Listening to Arnold J.’s new single, "Muddy Waters," isn't quite like anything else swirling around right now. It arrives with the gentle insistence of incoming tide, pulling you into its specific gravity. Arnold J., Ghanaian-born and now Canada-based, weaves a sound tagged as alt-country and folk, but those labels feel thin, like trying to contain smoke. There’s earthiness, sure, but his soulful vocal lines...

ANGELICA, the Colombian-born, New Yorker— wait, wasn't she a dancer? Yes, was. Now, she's singing, and her latest single, "Lincoln Pl," produced by Marrick Smith and Ian Kimmel, dropped. And my first thought, unbidden, was: Why do pigeons always bob their heads? https://open.spotify.com/album/3O23i4F0TvXtrIp8I6o9jl?si=t1MLgaIyQfWeU1UIobZ1iQ Anyway, "Lincoln Pl." It's a pop/R&B concoction, with a dreamy synth that makes you think you're floating, until ANGELICA's voice, all grounded and...