Rhys Lewis Essentials

Rhys Lewis has emotional scores to settle. With his band the Relics, he first began putting his end-of-tether soul croon to good use in late 2016 and soon gathered a feverish online following. Lewis writes heartbroken songs that directly address the turmoil of a traumatic love life: “When Was the Last Time?” is the soundtrack to a million teenage breakups, while “Reason to Hate You” is a story about needing to leave told over restrained electric-guitar plucks. Even the relatively chipper “Things You Can’t Change” is as critical as it is adoring, because some wounds never heal.