Samantha Mora’s “Luto” arrived like a half-remembered dream, a wisp of smoke curling from a candle just extinguished. It's not a song to shout from rooftops; it's something you feel in the space between your breaths. Her voice is so smooth, a rich velvet you could lose yourself in. You'd almost think it could just glide across the cumbia rhythms like a hummingbird over...

Adam Brice's "Never Is Too Late" landed on my desk – or, rather, materialized in my digital ether – and I've been wrestling with its echoes ever since. It's a curious beast, this album. Part rock anthem, part campfire confessional, with a splash of country twang that somehow doesn't feel out of place, which has themes running circles like wild horses, settling down around...