Bottara did not rush Bit Longer into the feed. She carried the song for years, took it from London to Los Angeles, and kept returning until the record could hold her earlier and present selves in the same frame. That patience gives this Bottara single review its hook. The track is not framed as a glossy debut-day rush. It is a held glance, a groove...

The algorithm gets a stare-down on Arabella Lucia’s ‘Unpretty’. Her alt-rock take on TLC’s 1999 classic comes with crashing drums, thumping bass, burning guitar work and a vocal edge that turns self-doubt into a live wire. The subject remains painfully recognisable: beauty standards, internalised judgement and pressure to resemble somebody else’s preferred image. For anyone who has watched a filter make a familiar face feel insufficient,...