By Music Directors

---

:: The fifteenth weekly recap is live! What an accomplishment; let’s hope these musical recommendations find a place in your heart this Super Bowl Sunday  

:: February 8, 2026

:: Puma Blue — Croak Dream

Genre: Alt. Lo-fi 

Release: Album 

Recommended Tracks: “Desire,” “Croak Dream,” “Hush,” “Jaded”

Croak Dream is a nocturnal jungle of lo-fi beats and subtle jazz; it’s dark but isn’t gloomy. Grooves snake through the air. Jacob Allen’s soft falsetto traverses through the fog. Puma Blue’s most recent dreamscape is mystifying and sensual. Croak Dream is an abstraction of nighttime in lo-fi form.

— Jonathan Sackett

Ratboys – Singin’ to an Empty Chair

Genre: Indie Rock

Release: Album

Recommended Tracks: “Know You Then,” “Anywhere,” “What’s Right?”

Singin’ to an Empty Chair is an oscillating fusion of indie rock and alt-country, not just between tracks but also within each track. A standard song progression on this album starts with soft vocals, structural drums, and acoustic guitar, suddenly bursting into pure rock. The acoustic gets traded for an electric, the drums become crash cymbal heavy, and Julia Steiner’s vocals become energized. Songs like “Penny in the Lake” and “Strange Love” play into the low-tempo barnyard feel, whereas “Know You Then” and “Anywhere” radiate concert rock energy. Fans of the band Wednesday will get flashbacks to Bleeds in how both bands can hotswap genres so quickly, that the only constant in the blur of motion is the lead singer’s distinct voice. Ratboys is the best thing to come out of South Bend, Indiana since Pete Buttigieg and the Notre Dame football team. 

— Jacob Bennett

Keni Titus — AngelPink

Genre: Indie Pop

Release: Album

Recommended Tracks: “hands to myself,” “man like you,” “off day,” “pretty in pink”

Keni Titus is truly that girl, with a matcha in one hand and a cigarette in the other. AngelPink channels a distinctly feminine, Pinterest-coded “clean girl” aesthetic through soft, understated vocals and organic acoustic instrumentation. “pretty in pink” ties the album together with a perfect little pink bow, layering high background strings, ambient synths, and tinkering bell sounds. While the project leans toward simplicity and plays it safe at times, Titus delivers a cohesive sound and style that feels so clean and authentic.

— Piper Turri

sleepazoid — New Age

Genre: Alt. Grunge

Release: EP

Recommended Tracks: “NEW AGE,” “FIG TREE,” “ITS FINE”

Melbourne’s sleepazoid burst onto the scene two years ago with Running With The Dogs, an EP fueled by grunge gloom, post-punk atmosphere and shoegaze density. With their second EP, New Age, they show no signs of slowing. With a rather presumptuous title, New Age makes sure to satisfy and impress. If you’re into the gritty, the desperate and profane, embrace this new age.

— Jonathan Sackett

Two Feet – Songs For February

Genre: Alt-Pop

Release: EP

Recommended Tracks: “Lost Your Ghost,” “Why’d You Let Me Go”

Two Feet’s new EP feels much like an ode to Arcade Fire. Songs For February retraces the musical template that Arcade Fire established in the 2010s with The Suburbs, grasping onto the cinematic, atmospheric, reverberating pop-rock sound. Seriously. This entire EP could feature in the score of a film. A protagonist running through the barren streets of a rainy cityscape would be perfectly backgrounded by “Stay Away” and “Could You Still Want Me.” With that scene set, this record is dramatic and emotional. Two Feet sounds as if he’s reaching out for a lover slipping out of his hands, as echoing vocals and distant harmonies bring them further apart. Simplicity is off limits for this production, with heartfelt pianos overlapping electric guitars and droning, deep synths. As cheesy as it sounds, Song For February is more easily experienced than described. 

— Jacob Bennett

Dua Saleh & Bon Iver – Flood / Glow

Genre: Alternative R&B

Release: Single

Recommended Tracks: “Flood”

This two-track release is an alluring collaboration between Sudanese-American artist Dua Saleh and North Wisconsin native Bon Iver. To all listeners of Bon Iver, you know that he’s known for two things: his experimentalism and his shaky falsetto voice. You’ll be happy to know that he keeps his falsetto across these two tracks but ditches (some of) the unconventional formatting, letting Saleh’s neo-soul instrumentation shine through. Laid-back drum patterns and silky smooth vocals keep the listener relaxed, breathing in and out of Bon Iver’s sharper verses. Two songs aren’t enough! With a full album coming out in May, I’m eager to see if Dua Saleh works with her other collaborators just as well as they do with Bon Iver. 

— Jacob Bennett

Tyler Ballgame – For The First Time, Again

Genre: Indie Folk

Release: Album 

Recommended Tracks: “Matter of Taste,” “Got a New Car,” “I Know”

I enjoy Ballgame’s vocal range—he sounds as if he could belong to the “summer of love” generation and perform at Woodstock in 69’, but also can jam out at a millennial bar in Brooklyn at the height of Obama’s presidency. His lyrics are quite simplistic, but are not an imitation of anyone specifically, because the album’s songs blend a 1960s Elvis Presley and a contemporary Flipturn-esque sound. Specifically, “You’re Not My Baby Tonight,” “Goodbye My Love,” and “Sing How I Feel” are reminiscent of a Paul Anka era of music in which male solo artists would sing to the girl they were currently infatuated with, during the dog days of summer. Whereas the songs “Ooh” and “Down So Bad” stay true to the twenty-first-century indie scene with a more ethereal quality in Ballgame’s voice. Although some may argue that dissimilar songs—within an album—lack cohesiveness, the versatility of the album’s genre and decade-bending is what I appreciate. I would opt for a genre-bending album any day over the monotony of folk albums that are too soft and too similar—in lyrics and instrumentals—that dissuade a listener from an adventure of self-discovery.

                —Sophia Sciulli

Sydney Ross Mitchell — Cynthia

Genre: Folk Dream Pop

Release: EP

Recommended Tracks: “Cynthia,” “Queen of Homecoming,” “Dorothy,” “May The Landing Come Softly”

Echoing artists like Lana Del Rey and Ethel Cain, Cynthia explores the space between Americana, country, and pop transcendence. Mitchell consistently chooses honesty over palatability, venturing straight into the uncomfortable subjects we often avoid—complicated relationships, religion, homesickness, and the uncertainty of what comes next. The blend of vividly strong storytelling, airy harmonies, resonant guitar plucking and synths, and crisp percussion really brings each song’s bittersweetness to life. And when I say her storytelling is strong, I mean truly profound: “They say that life is short, like it isn’t the longest thing that we’ll ever know.”

— Piper Turri

::