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...

Danny Watts is to acoustic strings what winter frost is to tree branches: an unexpected adornment, at odds with what you thought you knew, but too breathtaking to question. With "Angels In The Snow," the Downtown Patriots step into a snow globe of uncharted soundscapes, leaving behind the grungey scrape of amplifiers for something quieter, but no less expansive. It’s a curveball—a swerve from...