Listening to Shadow Person’s new album, "Chronic Disappointment", feels like staring into one of those fun-house mirrors, only to realize with a slow, creeping dread that the glass isn't distorted at all. This is the new normal, a warped reality we’ve simply adjusted to. The project, the thoughtful and unnerving musical identity of Will Chatham, doesn’t just hold this mirror up to the world;...

Dylan Forshner's new EP, “Hopeless Optimism,” presents itself not so much as a collection of songs but as a series of candid diary entries set to intricately picked acoustic strings. This five-song journey from the Welland, Canada artist begins in a place of palpable internal wrestling, where the lyrics – and Forshner’s delivery – map out the grim territories of being overwhelmed, using substances...