Strange Town • Buzzy Lee​

Song mood: dreamy

Buzzy Lee opens with a long, melodic sigh of guilt, but her stalwart partner, portrayed by the organ, refuses to let her linger in self-pity. Instead, these powerful, consistent whistles come to find her as she is, with this instrumental anchor blasting its old-fashioned notes in gentle accords.

These pipes are not rusted or refurbished; rather, they represent the modern, synthesized grandchild of the church instrument. This individual clings to the beautiful, enduring ideals taught by the preacher while simultaneously using its electric energy to exit the confines of the pews.

This individual is a rare pearl, and our singer recognizes it. She quickly lets his background presence march onstage and become a dynamic, marching duet. Together, they sing about how they push their perpetually-ripe love upriver against the rapids that cut through the strange landscapes of life.

Listen to Strange Town by Buzzy Lee​

Apple Music • Spotify • YouTube • Artist website

Them Changes • Thundercat​

Song mood: trippy

The track shines its funky, unapologetic energy to break down the pain of being broken and left behind. ”There's blood on the floor and I can't find my heart.” He asks so many right questions of someone who shatters a tender soul.

Listen to Them Changes by Thundercat​

Apple Music • Spotify • YouTube • Artist website

Trying To • Sasha & the Bear​

Song mood: dreamy

The dreamy textures painted by Sasha and The Bear might get placed point by point, but the tempo doesn't leave time to linger in any one spot. Instead, the pace insists that listeners stop examining individual points and watch the animated scene. “We move ahead, and see it all.”

Listen to Trying To by Sasha & the Bear​

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This week we drift to sleep into Gelli Haha's whimsy before trying to figure out the hard things: what we are, where we belong, what we want, and what we need. As we wake up in Able Heart's hometown Philadelphia, we realize that fate ultimately had our back.

Fancy a listen?

Klouds Will Carry Me To Sleep • Gelli Haha​

Song mood: bliss

Gelli Haha splashes listeners with a lurid dreamscape, dragging us down into the depths ocean only to rise again to the heights of space. A self-described sonic shapeshifter, her lyrics gently acknowledge the energy needed for any transformation.

Magic, warmth, sun, wishes, and whimsy tug us through different states that don’t have to make sense. The math never has to math in dreamland. Much of the joy I feel from this song comes from a smile at the silliness of each exuberant switcheroo she pulls along the way.

Listen to Klouds Will Carry Me To Sleep by Gelli Haha​

Apple Music • Spotify • YouTube • Artist website

Ghosts • Catching Flies​

Song mood: dreamy

Ghosts get to try on anything they like in their disembodied existence. British DJ Catching Flies follows a spirit of low-hi plucks wandering through a global jukebox.

Curiously, the neighborhoods we pass through never layer. We can't know what our ghost seeks, or if it's ever satisfied. Short breaks in our march open our ears to the different refrains. Suddenly, we push forward toward the next thing to try on.

Listen to Ghosts by Catching Flies​

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Queen • Magic City Hippies​

Song mood: trippy

In those few moments between dreamscape and waking up, our brain sometimes pushes rewind and situate the visions. How were we cast in that dream?

Is the reality we're waking up to subject to someone else's fantasies—a role inside their silver screen—instead of what we need? All I want is love, queen.

Listen to Queen by Magic City Hippies​

Apple Music • Spotify • YouTube • Artist website

Fancy • Able Heart​

Song mood: rough

I was put on earth to create. Able Heart swaggers with purpose through his Philadelphia hometown, placing his pitfalls and successes into rhythmic parity. Fancy tells the story of odds that fate evened out.

Listen to Fancy by Able Heart​

Apple Music • Spotify • YouTube • Artist website

Our title piece by Sonnee & Malaki plants us in our imperfections and expects us to crop up in something that belongs to us. Each of these tracks enthusiastically illuminates a spectral slice of the shards that make us who we are.

Sometimes we wish things could be different with people we want to be close to. These three songs wander through a tender dreamscape of what might have been.