Listening to “Small Town Syndrome” by thinking silly is an exercise in delightful contradiction. Dylan Morrison’s project, shaped here by the production hand of collaborator Margot Taylor, builds a sleek, propulsive chassis of dark pop and minimal techno, only to house an engine of pure, grinding ache. It’s the sound of someone forcing a smile so wide their face hurts, a dance track for...

Ramblerman’s new single "Midday Melancholy" doesn’t crash into your day; it seeps in, like the specific quality of light that pools on the floor when you've decided to stay inside. It’s here that Stephen Dobson tunes into a frequency of beautiful, stubborn inertia, a sound that feels both warm as a sunbeam and heavy as the dust motes dancing in it. The song understands...