new music discovery

The Long Way to Numbfounded: Paradox & DJ Sean P, Fourteen Years After Mending

A Colorado Lyricist and a Trusted Producer Pair Hard Boom-Bap Drums with Soulful Lo-Fi Guitar

DJ Sean P produced and engineered numbfounded, building the beat from hard boom-bap drums and guitar-infused lo-fi textures. Paradox, a Colorado-based lyricist, carries the verses, and Adam and the Flood takes the guest spot. The single came out on 17 October 2025, credited to Paradox & DJ Sean P.

Paradox & DJ Sean P bring numbfounded to the hip-hop playlist below, among conscious and producer-led rap, and the duo’s coverage is collected on the Paradox & DJ Sean P profile. The single reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Hit play on the track, then keep reading for the long road that led to it.

The Long Way to Numbfounded: Paradox & DJ Sean P, Fourteen Years After Mending

The Moment Numbfounded Came Together for Paradox & DJ Sean P

The partnership behind the track goes back a long way. Paradox and DJ Sean P first released a full album together, Mending, in 2011. That November, Sphere of Hip-Hop reviewed the record and praised its one-MC, one-producer format. The review singled out DJ Sean P’s production, and it also heard a bluesy guitar among the album’s classic influences.

More than a decade later, the pair returned with another full album, NOW. HERE. THIS., in January 2025. An edition of instrumentals and a cappellas followed a month later. So when they came back with numbfounded that October, they had years of records behind them.

The roles are clear. DJ Sean P sits at the desk, producing and engineering, while Paradox writes and performs. That division is one of hip-hop’s oldest arrangements. It suits a track that wants the beat and the bars to carry equal weight.

The sound they decided on blends classic boom-bap energy with contemporary underground hip-hop. The drums hit hard, but the melodic lo-fi layers keep the track warm. A guitar line also threads through the production, an echo of the bluesy guitar on Mending.

Then there is the guest. Adam and the Flood is the project of the rapper formerly known as Adeem. Under that name, the rapper won the Scribble Jam Emcee Battle in 1998 and 2001. Adeem was also part of the hip-hop group Glue. Bringing a battle-tested voice onto a lo-fi-leaning beat makes for a striking contrast. It also gives the track a second perspective.

The Long Way to Numbfounded: Paradox & DJ Sean P, Fourteen Years After Mending

A Two-Track Single From October 2025 Pairs Numbfounded With Its Instrumental

The release itself is compact. The single carries two versions: numbfounded with Adam and the Flood, and an instrumental of the same beat. Both run for two minutes and 56 seconds. The instrumental lets listeners hear DJ Sean P’s production on its own terms, without the verses on top.

Short running times are part of the style. At under three minutes, the vocal version gets in, makes its point and leaves. That suits a scene that values replays over long build-ups.

The single also sits inside two long catalogues. Paradox has released music since Hiatus in 2006, including the albums Called to Mind, Rest Assured, Grayscale and Enough. DJ Sean P’s catalogue includes A Small Fortune, a collaboration with Stik Figa. In 2026, the producer also released the beat tape Focus Group.

Coverage followed quickly. On 3 November 2025, the hip-hop blog Raw Drive posted numbfounded. Its post credited DJ Sean P on production and engineering, with Adam and the Flood on the guest spot. The collaboration also continued. The duo brought Adam and the Flood back for the 2026 single ONE-SIGHTED. Later that year, they released Father.

What Paradox & DJ Sean P’s Numbfounded Answers for Boom-Bap and Lo-Fi Listeners

Underground hip-hop listeners often face a choice between hard-hitting boom-bap and the softer, looped warmth of lo-fi. numbfounded answers that by refusing to choose. The drums supply the grit, and the guitar and lo-fi layers supply the warmth.

The producer-and-MC format has a long history behind it. Gang Starr paired the producer DJ Premier with the rapper Guru. Their records became a reference point for how a beatmaker and a writer can share credit. Pete Rock & CL Smooth did the same on their 1992 debut, Mecca and the Soul Brother. Its best-known song, They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.), built thoughtful verses on a sample of Tom Scott’s Today.

Paradox & DJ Sean P work in that tradition, on an independent scale. Like those duos, they credit the producer and the writer side by side. In fact, numbfounded gives the beat room to breathe in its own instrumental version.

For listeners who follow underground rap through playlists and blogs, this is a single worth adding. It is short and built with care. It also opens onto a partnership with fourteen years of records to explore.

NewMusic.News’s curator team: “numbfounded stays with us because of its balance. The hard drums and the guitar-infused lo-fi layers share the track without either one winning. That balance makes the instrumental worth hearing too.”

Stream numbfounded on Apple Music and Bandcamp. Then follow Paradox on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, YouTube, Instagram, X and Facebook. DJ Sean P is on Instagram too.

The Long Way to Yours Faithfully, OneNamedPeter’s Album Signed off Like a Letter

Esther Winslow

October 7, 2026

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By Esther Winslow / October 10, 2026

Article Electronic Featured Jazz Music News

Inside RECALIBRATED: How Amana Melome’ Built a Jazz Homecoming Out of Space Age Mama Jama

Jimmy Woode’s Granddaughter Closes the RECALIBRATION Chapter with House, Dub and Jazz Remixes

Space Age Mama Jama was the first song Amana Melome’ ever cut for an album. Four albums and many years later, she decided to go back to it. On RECALIBRATED, the remix album she released on 25 September 2026, pianist Deron Johnson gives that song a new jazz arrangement. It becomes the emotional centre of the record.

Watch the video and check the artist’s YouTube channel for more.

Amana Melome’ brings RECALIBRATION to the jazz playlist below, and the singer’s coverage across the network sits on the Amana Melome’ profile. RECALIBRATION to RECALIBRATED – The Remixes reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Press play on the title track, then keep reading for how RECALIBRATED grew out of it.

Inside RECALIBRATED: How Amana Melome’ Built a Jazz Homecoming Out of Space Age Mama Jama

The Moment Amana Melome’ Returned to Space Age Mama Jama, Her First Recorded Song, with Deron Johnson

The decision makes more sense once you know where the song started. Space Age Mama Jama first arrived in 2009 as a whole album of versions. The original track sat among a dozen remixes. So, when Melome’ returned to it in 2026, she revisited a song that has always lived in several shapes.

This time she built it around a piano. Space Age Mama Jama RECALIBRATED is track nine on the new album. Deron Johnson arranged it, and his touring credits include Miles Davis and Alanis Morissette. In fact, Johnson was already part of this chapter of her work. He plays on several songs from RECALIBRATION, the album the remixes grew out of.

