When Maddy Carty opens her new EP, "Otherhood", she bypasses the shiny veneer of typical pop releases and aims squarely for the marrow of our messy, complicated realities. The London singer-songwriter possesses a uniquely commanding, almost suspiciously delicate vocal tone. She uses it here as a surgical tool to dissect womanhood, pure exhaustion, and the quiet thrill of finally drawing firm boundaries. https://open.spotify.com/album/2wlOyMsIGY4Z0QufDDiaii?si=89YbdMh1TNeLOyGPCrFT_Q She has this...

Some doors do not close with a slam. They remain half-open, daring a person to walk back through them after the room behind them has grown small and airless. The past can be persuasive that way. It offers familiar furniture, old names, a version of comfort that asks too much in return. "Backwards, Baby," the latest single from Caitlin Kent-Halliday, begins from that human pressure...