The Canadian singer-songwriter turns early romance into an intimate acoustic single from her forthcoming album "A Thousand Stars". Some feelings arrive before language is ready for them. They hover at the edge of a room, glow across a lake after sunset, or sit in the small pause between a glance and a decision. Love, in its first bright stage, often has that strange outline: visible, but...

The fiercely independent, Idaho-raised rapper nick! channels a deeply overstimulated, restless frequency on his new EP, "GEEKED!". Born in 2006 and building a fervent following entirely without industry co-signs, he occupies an interesting lane in new-wave underground hip-hop. His music sounds precisely like the brain chemistry of an internet-raised creative processing the blinding speed of newfound success. He writes and produces melodic, hard-hitting rap...