The result reminds listeners of how deep her jazz roots go. Her vocal is strong, but also sultry and playful, and the arrangement gives the old song a fearless, jazzy turn. The very next track keeps the idea going, with a further remix of the same song by Saverio ‘SAGE’ Principini.

Those roots are not a figure of speech. Melome’ is the granddaughter of the bassist Jimmy Woode, who played in Duke Ellington’s orchestra. He also recorded with musicians including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Miles Davis. Returning to her first song with a jazz pianist at the keys reads, in that light, like a homecoming.

Inside RECALIBRATED: How Amana Melome’ Built a Jazz Homecoming Out of Space Age Mama Jama

RECALIBRATED Hands a Healing Album to International Producers for Deep House, Dub and Disco Versions

To understand the remix album, it helps to start with the record behind it. RECALIBRATION, released on 17 February 2026, was her first full-length album in several years. She recorded it between Los Angeles and Spain after stepping away to focus on motherhood. The album moves from the slow, piano-led CON C.ALMA to TOMORROW IS ON IT’S WAY, a big band swing number. Alongside Johnson, it credits Saverio Principini, Enrico Mianulli, Don Brown, Riley Tanner, Jordan DeTiege, Nick Recktenwald, Ivan Malespin and Colm Fitzpatrick.

Even the titles carry ideas. Con calma means “with calm” in Spanish. With the dot placed before ALMA, however, the title also reads as “with soul.” Johnson recorded his piano in Los Angeles while Melome’ worked in Spain. Even so, the song still sounds close.

RECALIBRATED takes that material somewhere brighter. After a 16-second opening, LET’S GLOW, the album properly begins with SO DONE. It is an up-tempo deep soul house track from RECALIBRATION that was never released as a single, here remixed by Cee ElAssaad and Joel Holmes. From there, it moves through versions by Somos Animales, Opolopo, Eli Anai, Godblesscomputers and Principini, covering house, dub, disco and jazz.

The album closes with 11:11, featuring the artist Sky. The cover tells the same story. It uses the same photograph as RECALIBRATION, with two completely different energies.

What RECALIBRATED and Space Age Mama Jama Answer After a Record About Processing and Starting Again

RECALIBRATION was the record of working things through. RECALIBRATED is what comes after that work is done. Melome’ describes it as a celebration of one’s own fire and magic. In her own words, “this album is a permission slip to take up space and shine unapologetically!”

That answer fits a life that has rarely stayed in one place. Melome’ grew up across continents, from Florence to New York and Los Angeles, and is now based in Spain. Her heritage is Euro, Caribbean and American. Her catalogue reaches back to Indigo Red in 2008, which her own site notes was the first album ever distributed by Whole Foods Market.

The response to RECALIBRATION came from outlets that heard the same mix of legacy and renewal. Music Arena GH wrote about the album’s release. Meanwhile, Project Timbre described it as the point where legacy and healing meet. RECALIBRATED now gives that story its final chapter.

NewMusic.News’s curator team: “RECALIBRATED works because it is generous. Melome’ hands her songs to producers from house, dub and disco, then keeps the most personal moment for herself. That moment is her very first song, rebuilt at the piano with Deron Johnson.”

Stream RECALIBRATED on Spotify or Apple Music, go back to RECALIBRATION on Spotify, and follow Amana Melome’ on Apple Music, SoundCloud, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Her official website tells the rest of the story.

The Long Way to Yours Faithfully, OneNamedPeter’s Album Signed off Like a Letter

Esther Winslow

October 7, 2026

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By Esther Winslow / October 10, 2026

Article Featured Hip-Hop Music News

NINJ on Time, Loss and the Making of No Replays

Two Decades in, a Denver Rapper Decides the Good Old Days Cannot Be Rerun

NINJ started out freestyling at house parties in Denver, trading verses with friends as a teenager. On No Replays, NINJ looks straight back at that era. The track sits sixth on The NINJ & The Geisha’s, the album NINJ released on 13 February 2026. Its central line says those days played out like a movie that cannot be rewound, so the hip-hop song reads as a decision to stop looking back.

NINJ is in the playlist below, so the Denver rapper’s reflective side is a single click away. The rapper’s full coverage history is collected on NINJ’s artist profile. No Replays came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Listen to it first, then keep reading for the story behind the refrain.

NINJ on Time, Loss and the Making of No Replays

Twenty Years of Writing Arrived All at Once When NINJ Released No Replays in February 2026

The artist’s own website tells the story plainly. NINJ’s bio introduces a songwriter, rapper, beat maker and producer from Denver, Colorado. There are more than 20 years of making music behind them. The early chapters are hard ones. Alongside those house-party freestyles came poetry written in juvenile detention, and homelessness at 14. By the artist’s own account, music was the one thing that made sense. Over the years it became a craft: producing records, shaping a sound and building songs from the ground up.

What changed recently is the pace. The first releases on Spotify arrived in September 2025, with the single GANGSTA and the 14-track album AIGW. AIGW 2 followed in December. Then came the singles No Pressure and Vibes in January 2026, and The NINJ & The Geisha’s on 13 February. Since then the run has barely paused. Operation Heavy Rotation landed in April, the 26-track Denver’s Finest in June and the 27-track Fresh Air in August. In December 2025, HipHopEargasm covered the single 12 True Colors. It reported that the song dated back more than two decades and had only now reached its finished form. That detail explains the speed. A long archive is finally coming out.

Listeners who value that kind of patience will find familiar company here. J. Cole built much of his reputation on producing his own beats and writing reflective verses about where he came from. NINJ works the same way, building the instrumental and the lyric together. Fans of Nipsey Hussle will also recognise the theme of persistence. His long-running The Marathon series turned keeping going into a creed. No Replays shares that conviction, delivered as melodic rap.

No Replays Looks Back at the Parties, Then Pulls Away

The most careful reading of the song so far came from the Spanish-language Revista Soundloop, on 22 February 2026. Its writer heard melodic rap, a sharp lyric and solid production. The review also traced how the verses move. The first half is full of remembered motion: parties, reckless youth, friendship, fast money and excess. Images of a rollercoaster, Mardi Gras, winter and turning wheels keep it moving.

Then the song interrupts itself. A recurring phrase, “But it’s time”, cuts across the nostalgia each time it starts to settle. The review read it as the point where memory gives way to maturity. Later, mentions of friends who are gone turn the look back toward grief. Even so, the vehicle in the lyric keeps rolling forward. That is why the title line lands the way it does: “these movies ain’t got no replays”.

