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...

With the release of the single "Play Me A Christmas Song", Stephen Dowd manages to bottle the very specific, blue-hued silence that falls over a living room once the wrapping paper has been cleared away. It is a curious thing, really, how a melody can act less like a sound wave and more like the smell of a candle that was blown out five...