Listening to Shelita’s new single, “Fade,” is a strange and strangely comforting exercise in suspension. The track is built on a foundation you could almost set your watch to—a steady, pulsing beat that feels less like a drum machine and more like a medical monitor keeping track of something vital. Over this steady pulse, airy synths drift and gather like weather fronts, creating a...

Amara-Fe has definitively shifted from the messy business of becoming into the absolute certainty of claiming with her new album, "A Queen’s Ambition". The rising solo artist, tethered to deep musical roots extending through Mission and Dallas, Texas, arrives fully formed here. There is a palpable weight to her cinematic R&B and electropop arrangements. You can almost feel her surveying her territory, setting borders,...