Ava Valianti represents something increasingly rare in contemporary music: genuine precocity without artifice. This Massachusetts artist, who is only fifteen years old, handles general themes with a level of emotional depth that is shocking. She shows that youth can bring out the best in complicated human experiences, rather than hiding them. "Distant," her sixth single, functions as a sonic archaeology of friendship's dissolution. The track excavates layers...

With “I’m Still Standing,” Frankie Muriel isn't just releasing nine songs; he’s excavating a life lived in the key of rock and roll. The glam-metal swagger of KINGOFTHEHILL and the dance-floor pulse of Dr. Zhivegas are here, but only as ghosts in the machine—ancestral echoes beneath a sound that is grittier, warmer, and stained with the wisdom of survival. This is the sound of...