Since achieving dance-pop ubiquity with hits like 2015’s “Roses” and 2016’s “Closer,” the duo of Alex Pall and Drew Taggart have hustled their way to EDM’s highest echelons: Grammys, world tours, Vegas residencies, venture capitalism. But in recent years, the superstar DJs have seemed less interested in chasing the highs of their radio-friendly megahits, burrowing into moodier melodies and more nuanced productions. On *Breathe*, their sixth EP (following 2024’s *No Hard Feelings*), the duo gets heady and hedonistic—obsessing over a star-crossed lover on “Veins,” channeling UK garage on “White Wine & Adderall,” and hurtling towards emotional oblivion on “The Cure.” Guest vocalists include British singer-songwriters Absolutely and Beau Nox, plus a reappearance from Daya of “Don’t Let Me Down” fame.
Not much about Bruce Springsteen’s sixth album could have felt mythical upon its arrival in 1982. Coming after 1980’s double-album garage-rock opus *The River* and before the 1984 supernova *Born in the U.S.A.*, this was a set of 10 uncharacteristically stark, unaccompanied acoustic songs, each more haunted than the last, that shifted Springsteen’s reputation from ebullient bandleader to evocative author of stories about desperate characters getting crushed by an American dream that turned out to not be for them. “I would say the closest I ever came to doing that would have been unintentionally, maybe *Nebraska* during the Reagan years,” he told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in 2020. “I think if you wanted to find a body of work that expressed what it was like to be an American, say from 1970 to now, in the post-industrial period of the United States, I’d be a place you could go and get some information on that.” As Springsteen’s stature grew, so did that of his most modest-sounding album. Within a decade, the kind of rough-hewn four-track bedroom recordings that marked *Nebraska* would become a genre unto itself. Author Warren Zanes’ 2023 book *Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska* recontextualized the album not just as a sonic and thematic departure, but as a pivotal moment in which Springsteen wrestled with depression and doubt about where he stood and where he was going. Scott Cooper’s 2025 movie based on the book, starring Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen, only raised the stakes and the profile, although for Springsteen diehards, this period needed no help being mythologized. This four-LP reissue makes it clear that *Nebraska* did not always know it was going to be *Nebraska*, as the songs written during this time included ones that would eventually find their way to *Born in the U.S.A.* in decidedly glossier fashion. The rough acoustic demo of that album’s title track, which opens this box set, is relentlessly dour, and a million miles away from the bombast that tricked millions into thinking it was a jingoistic anthem. “Downbound Train,” “Working on the Highway,” and beloved B-side “Pink Cadillac” also appear here as sparse sketches. But the draw here for many fans will be the long-rumored “Electric Nebraska” tracks—six of the album’s ten songs performed with the E Street Band, before Springsteen ultimately reverted to the original acoustic solo versions. A collection like this does not intend to convince anyone that these decisions were mistakes, but it’s hard not to do a double take hearing well-worn songs like “Atlantic City” and “Mansion on the Hill” and the haunting title track so divorced from their trademark vibe. It is, however, a reminder that Springsteen comes by his blue-collar bard reputation honestly: Even his most understated album required heavy lifting.
From the *Star Seekers* webtoon to the *Star Chapter* album series, K-pop group TOMORROW X TOGETHER (aka TXT) has often drawn inspiration from the celestial sphere. On *Starkissed*, the Big Hit boy band’s third Japanese album, trap-infused Korean hits “Beautiful Strangers” and “Deja Vu” get Japanese-language versions, as does “Song of the Stars.” Titled “Hoshi No Uta” in Japanese, the sentimental rock ballad renews a promise previously made in Korean: “Even if we part ways, let’s meet here again.” Lead single “Can’t Stop” is one of three wholly new tracks on *Starkissed*. The ’80s-inspired electro-funk song uses its propulsive, synth-fueled energy to capture the feeling of an irrepressible love. The energy turns buoyant on “Where Do You Go?,” a soothing pop-rock track in which members Yeonjun, Soobin, Beomgyu, Taehyun, and Huening Kai encourage listeners to live their own stories. “SSS,” a track about the “secret signals” sent between idol and fan, was produced by Japanese rock star HYDE, grounding the album more firmly in the Japanese music scene. Previously released Japanese singles “We’ll Never Change” and “Kitto Zutto” and Japanese OST tracks “Step by Step” and “Rise” bring a fullness to *Starkissed*’s 33-minute runtime. The 12-track collection has many tracks originally released as part of other projects, but it works as a story in its own right, with atmospheric “Intro” and “Outro” tracks that bring listeners into and out of the world of the album.
