Samuel Sandoval’s new full-length record, Current Pretender, is a sonic stained-glass window into the colorful mind of a young man wrestling and dancing with existentialism. The anthology is track after track of therapeutic acoustic guitar-led confessions and realizations: tracks like “I Mime” tip-toe instrumentally among bizarre ambient sounds and Sandoval's layered-pensive vocals. As esoteric as some tracks can be, others like “Falling Asleep to Your Parents Watching TV Pt. 1” are gorgeously composed, with honey-sweet piano melodies and soothing flowing-water samples creating a cave of wondrous sounds. Much like life itself, Connecticut resident Samuel Sandoval’s record encompasses beauty, ugliness, weirdness, love, hope, and existence as you want to see it. We are streaming the indie-folk tune “Madam Day” from the new album below. - Rene Cobar

The most recent release by Samuel Sandoval, the singer-songwriter from Meriden, Connecticut, Tupper (streaming below) is meant to be read almost as much as it is meant to be listened to. Take for example the opening line of “Philly, City of Brotherly Love” (“I knew they were rich by the way they left their plates on the table”) which uses simplicity to snap a cultural criticism into place. Sandoval’s sharp wit, colored by his experimental folk-leaning arrangements, interrogates, but it also soothes. The whispers are just as important as the shouts, a balance that is curated earnestly by Sandoval’s hand. - Lilly Milman, photo by Zack Gomez