“U Wish” understands the pull of a text you promised yourself you would not check again. Tracy Pham’s EP stays close to attraction’s small after-effects, then lets them carry the drama. The original project holds onto clothes left behind, remembered touch and the choice to keep someone near. This is a melody-led EP that treats hesitation as information, rather than a flaw. Pham comes to that...

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...