SERAh's new single, "Favorite Game", which features female vocalist Summer Rona, is the kind of track that feels less like it was composed and more like it was captured—a distress signal from a beautiful, dying star. The sound here is a curious contradiction. It’s vast and cinematic, shimmering with the sort of synthesized light that promises galaxies, but its heart is small, cramped, and...

The Madrid-based singer-songwriter Elif Coskun turns a soft, cinematic alt-pop single into a clear-eyed hit of memory, forgiveness, and emotional honesty. Some songs hit because they say the messy thing before you are ready to admit it. Elif Coskun's "The Hardest Part" does exactly that, then lets the feeling hang there. This cinematic single from the Madrid-based singer-songwriter, shocks through care, not anger. That may sound...