BOYO, the solo project of singer-songwriter Robert Tilden, sounds like cool—like the kind of music blasting behind the hip older sibling’s bedroom door in a coming-of-age flick, or the soundtrack for weekends of irresponsible spontaneity in real life. With earworm-y chord progressions and deadpan vocals—the core of BOYO’s oeuvre—Tilden’s third and newest full-length Dance Alone glides from fast to slow with effortless agility. ►

Dâm has always explored the idea of duality, especially the concept of the Gemini twin, both an inverse reflection of self and a passenger on the very same life journey. So Private Life II, then, is that second side of Garrett. ►

The men of Blame Candy play guitar like they made a deal with the devil or Eddie Van Halen, and their manes appear blessed by the benevolently boogie-ing spirit of Marc Bolan. Are these the heroes who will help save the electric guitar? Well, they DO wear capes—covered in glitter, of cour ►

Dean Blunt and Delroy Edwards have never been about making things easy on the audience, and Desert Sessions is no exception. But even at its strangest, the record has a mysterious allure. ►

Altogether, it’s a bit like the Santa Ana winds that he namechecks on the closing track, “More Bad News”—there’s something warm and almost supernatural in the balance he’s found here between a rosy kind of innocence and an impressively mature musicality. ►

Sam Wilkes is definitely onto something. He may be familiar to some as an accomplished bassist delivering head-spinning lines in the fusion combo Knower, but on his latest—simply entitled WILKES—he becomes an intrepid bandleader and multi-instrumental alchemist, pushing further into the jazz-driven dream world introduced on his recent collaboration with Sam Gendel, Music for Saxofone and Bass Guitar. ►