The beat is so straight it feels like the edge of a knife.

photo credit: Sheva Kafai

It’s a sense of floating through space and time, somewhere at the intersection of magic and science and biology.

It feels like a modern take on the eternal missive: why do I love what’s bad for me?

The piano is left to speak through the muted overtones of a few simple chords, and cascades of arpeggio.

The images are lush and the voice is dusty, the guitar crackles like a campfire and the song builds from just an acoustic guitar into the layered swell of a full band.

photo credit: Michael CB Stevens

You can feel the different instruments undulating in to and out of focus, like a boat on the water, moving with the tide.

With a syncopated intro on the muted electric guitar, we quickly get that deep kick drum to drop a la Imagine Dragons.

With a strong sense of melody and some poetry of everyday life, Harlequin Gold gives us a sense of what it feels like to be young right now.

photo credit: Ola Krol

This song approximates the throwaway sense of modern determinism as well any out there with smart lyrics and a very artistic sanctity of message.

This song captures perfectly the circular malaise of settling for the status quo.

Need Your Love is an in-your-face temptation, a dare to enjoy the moment, and a license to be real.

The lead vocal is melodic in a sort of Adam Levine way, but the beat-making borrows more from Daft Punk or even a Maggie Rogers.

Common Kings get together with Stephen Marley with a reggae drop about doing what it takes to feed your family.

A slinky flow about materialism and that sense of needing people, and things, to belong to you.

An airy vocal mix of subtle harmony, a fat punchy sound from the bass, and some lovestruck lyricism paint an introspective scene.

Loren Cole captures the essence of leaving it to destiny. It's the heart of adult self-discovery: making sense of the inexplicable.

It's a little bit of honesty and some electronic rock, served up with psych-pop and some bad intentions.

photo credit: Ethan Covey

Pretty much all bass line and melody, this catchy single strikes a balance between a riff-y roots-elegance and a touch of modern throwaway-cool.

Si Clancy creates a conversation with himself, to perhaps exorcise a memory from his heart, or just to celebrate the absurdity of love itself.

There is this feeling that the music here is just a bit raw, very human, and unadorned; it's not exactly alt-folk, it's not exactly anything, it's Kurt Vile.

A folk-inspired acoustic guitar along with a classic roots-band sound and some creative harmonies make this a bittersweet and lulling aural retrospective.

There's the that pulsing, laid-back vibe, on a bed of dry groove, with some very simple, almost mantric language.