Axiom ThaWyze and Andy O's "Merfolk Space Program" arrived with a title that stopped my brain for a solid ten seconds. A Merfolk… Space Program. It’s an idea that smells of brine and ozone, of impossible ambition born in the crushing deep. It's a perfect, almost comically absurd flag to plant in the soil of Boise, Idaho, and it perfectly captures the spirit of...

The latest from Jacob and the Starry Eyed Shadows, “Racing on the Back Straight,” performs a fantastic trick: it dresses up a full-blown existential crisis in its summer best and sends it to the beach. This Glasgow solo architect, Jacob, has constructed a Trojan horse of a track, all propulsive indie rock guitars and a pop-punk chorus so immediate it feels like you’ve known...