There’s a certain expectation that comes with a new release from Kim Cameron. For years, the Miami-based artist has been a reliable source of high-energy, deep house anthems, music precision-engineered for the dance floor. Her name is synonymous with movement, with the kind of infectious hooks that have propelled her up the Billboard and iTunes charts. So when a new track of hers begins not...

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,...