Claudia Balla has just released her sweeping new single, "The Old Magnolia". As a Hungarian-born, Switzerland-based chanteuse and practicing psychiatrist, Balla naturally possesses a unique vantage point on the human mind's fractured mechanics. Her work frequently carves out an inclusive, melancholic space, merging classical and jazz influences with modern pop sensibilities. Here, she performs a surgical autopsy on a uniquely modern delusion: the dreaded...

Amara-Fe has definitively shifted from the messy business of becoming into the absolute certainty of claiming with her new album, "A Queen’s Ambition". The rising solo artist, tethered to deep musical roots extending through Mission and Dallas, Texas, arrives fully formed here. There is a palpable weight to her cinematic R&B and electropop arrangements. You can almost feel her surveying her territory, setting borders,...