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,...

Ben Gage and "Lookin' For A Devil" arrive at a moment when the American dream feels particularly elusive. The Akron-born songwriter has spent years chronicling the rust belt experience, and his latest single captures something both specific and universal: the peculiar frustration of being too broke even for damnation. Released on July 18, this track emerges from Gage's upcoming album like smoke from a dying campfire....