When I pressed play on the latest release from Shelita, titled "Sailors", I wasn't expecting the floor to drop out from under me. You see, "pop" is often a safe word, a designation for the palatable. But this? This is something else entirely. It’s as if someone took a tender ballad and threw it into a particle accelerator to see what sub-atomic emotions would...

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...