Empty Pinata – remember LA Rodriguez? – serves up the single "Bonfire," and honestly, the air changes slightly when you play it. It’s less like passively listening and more like discovering a singed diary page fluttering down a quiet street. The music itself is this curious contradiction, wrapping harrowing emotional shrapnel in the comforting gauze of indie-pop, flecked with soft rock warmth. A strangely...

To listen to Vicious Clay’s `"bleecker street revisited"` is to stumble upon a cartographer’s personal diary, one filled with maps of places that no longer exist and sketches of emotional territories still being charted. This is the latest work from Vinny Silva’s musical project, and it feels less like a collection of songs and more like a core sample, drilled deep into the bedrock...