Take Jack Horton, a Portland-based singer-songwriter whose path to folk-Americana included stops at Japanese law school, Tokyo piano bars, corporate boardrooms, and government offices. His latest EP, "Imperfections," feels like finding someone's private journal set to music. And that someone happens to write really, really well. The five-song collection opens with "Set Me Free," a piano-driven confession that might surprise anyone expecting typical breakup bitterness. Horton...

ANGELICA, the Colombian-born, New Yorker— wait, wasn't she a dancer? Yes, was. Now, she's singing, and her latest single, "Lincoln Pl," produced by Marrick Smith and Ian Kimmel, dropped. And my first thought, unbidden, was: Why do pigeons always bob their heads? https://open.spotify.com/album/3O23i4F0TvXtrIp8I6o9jl?si=t1MLgaIyQfWeU1UIobZ1iQ Anyway, "Lincoln Pl." It's a pop/R&B concoction, with a dreamy synth that makes you think you're floating, until ANGELICA's voice, all grounded and...