I confess, my first encounter with MAAME’s new single, “Daydreaming,” was one of deceptive serenity. Here is a track that slides into your awareness with such poise, a self-assured piece of modern R&B that knows its way around a groove. It’s only on the second pass that you realize the serene space it creates is filled with a low, anxious hum—the sound of a...

Danny Watts is to acoustic strings what winter frost is to tree branches: an unexpected adornment, at odds with what you thought you knew, but too breathtaking to question. With "Angels In The Snow," the Downtown Patriots step into a snow globe of uncharted soundscapes, leaving behind the grungey scrape of amplifiers for something quieter, but no less expansive. It’s a curveball—a swerve from...