Some doors do not close with a slam. They remain half-open, daring a person to walk back through them after the room behind them has grown small and airless. The past can be persuasive that way. It offers familiar furniture, old names, a version of comfort that asks too much in return. "Backwards, Baby," the latest single from Caitlin Kent-Halliday, begins from that human pressure...

Romance gets interesting when it stops posing for the camera. Morgan La Fae’s "Cigarettes And Coffee" puts that idea at the centre of a sweet, scruffy debut alert to the small habits that make couples hard to explain. The dream-pop single carries the pull of a fond memory while keeping one eyebrow raised at it. La Fae calls it a love song for people who...