Kansas City’s TYYE has delivered “whole thing,” a single that glides into your ears with the frictionless cool of a late-night drive but leaves behind the kind of emotional residue that sticks to your ribs. The R&B production is impeccably smooth, a sleek chassis of polished beats and pop sensibilities; The Weeknd taught it how to dress for the city, and a hint of...

Listening to Libby Ember’s single “Alibi” is a study in strange emotional temperatures. The sound is a down-tempo, sun-dusted blanket of soft guitars and gentle synth pads, the kind of arrangement you’d put on to feel safe. But the feeling it leaves behind is a deep, architectural cold, the kind you find in the shadowed corners of an old stone church long after the...