Listening to Bloomfield Machine's new seventeen-track instrumental album, “Copium,” feels a bit like stepping into a terrarium during a quiet downpour. The title itself suggests a kind of modern, knowing self-delusion, the balm we apply just to get by. Yet, the music crafted by Huntington Beach’s Brian Kassan is far too sincere for pure cynicism. This isn’t the sound of giving up; it’s the...

If you want to experience the raw depths of human feeling, listen to "Thief" by Emily Nicole Green. This is the song for anyone who has experienced the sting of rejection, the difficulty of reconciling life's contradictory realities, or the emptiness of longing for someone who is no longer in one's life. Emily, a bright light in the midst of New York City's hustle and bustle,...