Athens underground artist chriss! cuts through the midnight gloom with his latest single, “Oh Shi!” Recorded during an instinctive two-hour blur using only a phone and wired Apple earbuds, the release captures pure lightning before second-guessing can ruin the charge. There is something compelling about that level of bare-bones commitment treating minimal tools not as a limitation, but as an open conduit to unfiltered...

Some tracks do not ask for your attention politely; they kick the door off the hinges and demand you listen. That is exactly what happens the moment you hit play on "So Close," the latest alternative rock single from New York City's own Kim McClay. It hits with the same sudden, dizzying clarity as seeing your ex post a hard launch on Instagram. You know...