Take Jack Horton, a Portland-based singer-songwriter whose path to folk-Americana included stops at Japanese law school, Tokyo piano bars, corporate boardrooms, and government offices. His latest EP, "Imperfections," feels like finding someone's private journal set to music. And that someone happens to write really, really well. The five-song collection opens with "Set Me Free," a piano-driven confession that might surprise anyone expecting typical breakup bitterness. Horton...

Surviving three brain surgeries and having to relearn how to walk would permanently stall almost any trajectory, but for Suriname-born, Tampa Bay-based Mr.D.Tunes, it was the exact friction needed to spark his contemplative new single, "Y You." The former junior Olympic swimmer turned youth mentor and Christian Hip-Hop artist channels his grim medical odds into an intensely honest rhythmic testimony. https://open.spotify.com/album/7b4Gn3WBmEYjw3p1bmCTiJ?si=HMBMixI6SvenjdfUJ2nIJA The melody operates on a...