Paul Criscuolo’s heartbreaky indie rock is the kind of music that lends itself well to a sense of millennial angst unique to its generation. There’s a confusion all too familiar in “Pass Your House” that speaks to the sense of emotional amputation often felt after the loss of someone close. The track’s content doesn’t feel played out or tired though. It’s cheesy in just the right amount and in just the right places, making it feel effortless, reminiscent of the songwriting of Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo. The track is simple but compelling in its structure, offering synchronized vocal and guitar melodies that glide over a Pavement-style fuzz tone. He takes the same sense of angst in a different direction on “Psychosis”: a short acoustic track with a bouncy melodic bass line. What’s refreshing about his style is that he knows how to deliver a consistent emotional message while using a variety of sonic techniques. He won’t pigeonhole himself into any certain genre or aesthetic niche and there’s something refreshing about that. If these first tracks are any indication of what’s to come from Criscuolo, we’ve got a lot to look forward to.

-Andrew Strader

Mom and Dad’s brand of art punk has typically resided within the harder, heavier, fuzzier realms of Nashville’s garage rock and punk scene. As a group, they’ve been largely content to hone their skills as a noisy rendition of the quintessential DIY basement rock band. With all this in mind, I am, Therefore I is, is the group’s most accessible work yet. The album consists mostly of simple, pop oriented tunes that glide through the ears with an ease usually reserved for indie pop. The band describes their latest release as a “a very tender record” and indeed it blows over the listener like a sudden refreshing breeze on a humid summer day. There’s a certain sentimentality that makes itself evident on tracks like “Winchester, TN” an acoustic narrative about a rural Tennessee location close to the group’s heart. If the new album represents anything in Mom and Dad’s career arch, it proves just how capable the band is of making intimate music that emotionally resonates with listeners.

-Andrew Strader

R.LUM.R is offering the kind of electronic chops that don’t come often to Nashville. His Frank Ocean-style vocals perfectly compliment the R&B sound and aesthetic that characterizes his work. His lyrics are soulful, frustrated tails of internal emotional chaos, love lost, and existential confusion. “Frustrated” serves as a perfect example of the kind of poetic lyricism central to his work, “You give me your kaleidoscope in monochrome / so unlike the way you color me at home / some days it’s so vivid / but mostly I would rather be blind”. The irony of this lyric is that, of course, he isn’t blind, but facing heartbreaking loss and confusion head-on. R.LUM.R’s work is categorically bold not only because of its unique sonic makeup but because the lyrical content refuses to leave anything in the dark. Be sure to catch his show tonight at Mercy Lounge with BIYO.

-Andrew Strader