Mardi Tickle's “Glitter Revolution” EP is like finding a forgotten box of sparklers in the back of your mind, just when you thought all the fizz had gone flat. This Finland-based artist has brewed up something delightfully chaotic – a three-song burst that somehow manages to be both a heartfelt therapy session and a dance-floor riot. It’s a curious concoction, this disco-infused pop-rock, as...

The moment the jaunty guitar kicks in on John Smyths’ new single, "Now I'm Wiser", you feel a familiar, comfortable warmth. It’s the sound of a good chair in a bar where the floor is sticky with spilled truths. And then the story starts, a classic yarn of a hard-living past yielding to a peaceful present. Smyths, a Dutch ex-metalhead singing country out of...