Listening to Shani Weiss's new single, "What's Left," feels a bit like stumbling upon someone’s deeply personal, slightly crumpled packing list before a monumental journey. Weiss, a Melbourne-based folk-rock songwriter and host of Indie Spotlight Melbourne, bottles a very specific kind of pressure here – the internal kind that feels less like a weight and more like a rising tide inside your own chest. https://open.spotify.com/album/56VjWTwzCr3bafDHSlUpN4?si=SWijn37SREeVVhxTs26DsQ There's...

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...