oddly enough,...

Martin Yates’s new single, “Now or Never”, doesn’t ask for your time; it issues a three-minute summons. This is the sound of someone pushing their chair back from the table, the scrape of the legs on the floor echoing a decision that’s been brewing for years. Channeling the wounded pride of 1960s soul legends, Yates builds a monument to the moment the heart finally...