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...

With the release of AKA Primetime’s latest single, "Electric Blue", I found myself instinctively checking if the heating in my apartment was actually on, or if the sudden warmth was just bleeding out of the speakers. Kelly Appleton, the architect behind this project, has constructed something that tackles the dreaded ‘seasonal slump’ not with a cozy wool blanket, but with a sheer, neon-drenched shock...