Mariah Jayne, "Crescent". This single... it's a chipped teacup holding a storm. Not a tempest in a teapot, mind you, something far more contained, yet infinitely more volatile. "Crescent," the new single from rising indie-pop artist Mariah Jayne, isn't something you just listen to. You inhabit it. https://open.spotify.com/track/2mLMCz0d31Q0emQqOMBUOY?si=d70ef1311a1b4019 The genre label says indie-pop. Fine. Accurate, I suppose, if you're cataloging butterflies by pinning them to a...

There's a curious jolt in hearing a title like "Us Against The World" from an act called The Cockney Cowboy. The name itself is a glorious contradiction, a pairing of gritty East London reality with the wide-open romance of Nashville. You half expect a joke, but what Justin Vella delivers is a dead-serious, straight-shooting country ballad that smells less of hay bales and more...