Watch the video and check the artist’s YouTube channel for more.

NINJ on Time, Loss and the Making of No Replays

Why NINJ Built No Replays Around a Refrain That Cuts the Nostalgia Short

That refrain also answers the question the catalogue raises: why is all this music arriving now? Revista Soundloop summed the song up as the moment someone understands that youth does not return. The only workable response, it argued, is to persist. In other words, the title is the thesis. Life offers no rehearsal, only the performance. So a writer sitting on two decades of songs has every reason to release them.

NINJ’s own description of the style fits the track closely. The artist talks about blending melodic rap with sharp lyricism and real emotion. The subjects are struggle, growth, discipline, identity and resilience. Some songs hit hard, and some are reflective. No Replays sits firmly on the reflective side, with a trap-leaning hip-hop sound under the melody. It stays warm in tone even when the subject turns to loss.

It has found listeners who share that taste. Hot New Songs Blog picked the track up on 23 February 2026 and filed it under hip-hop and rap. Meanwhile, the coverage around the album keeps returning to one theme: memory turned into motivation.

Where No Replays Sits on The NINJ and The Geisha’s

On the album, the song follows the opener Change The Song (Intro), then Vibes, Ghost Coastin’, No Pressure and Ever Present. After it come Man Up, Matador and Geisha Face. Vibes makes a useful companion. In February 2026, Blaze Muse and Kindline Magazine both heard it as a reflective record about memory and the people it honours. Together, the two tracks show the same writer looking at the past from two angles: one fond, one firm.

NewMusic.News’s curator team: “No Replays is a nostalgic hip-hop record with a deadline built into it. Every time the memories start to pull, the refrain pulls the song forward again, and that tension is what makes it worth a second listen.”

Start with No Replays and listen for the moments the refrain breaks the flashback. Then go back to Vibes on the same album. Finally, play Denver’s Finest to hear where the writing has gone since.

Stream NINJ on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and SoundCloud. Watch the official videos on YouTube, and find every release on the YouTube channel. Read more on the official site. Then follow along on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X.

The Long Way to Yours Faithfully, OneNamedPeter’s Album Signed off Like a Letter

Esther Winslow

October 7, 2026

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By Will Lisil / October 10, 2026

Article Cinematic Classical Featured Music News

Return Trip on Film Scenes, Spanish Roots and the Making of ReScore

A Cádiz-Based Composer Writes New Music for Scenes From The Sheltering Sky and Cosmos Laundromat

On 17 June 2023, musicians from the European Recording Orchestra gathered in Sofia. They were there to record new music for a scene from Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Sheltering Sky. The composer was Martin Jeremy Richardson, the Cádiz-based writer behind Return Trip. That session became the heart of ReScore, the Return Trip EP of film music he rescored and reimagined, released in 2024.

Return Trip’s ReScore sits in the playlist below with the jazz, classical and modern composition this desk follows. The project’s coverage is collected on the Return Trip profile. The EP reached NewMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Press play on the first cue, then read on for how the scores were made.

Return Trip on Film Scenes, Spanish Roots and the Making of ReScore

From Spanish Folk Arrangements to Film Scenes, the Moment Return Trip Turned Towards the Screen

The name explains where the project started. As Carousel has noted, Return Trip is the English for the Spanish idea of ida y vuelta. It describes music that travelled from Spain to Central and South America, then came back home in a changed form. Richardson has lived in Spain for many years. Since 2018 he has built the project around that idea. Records such as Seven Spanish Songs and Spanish Roots arrange traditional Spanish and Mediterranean material.

He also brought a second training to the work. He studied composition at the Open College of Arts, Berklee College of Music and the Film Scoring Academy of Europe. ReScore is where that film training finally took the lead. Rescoring means writing new music for a scene that already exists. As a result, the picture stays the same while the feeling around it changes. In other words, it is an exercise film composers use to show what they would have done. Richardson turned five of those exercises into a release.

That turn now looks like the start of something larger. For example, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra performed his Zambomba! A Spanish Suite in July 2025. Tyler Austin conducted it at the Sofia Symphonic Summit. Later that year, the ClassicArt ensemble commissioned and played an ensemble version of the same piece in Plovdiv. Returning to ReScore now shows how that path began.

Five Pieces Recorded in Sofia, From a Trio to a Full Orchestra

The EP opens with Sheltering Sky. It is music for a grief scene from the 1990 film starring Debra Winger and John Malkovich. According to Indieoclock, it begins with cello and violin over subtle keys. Then comes Olivia, written for the opening scene of a film of the same name. It is built around piano and features Tom McCluskey and Jess Townsend. Two pieces then come from Cosmos Laundromat, the 2015 animated short from the Blender Institute. The Ocean features percussionist Reinaldo Ocando. It also brings the most playful writing on the set, with what Sistra called whimsical pizzicato.

The closer, Under a Sheltering Sky, returns to Bertolucci’s film with the European Recording Orchestra, conducted by Nikola Petrov. Good Music Radar heard quivering violin lines, ruminative piano and accordion in it. As a result, the EP ranges from chamber trios to a full orchestra. Reviewers singled out that breadth when it arrived.

Watch the video and check the artist’s YouTube channel for more.

Return Trip on Film Scenes, Spanish Roots and the Making of ReScore

What ReScore Answers When a Familiar Scene Gets a New Score From Return Trip

A rescore asks a simple question: how much of a scene’s feeling comes from its music? The Sheltering Sky is a demanding test. After all, its original score by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Richard Horowitz won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score. Richardson’s task was never to copy that music. Instead, a rescore asks for a new response to the same grief, so the scene can be read differently.

The Spanish thread never disappears either. One of the recordings he made for the Cosmos Laundromat rescore is a tanguillo for violin, cello and piano. The tanguillo is a flamenco rhythm closely tied to Cádiz. That instinct, bringing a Spanish accent into film music, has a famous precedent. Alberto Iglesias carried a distinctly Spanish voice from his scores for Pedro Almodóvar into international films. Along the way, he earned four Academy Award nominations. ReScore works on a much smaller scale, yet it points in the same direction.

Who ReScore Is For

This EP suits listeners who come to classical music through film. It also suits anyone who enjoys hearing a familiar scene in a new light. Similarly, it rewards anyone who follows Spanish folk forms into new settings. The accordion and the tanguillo carry Spanish colour into orchestral writing. Finally, it is a good way into Return Trip’s catalogue for readers who have only heard his concert work. On 31 May 2024 Richardson also posted the rescored scenes on YouTube. That way, each piece can be watched against the pictures it was written for.

