Garrett Anthony Rice's "Purple Man" arrives with its influences worn openly, yet refuses the lazy cosplay that so often accompanies tributes to the gods of psychedelic rock. The title alone—a clear nod to Hendrix's "Purple Haze"—could have spelled disaster, the sort of reverential exercise that mistakes imitation for craft. Instead, Rice has produced a track that speaks to Hendrix's spirit without attempting to channel his ghost.

The partnership between John Davis and Phil Noah, operating under the banner For You Brother, presents itself with an earnestness that has become increasingly rare in contemporary music. "Father Help Us," scheduled for release this coming August, arrives as an explicitly devotional work—a prayer rendered in verse and melody, unashamed of its spiritual intent.

Portugal's Dean RÖK arrives with the kind of assurance that makes you sit up and listen. "Falling in the Dark" announces this artist's reinvention with a prowling confidence, the sound of a musician who has shed previous skins to reveal something altogether more formidable. This is modern rock that refuses to apologize for its heft, blues-soaked and emotionally unsparing, delivered with the conviction of someone who has genuinely lived through the darkness the lyrics describe.

There's a particular weight that settles over music when artists attempt to reckon with society's darkest moments. The Boy Blue's single "Ruin Your Bliss", positions itself squarely within that difficult territory—a meditation on terrorism, collective trauma, and the irrevocable loss of societal innocence. It's ambitious, potentially problematic, and absolutely necessary terrain for contemporary songwriting to explore.

The Norwegian guitarist and composer Filip Dahl has spent decades navigating the corridors of rock music, from his formative years fronting bands in the 1970s through his celebrated tenure at Trondheim's Brygga Studio. His latest offering, "Learning to Breathe Again," arrives not with fanfare or bombast, but with the quiet confidence of a musician who has learned that the spaces between notes can speak as eloquently as the notes themselves.

Nashville's Glass Cabin have returned with their third studio album, and the results are nothing short of remarkable. "emmylou" finds the duo of Jess Brown and David Flint operating at the peak of their considerable powers, crafting a collection that honours the grand traditions of country rock while pushing the genre into unexpectedly dark and contemplative territory.

The dive bar has long served as both confessional and cathedral in American rock mythology, but rarely has one felt quite so weighted with consequence as the setting John Michael Hersey conjures for his twenty-first album. *Democracy* unfolds over the course of a single election night, trapping its cast of beautiful losers in a pressure cooker of anticipation, recrimination, and desperate hope. The conceit could easily have collapsed into theatrical contrivance or heavy-handed allegory. Instead, Hersey delivers his most accomplished work to date—a rock musical that earns its ambitions through meticulous characterisation and songs that cut to the bone.

Vancouver's Pennan Brae has crafted something genuinely refreshing with *Paint*, a seven-track collection that wears its influences not as a burden but as a badge of honour. This is no pastiche, no cynical exercise in retro-fetishism. Rather, it's a sincere and surprisingly accomplished homage to the kind of rock and roll that once ruled the airwaves when guitars still mattered and drummers were gods.

Robert Allen's DownTown Mystic has achieved the seemingly impossible—maintaining artistic integrity whilst becoming one of America's most successfully sync-licensed independent artists. With over 250 television and film placements to his credit, including Disney's *Flora and Ulysses* and the Bryan Cranston-led *Everything's Going to Be Great*, Allen has proven that commercial viability needn't come at the expense of craftsmanship. The *Mystic Highway* EP, arriving via The Orchard/Sony Music, demonstrates precisely why music supervisors and discerning listeners alike continue gravitating toward his work.

The opening bars of "Zwischen den Jahren" arrive with the hushed intimacy of a conversation held in half-light. Ostrocker, that most contemplative of East German rock's contemporary torchbearers, has crafted something that defies easy categorisation – neither straightforward rock ballad nor chamber piece, but rather a hybrid that draws strength from its refusal to settle into comfortable territory.