Casey McQuillen’s single “Better” arrives not with a bang, but with the quiet, decisive click of a well-made lock securing a door. It’s pop music, certainly, groomed and gleaming, yet beneath the surface bubbles a fierce kind of self-possession that’s less about demanding attention and more about curating who gets past the velvet rope of your own contentment. Coming from someone known for empowerment...

With their single “Ain’t Got Nothing But Time,” Electric High presents a glorious contradiction. Here we have a Norwegian rock band – a collective known for high-voltage, grit-under-the-fingernails swagger – serving up a sermon on the profound beauty of… doing nothing in particular. It’s a curious thing, like finding a Zen mantra scrawled on the back of a well-worn leather jacket. It feels both...