From the NewMusic.News Curator Team: “The detail we keep coming back to is the tanguillo hidden inside an absurdist short film about a sheep. It tells you how Richardson listens: the film sets the scene, but the rhythm still comes from home. That is what turns a rescoring exercise into a personal record.”

Where to Hear ReScore and Follow Return Trip

Hear ReScore on Spotify or SoundCloud, or start with the rescored Cosmos Laundromat scene above.

Follow Return Trip across platforms:

The Long Way to Yours Faithfully, OneNamedPeter’s Album Signed off Like a Letter

Esther Winslow

October 7, 2026

A Sussex Songwriter Gathers a Year of Singles Into an Album Framed as a Letter The Yours Faithfully album opens…

Inside Proceed 2: How Kennard Built a Baltimore R&B Album From Loss and Patience

Esther Winslow

October 6, 2026

A Baltimore Singer Spent Two Years on Eight Songs About Grief, Love and Old-School Soul In 2011, after his grandmother…

WIL.SON on One Guitar, a Stomp-Box and the Making of Blues Tourist: Vol. 1

Johnny Marr Road-Tested The Age of Everything Before Recording It

Ada Rovatti on Piloo, Her Late Father and the Making of Done Deal

Inside Husk: How Scarecrowz Built a Self-Produced Hard Rock Album in Their 25th Year

Inside Walking the Tightrope: How Stephanie Phillips Built a Folk Album Between Grief and Joy

Inside Into The Night: How Seadog Built a Haunted Dream Pop Single in Brighton

Inside On y va: How Hub30 Built a Feel-Good Song From Reggae, House and a Bordeaux Lake

Erick Castrillon on the Singularity, Generative AI and the Making of The Great Awakening

The Long Way to From Local to Global: The Remix That Closes the Spitfire Sparks Album

Inside Délires d’une Mélomane: How KA BERRA Built a Rap About Masks

Oops I Got Sad Is Little Champion’s Upbeat Answer to Ghosting

The Long Way to Forever: Gio 22/6, Rado Ricky and Five Years of Soft R&B Production

By Esther Winslow / October 8, 2026

Article Cinematic Featured Music News Pop

The Long Way to CRYING STARS: Alex Shkudun on a Year of Poems, Piano and Three Languages

A Ukrainian Songwriter Looks Down on Fallen Empires, Floods and Towers From the Night Sky

Before CRYING STARS existed, Alex Shkudun had to decide who its hero was and where the story would stand. He chose to stand nowhere on the ground at all, and handed the point of view to the stars, silent witnesses to war, fear and broken promises. The cinematic pop ballad came out on 3 April 2026, and it grows from piano-driven verses into a full orchestral chorus.

Alex Shkudun’s CRYING STARS sits in the playlist below with the pop and singer-songwriter records this desk returns to. His coverage so far is gathered on his artist profile. The single reached NewMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Press play, then stay with the story of how it was made.

The Long Way to CRYING STARS: Alex Shkudun on a Year of Poems, Piano and Three Languages

A Notebook of Poems, a Year of Experiments and How Alex Shkudun Arrived at CRYING STARS

Shkudun is a Kyiv-born Ukrainian songwriter now based in Spain, and his own website reads like a long notebook. He has written there that he loved writing poems and stories from childhood. Some of those texts sat in notebooks for years. What changed, by his account, was the arrival of AI music tools about a year before the summer of 2026. For the first time, he could hear his own lyrics as finished songs.

He is careful about where the line sits. The tools can offer a melody, an arrangement or a voice, he writes. However, they cannot decide what the song is for, or what a listener should feel after the last chord. So before any of that, he works out the hero of the song, their conflict, their past and their state of mind. Sometimes a single line comes first. At other times it is the closing scene of a video he has not made yet.

Alex Shkudun released CRYING STARS in the middle of a steady run of singles. Trust Destiny came out in March, No Time in May, and KYIV AFTER MIDNIGHT in June. This one is the most direct about its purpose. Shkudun describes it as a humanitarian plea rather than a political argument. It is written from above, instead of from one country, one conflict or one generation.

Piano Verses, Atmospheric Synths and an Orchestral Climax

The arrangement follows the argument. The verses are led by piano, with atmospheric synths gathering behind them, and orchestral swells then carry the song into a large chorus. Across four minutes and forty-three seconds, it moves from quiet reflection toward a final climax. In effect, it is the musical version of a camera pulling back from one street to the whole map.

The imagery is old on purpose. Fallen empires, ancient monuments, floods and towers stand in for every period that thought it had learned something. Meanwhile, the stars watch children learn fear before they should ever have to, and that detail gives the song its weight. On 10 May 2026 he also added an official video on YouTube, credited as written, created and produced by Shkudun and brought to life with AI.

Watch the video and check the artist’s YouTube channel for more.

The Long Way to CRYING STARS: Alex Shkudun on a Year of Poems, Piano and Three Languages

What CRYING STARS Asks About Progress and Why Its Answer Is a Plea for Children

The question at the centre of the song is a simple one. If people keep repeating the same patterns, does progress mean anything at all? Seen from the stars, the usual sides disappear, so the song cannot pick a winner. Instead, it lands on the one thing everybody below can agree on: the violence has to stop before another generation of children pays for it.

That move has a long history in pop. John Lennon wrote Imagine in 1971 and asked listeners to picture a world without borders between nations, over a plain piano part. CRYING STARS borrows that wide frame and turns it toward history rather than utopia. Sting offers a second reference point. His 1987 song Fragile is a quiet lament about how little violence achieves, and he also sang it in Spanish and Portuguese for the 1988 EP Nada como el sol.

One Song in Three Languages

That last detail matters here, because Shkudun works the same way. In July 2026 Alex Shkudun released CRYING STARS again, in Ukrainian on 4 July and in Russian on 31 July. He has written that a language version is never a literal translation. Each language has its own rhythm, word length and stress, so lines, rhymes and even some images have to change before the song sounds natural. As a result, the plea reaches three audiences in their own words.

Who CRYING STARS by Alex Shkudun Is For

This is a song for listeners of cinematic pop and big emotional ballads who want the lyric to carry a real question. It suits anyone drawn to socially conscious music about history, war and children, and it does so without asking them to take a side. It will also interest listeners who are curious about how songwriters use AI tools while keeping the words, the concept and the creative direction in their own hands.

From the NewMusic.News Curator Team: “What stays with us is the vantage point. Most songs about conflict are written from inside one side of it. CRYING STARS is written from a distance where the sides stop mattering, which is why its request to protect children sounds like common sense rather than a slogan.”

