The first few notes of Megapenny Music’s single, "Across the Miles," feel less like an introduction and more like a resumption. There’s a quiet confidence here, a melody that seems to pick up a conversation left hanging four decades ago—a detail about the artist’s hiatus that you can’t help but feel in the song’s DNA. Delphine Savatte’s voice enters not with a bang, but...

I confess, my first encounter with MAAME’s new single, “Daydreaming,” was one of deceptive serenity. Here is a track that slides into your awareness with such poise, a self-assured piece of modern R&B that knows its way around a groove. It’s only on the second pass that you realize the serene space it creates is filled with a low, anxious hum—the sound of a...