“Fly to LA” hits the awkward part of falling hard: the grand gesture has happened, but your brain is replaying the fine print. Natalia James makes that conflict the fuel of her new dream-pop single. She places fluttery romantic scale face to face with a self-protective pulse, then lets the pressure build. James is a Mexican American artist based in Los Angeles, and her public profile...

On "Mr. Know It All", the loudest person in the room may have the least to teach us. That thought gives Jack Raymond’s second album its bite. This Australian folk, roots and blues album review puts people at its centre. They carry family stories, dodge hard truths and live with choices that arrived before them. Raymond gives no heroic status to the title figure. Instead, he...