Southeast London’s Skye Newman grew up listening to Adele, Amy Winehouse, and Miley Cyrus. “They didn’t change who they were in any room they walked into, and that’s always been my aim in life,” she tells Apple Music. “To always be myself and not feel bad for being loud, strong, or opinionated. That’s just who I am. If you don’t like it, then don’t take it.” As Newman releases her *SE9 Part 1* project, she’s as authentic as it gets with songs about bad relationships (“FU & UF”), good friends (“Hairdresser”), and her troubled teenage years (“Family Matters”). And although it might seem like she’s gone from obscurity to the next big thing, she’s put in a lot of work behind the scenes. “I’ve actually been on TikTok for years and I had a lot of viral videos,” she says. “I disappeared for a couple of years because I was dealing with my own issues and things at home. Then I got in the studio and I was trying to find my sound. And then it blew up. It’s funny when I see people say, ‘You’ve come out of nowhere.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I actually haven’t. You’ve only just found me now.’” Most of *SE9 Part 1*—named after the postcode she grew up in—was written two years before it was released, but it was important for Newman to build up the resilience she needed to put it out there. “I wanted my own time to find myself,” she says. “I don’t think I was stable enough or emotionally ready to come out into the limelight fully at that point. That’s why I held back—I wanted to be in my best headspace before I came into this world because it can be very damaging. But I think I’m ready now. I’ve done a lot of work on myself to be comfortable and stable and not let other people’s opinions affect me.” Read on as Newman takes you through *SE9 Part 1*, track by track. **“FU & UF”** “That song came about from many angry emotions. I’d had an argument with my partner, and it really bothered me. For a lot of our relationship, I’d been brushed off by him and his friends. I felt very distant from them and got pushed out from that group. I went into the studio not long after this had happened, and I was talking about it again with my producers, just gossiping really. I was like, ‘Fuck you and your friends,’ and they went, ‘Stop!’ and that was the song. We got straight into it, with me explaining how I was sick of what was going on. The person it’s written about has heard it and they’re actually fine with it now, but the first time I played it to him, it didn’t go well.” **“Hairdresser”** “I’d had a bit of an argument with one of my friends, and my sister was also going through issues with one of her mates. The song came out of a conversation in the studio. Not a lot of people write songs about your friends. With partners, you argue and you forgive and there’s a lot more leeway with it. But with friends, it’s different. Me and my friends are all very open and we discuss our issues. That’s why I wanted to make a song that says you’re going to argue with your friends and siblings, and I think every aspect needs to be talked about.” **“My Addiction”** “I wrote this song about the same person ‘FU & UF’ is about. It’s about being up and down. I constantly felt like I was being pulled in and pushed out and I couldn’t leave. Love, to me at that point, felt like an addiction. I’ll never judge anyone’s addiction or how they’re feeling because I understand how hard it is being with a person and being addicted. A lot of times I’ve met fans after my shows and people tell their stories and lay it all out on the line. That’s an incredible thing to experience. It can be quite heavy, but it’s something that I’m open to taking on because that’s what music’s about. That’s the person that I want to be for people.” **“Out Out”** “This is about a relationship where he would always want to go out with his friends, but it was never too much about us. I got left on the sidelines a lot. So I got to the point where we’d sat around for so long, and I was sick and tired of constantly watching everyone else go ‘out out.’ We’d plan something and then he’d argue with me and we’d end up canceling. I’d be left sitting waiting on my own and I was so sick of it. A lot of the time, I prefer writing on my own, but it’s nice when you do find people that inspire you because, when you’re sitting in a room and you’re talking about a situation, it’s good to hear another perspective. I’ll just be ranting about something and someone in the room will be like, ‘Stop, that’s a song.’” **“Family Matters”** “Music’s my therapy, and with this one I was sitting there going, ‘You’ve never worn these shoes, don’t mean my New Balance in blue,’ and I thought, ‘Great fucking first line,’ and then all those feelings flowed out of me. I’m the youngest in my family and we’re all adults now so when I wrote about them I did get a good response. My parents can understand their wrongdoings, and I hope it’s something they’ve listened to and they know I’m not writing from a place of trying to drag them down, but from my own experience. I love my family and obviously I would never want to hurt anyone, and I didn’t write it out of spite.” **“Smoke Rings”** “I wrote this song with my two producers \[Boo and Luis Navidad\], and one of their partners, Jo, who’s an incredible lady, came up with the concept. We were sitting outside and we were talking about memories as I was smoking, and she was like, ‘Oh, smoke rings. You can be lost in the smoke rings. That’s where you reminisce.’ And it grew from there. It’s about sitting in your feelings and having to replay so many things. I had a very, very strong, addictive, explosive first love, so a lot of music came out of that. I only really write about things that I love and am passionate about, so as much as there’s things that have hurt me in this music, it’s only because I had so much love there.”
Five years elapsed between the release of Austra’s fourth album (2020’s *HiRUDiN*) and her fifth, and so on *Chin Up Buttercup*’s opening track, Katie Stelmanis conveniently provides a recap of her journey up to this point. “Amnesia” begins as a baroque piano ballad that provides a distant echo of the labyrinthine art pop she released in the late 2000s under her birth name, before a mid-song shift thrusts us into the strobe-lit electro underworld she’s created as Austra. “My heart is not the same without you in my arms,” she cries out at the chorus, setting the thematic tone for an album that provides rave-based therapy for the brokenhearted, whether she’s setting love-triangle drama to a Kylie-esque nu-disco thump on “Math Equation” or channeling her innermost desires into the equally dreamy and dramatic techno odyssey “Fallen Cloud.” But, true to its name, *Chin Up Buttercup* is also a reminder to not surrender to the sorrow, and with the breakbeat-fueled irreverence of the title track and the sassy synth-pop of “Think Twice,” Stelmanis wields her cathedral-sized voice to playfully theatrical effect like a goth Gaga.