Where to Hear CRYING STARS and Follow Alex Shkudun

Stream CRYING STARS on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube Music, or start with the official video above.

Follow Alex Shkudun across platforms:

The Long Way to Yours Faithfully, OneNamedPeter’s Album Signed off Like a Letter

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Inside Ghosts: How Abby Power Built a London Rap Single About Staying Yourself with SamXVI

A London Rapper and Her Long-Time Producer Turn Self-Discovery and Illusion Into Emo Rap

Abby Power wrote and performed every lyric on Ghosts, while SamXVI produced, mixed and mastered it and added the backing vocals behind her. Released on April 26, 2024, the single blends emo rap, hip-hop and political hip-hop around one question. How do you stay yourself in a world full of illusions?

Abby Power’s Ghosts sits in the playlist below with the conscious hip-hop and producer rap this desk keeps close. The Abby Power profile keeps all of the coverage in one place. The single reached NewMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Give it a spin, then keep reading for the story of how it was made.

Inside Ghosts: How Abby Power Built a London Rap Single About Staying Yourself with SamXVI

Ghosts by Abby Power Gets a Second Life on Her New EP, Due on October 23, 2026

The timing of this feature is no accident. Ghosts is being re-released on Power’s latest EP, which arrives on October 23, 2026. She expects that to give the song a second life. The EP is What The Fire Couldn’t Take, credited to Abby Power x SamXVI, and its artwork lists Ghosts as track nine of ten. Her Linktree already carries a pre-save for it.

That makes this a good moment to look back at where the song came from. First of all, Power has been writing since she was 14 or 15 and recording since she was 16, she told Artistic Echoes in 2022. She was signed to an independent label at 17 and stepped away from music at 21. Then she came back during the 2020 lockdown. The same interview marked her win in the Syncr Music Competition with Shades of Blue. Earlier, in February 2021, BBC Radio London had played her single Thoughts of an Artist on The Scene with Amelia Poamz, where she talked about her work on air.

Since that return, however, SamXVI has become her most frequent collaborator. Her Bandcamp page lists his production on Free Palestine, Problems, Savage, Glass House, Same Poor and Chargie!, and Ghosts belongs to that same run of singles.

The Credits Behind Ghosts and the Song’s Fight to Stay Authentic Among Illusions

The credits split the work cleanly. Power wrote and performed the lyrics and the hook. SamXVI produced, mixed and mastered the track and sang the backing vocals. In other words, one voice carries the argument and another stands just behind it, which suits a song about holding on to yourself.

Meanwhile, Power’s own description of the song is direct. Ghosts deals with the complexities of self-discovery and the struggle to stay authentic in a world full of illusions. It is introspective first, yet it never drifts far from the sharp social commentary that runs through her work. Her catalogue shows the same instinct elsewhere, most plainly on Free Palestine.

Writing From the Bedroom for Listeners Who Feel the Same

In fact, almost all of her music is recorded in her bedroom, she told Folded Waffle in April 2024. In the same spotlight, the North West London artist said she writes from her own perspective. Sometimes she is talking to herself and sometimes to the audience, but she always aims to reach someone who can relate and realise they are not alone.

The single did not wait long for a response. Four days after release, The Wild Is Calling picked it up in a Hip Hop Discovery round-up. The writer described her as swift and catchy, with a percussive cadence, and noted that she moves into a sung voice for the chorus sections. The piece also added Ghosts to its Best Hip Hop 2024 playlist.

Watch the video and check the artist’s YouTube channel for more.

Inside Ghosts: How Abby Power Built a London Rap Single About Staying Yourself with SamXVI

What Ghosts Answers for Listeners Who Want Emo Rap Honesty With a Hip-Hop Backbone

The question Ghosts asks is one plenty of listeners carry around: how do you stay yourself when everything around you rewards a performance? Its answer is not a slogan. Instead, it is a set of verses that admit the struggle and a delivery that moves between rapping and singing as the feeling demands.

That switch is the clearest link to the influences The Wild Is Calling listed for her. Lauryn Hill made moving between bars and melody inside a single song feel natural on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Meanwhile, Mos Def showed on Black on Both Sides that conscious rap could be reflective and personal rather than preachy. Ghosts works in both of those registers at once.

Who Ghosts by Abby Power Is For

This is a song for listeners who came up on emo rap’s openness but still want the discipline of a real verse. It also suits fans of UK rap who prefer introspection to bravado. Likewise, it suits anyone who follows underground hip-hop for the writing. Finally, it is a strong entry point into her catalogue ahead of the new EP. Because so much of that catalogue was built with SamXVI, Ghosts works as a fair sample of the partnership at its most reflective.

From the NewMusic.News Curator Team: “What we keep returning to on Ghosts is how the credits mirror the subject. Abby Power wrote and delivered every word herself, and SamXVI built the world around her, from the beat to the backing vocals to the master. For a song about staying yourself among illusions, that clear line between author and architect is part of the point.”

Where to Stream Ghosts by Abby Power and Follow the North West London Rapper

Start with the official visual above, then hear Ghosts again on Bandcamp, where every credit is listed. Before October 23, you can also pre-save the new EP so the second life of the song lands in your library on release day.

Follow Abby Power across platforms:

The Long Way to Yours Faithfully, OneNamedPeter’s Album Signed off Like a Letter

Esther Winslow

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Brett Miller on Self-Doubt, One Second of Hope and the Making of Heaven

A South Florida Songwriter’s 2021 Single Turns Self-Doubt Into a Hopeful Acoustic Pop Refrain

On January 15, 2021, Brett Miller released Heaven, with its official video live on YouTube from midnight Eastern time. The acoustic singer-songwriter single opens on a plain admission, a man asking why he is scared to show his cards. From there, it spends just under four minutes talking him out of his own way. Five years on, Miller has returned to it as the track to lead with. Its question, what a life without regrets would take, still reads clearly.

Brett Miller’s Heaven sits in the playlist below with the singer-songwriter pop this desk keeps returning to. The full run of coverage sits on the Brett Miller profile. The single reached NewMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Press play once, then keep reading for the story behind the song.

Brett Miller on Self-Doubt, One Second of Hope and the Making of Heaven

Brett Miller Released Heaven in January 2021, the Year He Left New York for His Home State of Florida

By the time Heaven came out, Miller had spent four years releasing his own music. He started in 2017 with the Something Beautiful EP. A year later, while living and performing around New York City, he opened for Social House. He also opened for Zara Larsson at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. His official biography then marks 2021 as the year he left New York for his home state of Florida. So Heaven sits right at the turn between the city years and the Florida ones.

