Sam Ostler’s new single, “Lights,” then. It unfolds less like a sudden, intrusive glare and more like the slow, determined burn of a really good stage light finally finding its mark after a prolonged blackout. It’s pop, yes, vibrant and undeniably contemporary as advertised – clean lines, clear intentions. Yet, there’s a certain satisfying heft beneath the melodic uplift, a feeling that these notes...

The Canadian singer-songwriter turns early romance into an intimate acoustic single from her forthcoming album "A Thousand Stars". Some feelings arrive before language is ready for them. They hover at the edge of a room, glow across a lake after sunset, or sit in the small pause between a glance and a decision. Love, in its first bright stage, often has that strange outline: visible, but...