Casey McQuillen’s single “Better” arrives not with a bang, but with the quiet, decisive click of a well-made lock securing a door. It’s pop music, certainly, groomed and gleaming, yet beneath the surface bubbles a fierce kind of self-possession that’s less about demanding attention and more about curating who gets past the velvet rope of your own contentment. Coming from someone known for empowerment...

Jamie Somerville’s new single, “Lonely Walkers,” drifts in like morning fog rolling over a deserted pier. It’s a track born from a home setting, and you feel that intimacy immediately – a close-mic'd vulnerability mapping the difficult terrain of profound solitude. Somerville, a London solo artist, clearly understands the peculiar weight of wanting connection while simultaneously building fortifications against the possibility of it. https://open.spotify.com/track/0pqbuFAcyMYC3JEZvomxxY?si=eb849e7f5ccb4d4a Drawing from...