Listening to Violet Whimsey’s new EP, “PERSEPHONE,” is a bit like finding an antique music box that only plays minor chords. You wind it up, expecting a delicate tune, but what emerges is something far more shadowed, intricate, and possessed of a strange, chilling beauty. This is dark pop that doesn’t just brood; it excavates. https://open.spotify.com/album/0mrzzMpWVM7kKEWam6vTQP?si=D4ysByaOQCOEwElRdWm0Bg The collection is a descent, a guided tour through various...

Adriana Spuria’s new single, “Stone,” presents itself with the polished feel of a perfect skipping-stone, but listening closely reveals it has the curious weight of a fossil in your palm. Spuria sings of a very specific, modern affliction: the slow petrification of the heart. This is a loneliness born not from solitude, but from an inability to feel for anyone else, an insulation that...