Leon Blanchard, a name perhaps faintly echoing from the mid-noughties indie surge, returns not with fanfare, but with a solitary signal flare titled "Astronaut". Hailing from Grimsby, a town known more for its fishing heritage than its celestial aspirations, Blanchard's new song does not really feel like a return, but more like a personal gearbox picked up after years of chatter. In 2007, his old band,...

There is a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from scrolling through endless bad news. It is a heavy, static feeling that makes it hard to care about anything. Then a track like "I Will Follow" hits your speakers and suddenly the air feels a little lighter. Jacob Chacko has managed to capture that exact moment when you decide to stop doom scrolling and actually...