NYRE, a name that might conjure up images of a misplaced Scrabble tile, delivers something far more resonant than random letters with their new EP, "Avoidant." It’s a four-track dive into the deep end of heartbreak, the kind that leaves you feeling like you’ve accidentally swallowed a handful of gravel and regret. I can’t help but think of those old grainy black and white...

The most arresting thing about Laura M.’s “Fly Away” arrives before any attempt to overstate it: the single is the 15-year-old singer-songwriter’s first song written completely on her own. It takes the tender, melancholy pull of first love and gives it the perspective of someone meeting those feelings in real time. “Fly Away” makes room for a young writer’s first independent statement. Laura was born in...