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...

Leicester’s genre-defying trio 9 o’clock Nasty has shared a released called "BEAST", offering the eighth dizzying glimpse into their forthcoming LP "Chaos". Pete Brock, Ted Pepper, and Sydd Spudd the self-dubbed aristocrats of punk thrive in the deep end of the human psyche here. The track relies on an angular, staccato post-punk melody that frantically steps up and down. It drags you directly into...