For their fifth studio album, the Geneva-based indie rock outfit Sonic Rade shares "Berlin", an intensely resonant record heavily steeped in the aura of its namesake city. Relocating to the legendary Meistersaal the former Hansa Studios where acts like Bowie and Depeche Mode once operated the band allowed the physical walls of the room to hijack their live tracking. You feel those historical reverberations...

“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, also known through official channels as J Saint James, 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...