When Maddy Carty opens her new EP, "Otherhood", she bypasses the shiny veneer of typical pop releases and aims squarely for the marrow of our messy, complicated realities. The London singer-songwriter possesses a uniquely commanding, almost suspiciously delicate vocal tone. She uses it here as a surgical tool to dissect womanhood, pure exhaustion, and the quiet thrill of finally drawing firm boundaries. https://open.spotify.com/album/2wlOyMsIGY4Z0QufDDiaii?si=89YbdMh1TNeLOyGPCrFT_Q She has this...

I spent a solid hour this morning watching dust motes suspended in a single shaft of sunlight, my entire nervous system held absolutely captive by Magdi Aboul-Kheir and his devastatingly immersive new album, "Slow Heat". The Germany-based journalist and classically trained pianist usually writes across a massive spectrum of genres, pivoting wildly from trance to late romanticism. Today, he has dropped an ambient, contemporary...