The single also arrived finished. Chaz Mazzota filmed and edited the official video, which went out on release day. The description beneath it carried the complete lyric for anyone who wanted to follow along. Less than two weeks later, Miller’s own brettmillerlive account added a chord chart for the song to Ultimate Guitar. The chart sets a capo on the first fret and keeps to standard tuning. Its verses rest on three familiar shapes: G, E minor over B, and Cadd9.

Fans of Jason Mraz will know those shapes. Guitarists usually play his I’m Yours with the same G, D, E minor and C forms. They just put the capo higher up the neck. In other words, the chart invites you to play the song as well as hear it.

The Pre-Chorus Where Heaven Turns Self-Doubt Into an Instruction to Get Out of His Own Way

The song builds itself around a short moment. The chorus asks for a single second of imagination. That second is long enough to picture a life with no regrets, full of magic and free of tragedy. Miller is honest about the resistance waiting on the other side. The world, he sings, will try to shut him down. But he only loses if he lets it. Heaven in this song is therefore a decision rather than a destination.

The Verses Brett Miller Wrote So the Chorus of Heaven Could Land

What makes that chorus land is the honesty of the verses around it. The first verse describes years of talking to himself. Those years have turned him into someone else, a stranger playing a part. Next, the pre-chorus admits his head is getting hazy. He does not know which way to go. Then the song makes the turn that drives it: he needs to get out of his own way, right now. He cannot keep lying to himself either. The second verse goes further still and describes a mind in disguise as a hero. That is the kind of inner voice that sounds helpful while it keeps you exactly where you are.

By the bridge, the language has narrowed to almost nothing. Only one way, he repeats, only one way to go. After two verses of second-guessing, that repetition sounds like a man finally agreeing with himself. The harmony shows the same restraint. The verses circle three shapes, while the chorus lifts from Cadd9 to G to D. It also hangs briefly on a Dsus4 under the line about a life with no regrets, and then it resolves.

The song has kept a life on stage, too. In December 2024, a YouTube clip showed Miller playing it acoustically at The Garden Room in Nashville. It is a sign that Heaven kept its place in his live sets long after release.

Watch the video and check the artist’s YouTube channel for more.

Brett Miller on Self-Doubt, One Second of Hope and the Making of Heaven

What Heaven Answers for Listeners Who Love Acoustic Singer-Songwriter Pop With a Hopeful Streak

The question Heaven asks is one most listeners recognise: how do you stop standing in your own way? Its answer is practical rather than mystical. First, you picture the life you want for one second. Then you accept that the world will push back. Finally, you refuse to be the one who gives up first. Miller frames that answer in the blend he has made his own. It joins acoustic singer-songwriter intimacy with contemporary pop sensibilities. As a result, the song carries the weight of a confession and stays easy to sing along to.

The same conviction runs through how Miller talks about his work. In a 2024 interview with Shoutout Miami, he called playing it safe the bigger risk. In a 2022 conversation with CanvasRebel, he explained how he built a full-time life in music. That life rests on performing, songwriting and the original releases he has put out since 2017.

Who Heaven by Brett Miller Is For

This is a song for listeners who like acoustic pop that says hopeful things plainly. Anyone drawn to Andy Grammer will recognise the intent. His Keep Your Head Up turned a pep talk into a pop chorus about a decade before Heaven. It also suits guitar players looking for an intermediate song with a real lyric to sing. The chart sits at that level and needs nothing more than a capo.

From the NewMusic.News Curator Team: “What we keep returning to is where Miller places the title. The verses never describe Heaven. It arrives only as the last word of each chorus, after the pre-chorus admits he cannot keep lying to himself. So the reward always follows the confession. That order is a small songwriting decision, and it is why the hopeful ending feels earned.”

Where to Stream Heaven by Brett Miller and Follow the South Florida Singer-Songwriter

Start with the official video above, with the full lyric open in its description. Then let the single sit in your rotation for a few days. Heaven is also on Apple Music, and the release has its own page on Spotify.

Follow Brett Miller across platforms:

The Long Way to Yours Faithfully, OneNamedPeter’s Album Signed off Like a Letter

Esther Winslow

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The Long Way to Yours Faithfully, OneNamedPeter’s Album Signed off Like a Letter

A Sussex Songwriter Gathers a Year of Singles Into an Album Framed as a Letter

The Yours Faithfully album opens with a 94-second song called Dear Me. That one decision tells you how to read everything after it. OneNamedPeter, the Sussex-based UK singer-songwriter, built his new record like a letter. It runs from a greeting at the top to the formal sign-off in its title. It came out on September 25, 2026, after a year in which five of its songs arrived first as singles.

OneNamedPeter’s Dear Me, the greeting that opens Yours Faithfully, is in the playlist below. His full run of coverage sits on his artist profile. The album reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Give it a spin, then read on for how the rest of the letter comes together.

The Long Way to Yours Faithfully, OneNamedPeter’s Album Signed off Like a Letter

Five Singles Across 2026 Led Up to the Yours Faithfully Album and Its Letter-Shaped Running Order

The album was a long time arriving, one song at a time. Strange-Eyed Constellations came out on New Year’s Day. United Nations followed in February, and The Loneliest Boy in Tokyo in April. Then When the Sky Is Blue landed at the end of August. It was also issued in a separate Celestial Version. Finally, Click appeared two weeks before the album itself. In addition, three of those songs got their own music videos on his YouTube channel.

Most artists would let a run like that stand as a string of separate releases. OneNamedPeter decided to gather the five into a single record, alongside six songs that had not been out as singles. Then he gave the whole thing a frame. Dear Me is the salutation. Love Is, under three minutes long, is the closing line. The title is the sign-off you would write under both. His own website now greets visitors as though they were the person the letter is addressed to.

That frame matters because it turns a year of drip-fed singles into something that reads in order. Heard one at a time, The Loneliest Boy in Tokyo and Click were simply new songs. Heard between Dear Me and Love Is, however, they become paragraphs in the same piece of correspondence.

Eleven Songs in 35 Minutes Carry OneNamedPeter’s Alt-Folk and Alt Rock Pop Further After Passing for Human

Yours Faithfully runs to eleven songs and 35 minutes, and it is self-released, with OneNamedPeter holding the rights to the recordings. The shortest track is the opening greeting. The longest is The Loneliest Boy in Tokyo at 4 minutes 25 seconds. It was also the third of the five singles. Meanwhile, the record moves between alt-folk, alt-country and alt rock pop, and Apple Music files it under pop and singer-songwriter.

