Ava Valianti represents something increasingly rare in contemporary music: genuine precocity without artifice. This Massachusetts artist, who is only fifteen years old, handles general themes with a level of emotional depth that is shocking. She shows that youth can bring out the best in complicated human experiences, rather than hiding them. "Distant," her sixth single, functions as a sonic archaeology of friendship's dissolution. The track excavates layers...

Listening to Zov.yay’s new single, “No Watches,” is like catching yourself forgetting what day of the week it is, and then deciding you quite like it. There’s a distinct feeling of unshouldering here, a shedding of temporal anxiety. Zov.yay’s flow is less a performance and more a conversation you’ve walked into, a comfortable, self-assured account of having arrived somewhere important without having watched the...