Some tracks do not ask for permission to enter your headspace; they simply slip under the door and set up camp in your thoughts. There is a specific type of emotional gravity required to make a quiet song feel incredibly heavy. It is the feeling of sitting in a parked car long after you have reached your destination, trying to untangle a conversation that went...

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...