There are rooms where a piano note can make ordinary light feel newly fragile. In "Catch Feelings", Adla seems to enter that kind of room with patience, letting emotion gather slowly rather than announcing itself too soon. The Sarajevo-born, Malta-based singer-songwriter and pianist frames her new single as the moment affection stops behaving casually and asks for a name. It is an intimate idea, but also...

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...