BEN DE LA COUR: Ben de la Cour’s visceral songwriting grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go. Weaving evocative stories of desperate characters with his signature “Americanoir” sound, de la Cour shines a raw, empathetic, and at times bleak light on the human condition. After receiving praise from American Songwriter, Twangville, The Telegraph and NPR for his 2023 release Sweet Anhedonia, de la Cour returns with his heart-wrenching sixth album, New Roses. A collection of what he describes as “night songs,” the album marks a sonic evolution into stranger, heavier, synth-inspired territory. This shift adds new layers to his delicately fingerpicked story songs, creating something that is at once soaring and beautiful, hammering and claustrophobic, yet ultimately hopeful and resilient.