Listening to RIOT SON’s new single, “Loneliest at Best,” is a curious exercise in emotional time-travel. The sound pulls you back to the early 2000s, to a time of angular guitars and heartfelt, frayed-collar vocals. It has that nervous, shimmering energy of indie rock that always sounded best on a pair of wired headphones, the beat prodding you forward even as the lyrics confess...

Luma Saint invites us into a shared space with "All of Us," a track that feels like the sonic equivalent of finding a familiar face in a crowded city. There is a specific kind of magic that happens when a musician from Stockton-on-Tees decides to tackle the gargantuan concept of universal unity, especially when collaborating with his son. It grounds the grandiosity. It makes...