Comforting singer/songwriter music gets a bad rap among many “indie music” fans. To be sure, it’s earned that reputation—for every Seven Swans, too many other artists veer straight into James Taylor territory. But it’s still an oddity to see nakedly hopeful emotion emerge behind musicianship that’s simply beautiful, without the music being either saccharine or just plain boring.

Most Likely to Die is the epitome of the uninspired low-budget slasher.

As intoxicating as Marissa Nadler‘s albums has proven to be for those in the know, it’s a complete mystery why such an acclaimed catalog remains largely unacknowledged. From her haunting early work to the intensely personal July (2014), Nadler crafts a rare gravity with each release. It’s a shame the mainstream eludes her.

When I first heard James Blake’s voice through his “Wilhelm Scream,” I pictured someone altogether different from a shy young lad with a blushing smile. I’m pretty sure everyone did. His computerized cries sounded of weathered experience and the quiet torment of someone who’s seen more than he’s wanted to.

Jim Stone and David Waters are a pair of bored cops working evidence processing in the Las Vegas police department. After stumbling across a suspiciously high bail payment for a low-level drug dealer, Jim and David begin their own ill-advised investigation.

Whit Stillman’s comedies’ focus on the narrow standards of behavior permitted in certain social circles, particularly among the well-to-do, has always cribbed quite a bit from Jane Austen.

Will Nick Thorburn ever shake off the shadow of The Unicorns? Despite his adventurous and successful career in the 13 years since Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? was released, the ceaseless clamor for an extension of the band’s 2014 mini-reunion continues to exist as an enormous, unrelenting elephant in the room.

Long gone are the days when Twin Peaks would spend their time frantically churning out riotous garage pop in frontman Cadien Lake James’ basement, when they would be championed only by a close-knit collective of DIY promoters and bands in their native Chicago.

An adaptation of a J.G. Ballard story about a dystopian nightmare of a modern housing development, High Rise is gorgeously disjointed, chaotic, and unclassifiable.