The song titles sketch an album that travels a long way from its starting point. There is a lonely boy in Tokyo, the United Nations and a Night In the City. There are Strange-Eyed Constellations, a Renegade Angel and even a Tardis. Finally, the closing Love Is brings it back home. For a record shaped like a letter, that sense of distance between writer and reader fits.

It also follows quickly on its predecessor. Obscure Sound reviewed Passing for Human in December 2025. It described a solo-made album born from a renewed burst of inspiration after a three-year pause. That review heard reflective folk, rock energy and a dreamy synth layer. The songs dealt with alienation, love and wanting to escape a small town. Yours Faithfully arrived less than a year later, which suggests the burst has not run out yet.

Watch the video and check the artist’s YouTube channel for more.

The Long Way to Yours Faithfully, OneNamedPeter’s Album Signed off Like a Letter

Who Yours Faithfully Is For

This is for album listeners who like British singer-songwriter pop that moves between acoustic folk and rock. It also suits anyone who enjoys a record with a frame around it. When Obscure Sound reviewed Passing for Human, it reached for two names, and both work as reference points here. XTC made sharply written English pop with jangling guitars. For example, records such as Skylarking (1986) showed how far a pop album could go when sequenced as one piece. Momus, the long-running project of Nick Currie, built a catalogue of literate, wry songs that moved from acoustic folk into synth-pop. That overlaps with the folk-to-synth range Obscure Sound heard on Passing for Human.

Where Yours Faithfully Sits in His Catalogue

OneNamedPeter has been releasing albums steadily since 2020. The run goes from Esc and Atlas that year through Stupidly Happy, Hurts, Pan and Passing for Human. Each one gets its own page on his website, with songs, videos and lyrics. As a result, the catalogue is easy to explore from the start. Yours Faithfully is the newest entry, and it is shaped as a single message from beginning to end.

From the NewMusic.News curator team:

“Plenty of albums are collections of singles that never quite admit it. This one admits it gracefully. By opening on a short greeting and closing on a short reply, OneNamedPeter gives a year of separate releases a reason to sit together. The running order does the work a concept album usually needs a narrator for.”

Where to Stream the Yours Faithfully Album and Follow OneNamedPeter, a Sussex Songwriter

The Spotify player at the top of this article streams all eleven songs of Yours Faithfully. The album is also on Apple Music. In addition, the video for The Loneliest Boy in Tokyo is on his YouTube channel.

Follow OneNamedPeter on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and Deezer. He also posts on Instagram, Facebook, and X. His official site has a page for every album, with lyrics and videos.

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Inside Proceed 2: How Kennard Built a Baltimore R&B Album From Loss and Patience

A Baltimore Singer Spent Two Years on Eight Songs About Grief, Love and Old-School Soul

In 2011, after his grandmother died, Kennard thought about giving up music. He kept going instead, and the word he chose for that decision became a personal movement: proceed. Proceed 2, the eight-track album Kennard released on 22 August 2025 after two years of work, carries that name and mixes R&B, neo-soul and hip-hop.

Kennard’s Cater 2 U, Pt. 2 opens Proceed 2 and now sits in the playlist below with the desk’s other R&B and neo-soul picks, while Kennard’s artist profile keeps the full run of coverage. The album came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Press play before you read on.

Inside Proceed 2: How Kennard Built a Baltimore R&B Album From Loss and Patience

Thirteen Months On, Kennard and Proceed 2 Still Carry the Movement He Started in 2011

Thirteen months later, the album is worth hearing again, and the timing makes sense. The Baltimore singer performs regularly in New York and has played events in Philadelphia. He has also named his next project, East vs West, featuring the Los Angeles musician Jamonie Lee. Until that arrives, Proceed 2 is the clearest statement of where he stands.

A Movement Named Proceed and a Debut Single in 2022

The recorded catalogue starts later than the movement. His debut single, 1 Life, came out in January 2022. Hello, Lay You Down, Good Time, Confused and All in My Mind followed across 2022 and 2023. Proceed 2 is the first album in that run, and he took his time with it. His own notes on the record put it plainly: Rome was not built in a day, and music is an art, so there is no reason to rush it.

Eight Songs Recorded at Wright Way Studios in Baltimore, With One Guest Verse From Jamonie Lee

The record runs for about 22 minutes across eight songs. It opens with Cater 2 U, Pt. 2, the shortest track at just under two minutes. Then it moves through Keep Me Company, Simple Things, True Colors, Maintenance, Feel Good Music and Rain before closing on I Just Gotta Know.

The music sits where Kennard says his heart is. He has said he loves old-school music, its stories and its authentic feel, and that he set out to tell a story and bring back the good old R&B. Mesmerized heard that in smooth, bouncy R&B, with modern, tropical and afro-infused rhythms under 90s-flavoured melodies. The site also pointed to the contrast between Cater 2 U, Pt. 2 and Simple Things. Meanwhile, Senocular Media heard lush melodies and slick bass lines, and Mexico’s End Sessions covered the album in September 2025.

Grief, Patience and One Guest Verse From Los Angeles

The writing comes from life. Kennard drew on daily experience and on loss: his aunt died four years before the release, and his uncle the year before. Rain is where that grief sits closest to the surface. Elsewhere, the songs turn to love and to the simple things.

I Just Gotta Know asks a question anyone in a new relationship will recognise: is the other person in as deep as you are? Kennard told BuzzSlayers the song came from watching people move fast in relationships without getting to know each other first. It is also the album’s only collaboration. Jamonie Lee comes in for a verse and plays the other side of the conversation. Like the rest of the album, the track was recorded at Wright Way Studios in Baltimore.

Inside Proceed 2: How Kennard Built a Baltimore R&B Album From Loss and Patience

Why Proceed 2 Still Answers the Question Kennard Asked in 2011, and Where He Goes Next

The first answer is personal. Proceed 2 is what the 2011 decision looks like 14 years later: a singer who kept going, wrote through loss and took two years to get the record right.

The second answer is about lineage. Baltimore has its own R&B history, and Dru Hill is its best-known chapter. The group formed in the city in 1992 and found its audience in the late 1990s with singles such as In My Bed and Never Make a Promise, mixing soul, hip-hop soul and gospel. That 90s R&B is the sound Kennard says he wants back, and Mesmerized heard that decade in his melodies.

The third answer is about neo-soul. D’Angelo, widely regarded as a pioneer of the neo-soul movement, is the reference point for the warmer side of the record. Kennard works in the same blend, moving between R&B, neo-soul and rap across the album rather than switching once for effect.

