Houston-based psych-rock duo The Shrubs return with "Let Us In", a frantically catchy single that basically sugarcoats a societal breakdown in layers of infectious fuzz. https://open.spotify.com/album/4DHZnz49JHoaX6Ce0uAdd6?si=xvATg3GHRyS6lHn1pLjiNw Miguel and Sophie have a fascinating knack for dragging fifty-year-old analog reel-to-reels and gritty cassettes into modern digital landscapes. Here, they have engineered a massive, heavily distorted wall of sound that races forward with a sweaty, desperate urgency. You catch...

Listening to Brandon White’s new single, “BiG FiSH”, is to understand a very specific, architectural kind of pressure. It’s the feeling of having shoulders too broad for the doorway, a voice too resonant for the room. White articulates not just the frustration of being a large talent in a small scene, but the creeping paranoia that comes when the pond life starts to nibble,...