Take Jack Horton, a Portland-based singer-songwriter whose path to folk-Americana included stops at Japanese law school, Tokyo piano bars, corporate boardrooms, and government offices. His latest EP, "Imperfections," feels like finding someone's private journal set to music. And that someone happens to write really, really well. The five-song collection opens with "Set Me Free," a piano-driven confession that might surprise anyone expecting typical breakup bitterness. Horton...

Un-Till’s new single, "Where We Belong," presents itself as a meticulously engineered festival anthem, a gleaming machine of euphoria built for raised hands and summer skies. On its surface, the track is pure, uncut optimism. The synths ascend with a kind of bright-eyed sincerity, the beat has that insistent, chart-friendly pulse that pulls you onto the dancefloor, and the whole production shines with the...