Melissa Kacar

"Mr. Mountebank" by Djo The Crux (Deluxe) gives so much more insight into the journey Djo took while writing this album and all of the different directions he could've taken with it narratively. It's more than just a regular deluxe album, it's more so a companion project of twelve songs that were written during the same creative period as The Crux , but didn't make the initial cut. That said, they don't feel like leftovers. Each track truly feels like a natural expansion of the time in his life that inspired this music, and collectively, they feel like a culmination of some of the more unhinged parts of himself that he had to work through to arrive at the final version of The Crux . "Mr. Mountebank" is one of my many favorites, he goes fully Djo XCX on it, diving into a wild and abrasive hyperpop sound that's completely different from anything he's made before. It offers a sharp commentary on fame and virality, especially in the wake of ...

As a part of her seven-date record store promo tour celebrating the release week of her long-awaited sophomore album Am I The Drama? , Cardi B made a stop at one of my favorite local record stores for a special meet and greet event. Spin Me Round, located in the Palmer Park Mall in Easton, Pennsylvania, was the second stop, the day after her album was released. It was so exciting to see one of my favorite local record stores included on this tour and I couldn't believe that she was actually in person for this event! Spin Me Round has built a massive platform across TikTok and Instagram and have definitely garnered a reputation as one of the most popular independent record stores in the North East. This is always one of my go-to record stores to visit for Record Store Day , early listening parties, and vinyl shopping in general, so it was cool to be able to see an artist as big as Cardi there! The price of admission was only about $15 and preordering a CD copy of Cardi's new al...

"The Good Side" stands out as one of the most heartfelt and introspective moments in Troye Sivan 's entire discography. Released as a part of his 2018 sophomore album Bloom , the track is a beautiful reflection on the aftermath of a breakup, but not necessarily from the perspective of heartbreak, but from the complicated view point of someone who was able to walk away from that relationship relatively unscathed emotionally. In an interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 Troye said, "This song's a little rough. It's basically about a breakup that I went through a while ago. You know, in a breakup, I think just the sheer nature of it, is that someone is going to get it rough. And I happened to be on the good side of things..."   "I got the good side of things, left you with both of the rings," Troye sings in the opening verse. "My fingers danced and swayed in the breeze, the change in the wind took you down to your knees, I got the good side of y...

"Missing Out". the lead single from Maya Hawke 's 2024 album Chaos Angel, is a sharp and self-aware reflection on her experience visiting a college town as an outsider. She grapples with the feeling that she may be missing out on an important coming-of-age chapter of life despite consciously choosing to take a different path.  Her songwriting is deeply specific and diaristic, not necessarily focused on being too relatable for the listener. Maya doesn't shy away being honest about her privileged, unconventional life and experiences growing up. "But I was born with my foot in thе door and my mind in the gutter and my guts on the floor", she sings.  Despite that, parts of this song are definitely very representative of the universal experience in your 20's and having disorienting feelings of imposter syndrome in a new environment. Lyrically it is self-depricating and funny as she sort of spirals within her own mind about this night. "Didn't think I...