Jon Gold’s new single, "Lullaby for a Dream," is an act of gorgeous disorientation. You see the name—a pianist rooted in the intricate soils of jazz—and you prepare for one thing, but what arrives is a mist-laden skiff drifting from an entirely different shore. Gold, a Delaware musician, has composed a piece of British-Gaelic folk, and the cognitive dissonance is half the immediate magic....

There is a specific weight to Chellcy Reitsma’s "Carpe Diem," one that feels less like a motivational poster and more like a heavy coin you’ve carried in your pocket for years, its edges worn smooth by worry. It announces its intention with a title we think we know, a bright promise of seizing the day, but the music itself doesn't offer easy platitudes. Instead,...