Violet Love has offered up an EP titled "Destined to Fail," and it arrives less like a prediction and more like a pre-existing condition, a medical chart for a soul that’s been diagnosed with itself. The DIY recording quality doesn’t feel lo-fi for aesthetics; it feels necessary, like these songs could only have been born in a sealed-off room where the air was getting...

It is that quiet, heavy atmosphere of a late-night car ride when the radio is low and someone finally says what they have been holding back for months. That specific, chest-tightening honesty is exactly what French rapper Lil' Mike has managed to capture on his Valentine's Day single "Yah." Stepping away from the aggressive hip hop beats that built his name, he delivers a late-night R&B...