D.D.R. (Divorced Dad Rock) hits the pavement running on "Blinded By the Blonde: Chapter One", turning the jagged debris of romantic wreckage into pure kinetic energy. The seven-song collection marks the latest outing from Indiana-based novelist and songwriter Stephen Paul, whose philosophy of "universal specificity" treats private heartbreaks as open-source emotional blueprints. Rather than wallowing quietly behind closed doors, Paul channels the soaring melodies...

Listening to John Keenan’s “Wreckage of the Past” feels like being handed the audio diary of a ghost who is not yet dead. This is an 18-song excavation of a psyche at war, made all the more intense by the knowledge that Keenan is the sole architect—producer, writer, mixer, and tormented protagonist. The whole project has the hermetically sealed, slightly feverish quality of a...