Listening to “Small Town Syndrome” by thinking silly is an exercise in delightful contradiction. Dylan Morrison’s project, shaped here by the production hand of collaborator Margot Taylor, builds a sleek, propulsive chassis of dark pop and minimal techno, only to house an engine of pure, grinding ache. It’s the sound of someone forcing a smile so wide their face hurts, a dance track for...

Love Ghost and The Skinner Brothers have dropped their new single, “Worth it,” and it arrives not so much with a knock as with the splintering crack of a door being kicked off its hinges. This is the sound of the emotional floor giving way. It’s a raw-nerved piece of alternative rock that scrapes at the psyche, possessing the same comforting quality as a...