“Lavender” hits like a velvet curtain being pulled back at the exact second everyone stops pretending. Jay Saint James does not chase a basic pop moment here. The Ayr, Scotland singer-songwriter, walks into old Hollywood’s private corridors and comes out with a record that feels glossy, bruised, and strangely intimate. “Lavender” is an original single with a 3:16 runtime on Spotify as part of “Lavender/ Under...

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...