There is a peculiar alchemy happening with Jimmy Eff and the Sundogs on their new single, "Better Like Before". It sits in the air like the smell of ozone right after a lightning strike charged, crisp, and signifying a sudden shift in the atmosphere. You listen to it, and you sort of expect the industrial gray of their Birmingham home base, yet the sound...

SERAh's new single, "Favorite Game", which features female vocalist Summer Rona, is the kind of track that feels less like it was composed and more like it was captured—a distress signal from a beautiful, dying star. The sound here is a curious contradiction. It’s vast and cinematic, shimmering with the sort of synthesized light that promises galaxies, but its heart is small, cramped, and...