So who is it for? First, listeners who grew up on 90s R&B and want new songs with the same storytelling. Second, neo-soul fans who like their albums short and personal. Finally, anyone in New York or Philadelphia who wants to hear these songs live.

From the NewMusic.News Curator Team: “Twenty-two minutes is a modest length for an album that took two years, and that is the point: Proceed 2 has no filler to skip. Start with Rain, then go back to the beginning and hear how the record gets there.”

How to Hear Proceed 2 and Where to Follow Kennard Across Every Platform

Play it in order, because the sequence moves from romance to grief and back to the question at the end. Then follow the singles back to 1 Life to hear where the movement started on record. The album is also on Apple Music.

Follow Kennard across platforms:

Stream: Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer
Watch: the YouTube channel
Follow: Instagram and Facebook
Read more: the official website

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WIL.SON on One Guitar, a Stomp-Box and the Making of Blues Tourist: Vol. 1

A West Yorkshire Songwriter Records Eight of His Songs as He Plays Them Live

In June 2026, WIL.SON went back to an old song, and it became the first step towards Blues Tourist: Vol. 1. Devil On My Shoulder first appeared on Serpentine, his 2016 debut solo album. He recorded it again the way he plays it live: one guitar, his voice and a stomp-box, with no overdubs. Three weeks later, on 10 July, the West Yorkshire singer-songwriter applied the same rule to eight songs and had a stripped-back blues album.

WIL.SON’s Devil On My Shoulder, the opening song of Blues Tourist: Vol. 1, is in the playlist below, and his earlier coverage sits on his artist profile. The album reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Give it a spin, then read on.

WIL.SON on One Guitar, a Stomp-Box and the Making of Blues Tourist: Vol. 1

Ten Years After Serpentine, WIL.SON Records Blues Tourist With Just One Guitar and a Stomp-Box

The timing makes sense. Ten years after Serpentine, WIL.SON has four studio albums behind him: Serpentine (2016), Afraid Of The World (2019), Black Is The Sky (2022) and Force Of Nature (2025). Every song on Blues Tourist: Vol. 1 comes from those records. This time, though, he kept only what he can play alone. The title also carries a volume number, which leaves room for more.

Three Decades of Writing Before One Guitar and a Stomp-Box

The decision also fits a long career. On his own site, WIL.SON says he has spent more than three decades writing, recording and performing. First came the 1990s live circuit with his band The Stand, including the Leeds venues The Duchess and The Cockpit. Later he formed the heavy rock band Down The Machine, signed with Ambicon Records and played Leeds Festival and Bingley Festival.

Meanwhile, he kept writing quieter songs. Those stripped-back acoustic tracks became the foundation of his first solo album. His first single as a solo performer, Closing In, came out in 2012. Since then he has played festivals across the UK, including The Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival. He has also shared stages with Toploader, and BBC Introducing’s Alan Raw has supported his music.

The blues thread runs back to the start, too. When the Spanish-language music site 120dB Bogotá covered Laying Low ahead of Force Of Nature, it described Serpentine as rooted in blues and alternative folk. The same article noted that radio stations from North Yorkshire to North Carolina had played songs from Black Is The Sky. It also pointed to the strings and piano around the guitar on Laying Low. Blues Tourist: Vol. 1 goes the other way.

Eight Songs From Serpentine to Force of Nature, Recorded Again With One Guitar and No Overdubs

The album opens with Devil On My Shoulder, the one song taken from Serpentine. Next come three from Afraid Of The World: Caught In The Rain, Coming Home and Snake And A Thief. After that, Black Is The Sky supplies three more, with Same Shit, Different Day, Don’t Wear Me Down and This Hell Of Mine. Finally, Don’t Get Me Wrong, first heard on Force Of Nature, closes the set in acoustic form.

The whole album runs for about 27 minutes, and no song passes four and a half minutes. Coming Home is the shortest at two minutes and 17 seconds, while Devil On My Shoulder is the longest at four minutes and 22 seconds. In other words, you can hear the set in one sitting and then follow each song back to its source album.

One Pass, One Guitar and a Foot on the Stomp-Box

The method is simple to describe. A stomp-box is a small box the player strikes with a foot, so it supplies the beat while both hands stay on the guitar. No overdubs means nothing was layered on afterwards. As a result, the guitar, the voice and the rhythm all come from the player in the room. On X, WIL.SON calls these recordings raw performances, caught as they happened.

His own site describes his sound as rock, blues, acoustic folk and alternative music, shaped by a love of honest but often dark songs. The titles here point the same way. Within eight tracks, a devil on the shoulder, a snake and a thief, and a private hell all turn up.

WIL.SON on One Guitar, a Stomp-Box and the Making of Blues Tourist: Vol. 1

Who Blues Tourist Is For, From John Lee Hooker Fans to Listeners New to WIL.SON

The first answer is practical. The album gives new listeners one clear way into a catalogue of four albums and more than a dozen singles. Anyone who starts here can trace each song back to the record it came from.

The second answer comes from blues history. In 1948, John Lee Hooker recorded Boogie Chillen’ as a solo performance: his voice, an electric guitar and rhythmic foot stomps. It was his debut release, and in 1949 it became the first down-home electric blues song to reach number one on the R&B chart. A stomp-box does the job Hooker’s foot did, turning one player into a rhythm section.

The third answer is closer to home. In Britain, Seasick Steve showed how far that setup can travel. On New Year’s Eve 2006 he played Dog House Boogie on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny, using a three-string guitar and a stomped wooden box he calls the Mississippi Drum Machine. After that show, his popularity in Britain took off. WIL.SON works with a similar kit: one guitar, one voice and a box under his foot.

So who is it for? It suits listeners who like one-player blues with plain-spoken, dark-edged titles. It also suits anyone who knew WIL.SON from the Leeds rock scene and never followed the solo albums.

From the NewMusic.News Curator Team: “Recording without overdubs leaves nowhere to hide, and that is the point of Blues Tourist: Vol. 1. It is the closest thing to a WIL.SON solo show you can hear at home, and it makes the original albums worth a second visit.”

How to Hear Blues Tourist and Where to Follow WIL.SON

Start with Devil On My Shoulder, then play the eight songs in order. After that, go back to the album each song came from and compare the two versions. If one song stays with you, its source album is the natural next step.

The album is also on Apple Music, and the album’s smartlink lists every other service. Then follow WIL.SON, who posts as Wilson Music UK, across platforms:

Stream: Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Bandcamp
Watch: the YouTube channel
Follow: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X
Read more: the official website

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