Some comeback albums arrive wearing a suit. Block’s "Love Crash" kicks the shoes off at the door, laughs at the mess, then starts telling the truth before anyone has found a chair. Released on Meridian, ECR Music Group, the album is Block’s sixth full-length and his first new record in 13 years. That gap matters, but the record does not beg for sympathy. It feels awake,...

With “I’m Still Standing,” Frankie Muriel isn't just releasing nine songs; he’s excavating a life lived in the key of rock and roll. The glam-metal swagger of KINGOFTHEHILL and the dance-floor pulse of Dr. Zhivegas are here, but only as ghosts in the machine—ancestral echoes beneath a sound that is grittier, warmer, and stained with the wisdom of survival. This is the sound of...