To engage with the sprawling, twenty-eight-track behemoth that is Rellyo Bambini’s "Cloned & Upgraded, Insert Soul Here (Rebirth Edition)" is to willingly plug your neural pathways into a mainframe that is rapidly overheating. Most artists treat albums like curated dinner parties; Bambini has thrown a rave in a server farm where the dress code is 'Cyberpunk Baroque' and the appetizers are flavored like anxious...

Sam Ostler’s new single, “Lights,” then. It unfolds less like a sudden, intrusive glare and more like the slow, determined burn of a really good stage light finally finding its mark after a prolonged blackout. It’s pop, yes, vibrant and undeniably contemporary as advertised – clean lines, clear intentions. Yet, there’s a certain satisfying heft beneath the melodic uplift, a feeling that these notes...