Eddie Cohn’s new single, "Get Back My Way," starts with the kind of intimate acoustic strumming that feels like overhearing a conversation someone is having with their own reflection. It’s an immediate plunge into that uniquely modern disquiet—the sense of being adrift in a sea of your own making, armed with a compass whose needle just spins and spins. The narrator’s battle for "sanity"...

Okay, let’s tumble into Apryll Aileen's “Under My Tree,” shall we? It’s not your grandma’s sleigh-bell jingler, not by a long shot. Aileen, this classically-trained pianist, decides to cloak herself in a Christmas-themed R&B haze, like wrapping a finely-made watch in soft flannel. It’s the kind of thing that makes you tilt your head. https://open.spotify.com/track/6BBE2fTRte3f7HW7NZkTwm?si=JDkhIyolRLeIJS9r8m7PVA The song feels like staring at a snow globe, the tiny...