Seema Farswani’s single, ‘Got My Mojo Working’ featuring Dem-C, has been looping in my head, and it feels less like a track and more like a beautifully vexing predicament set to a very groovy beat. The premise is so disarmingly human, isn't it? This notion of possessing a potent personal magnetism, a kind of everyday folk magic that bends the world just so, only...

Casey McQuillen’s single “Better” arrives not with a bang, but with the quiet, decisive click of a well-made lock securing a door. It’s pop music, certainly, groomed and gleaming, yet beneath the surface bubbles a fierce kind of self-possession that’s less about demanding attention and more about curating who gets past the velvet rope of your own contentment. Coming from someone known for empowerment...