Singing into a microphone for other people to hear is an intimate act by default, but there’s something especially tender and personal about Jenny Marie Sabel’s voice. It hit like a comforting word from an old friend when Konradsen first emerged in the late 2010s, and the effect is even more intense now that the band has returned from a period of extended quiet. “Out In The Backyard,” the lead single from new album Michael’s Book On Bears, finds Sabel and Eirik Vildgren moving just slightly beyond the post-Blonde minimalism that defined their debut, bringing their rainy-day folk-pop out of amniotic insularity and into the anxieties of real life. But even as Sabel frets about other people’s judgment and the complications of moving, the overall effect of the music is a tasteful beauty and exquisite peacefulness. —Chris

Stop sleeping on Sipper. The New York-based project of Joey Beerman has been releasing ridiculously catchy, ingenious electronic-flecked indie pop since 2019. His addictive “Dance In Room Song” has over 17 million streams on Spotify, yet he’s virtually unknown. After kicking off with a magnetic bassline, his newest tune “nap” quickly explodes into a sweeping, jittery fever dream. It’s unpredictable and immersive, with sporadic beats and ghostly vocals, an entrancing snippet of the wonderfully disorienting world of Sipper. —Danielle

Shygirl likes to deconstruct things and put them back together. Many of her tracks dance around the edges of the pop-music imagination without fully embracing the center, but she can still lock in and make a horny club banger whenever she wants. That’s how “Thicc” works. The track pushes everything into the red, and some of its hammering synths hit hard enough to be downright abrasive. Mostly, though, it’s Shygirl and London singer Cosha purring and howling come-ons over a monster house beat. It’s an anthem, and you don’t need to deconstruct an anthem. —Tom

Emily Yacina, maker of underrated and understated pop songs, has never made something quite like “Nothing Lasts.” Historically, Yacina has worked by herself, or with a select group of close trusted collaborators. But “Nothing Lasts” has some big names behind it: She’s got Rostam Batmanglij behind the boards, she’s got Danielle Haim on drums. “Nothing Lasts” is still the same sort of gossamer pop song that is Yacina’s specialty, but it sounds more expansive and, frankly, more expensive: trills and chimes and a harmony that lifts up like a strong breeze. The song is about ephemerality — of feelings, of existence: “I was all wet with a certainty, ‘til it dried up and fell off of me/ That’s the way that it goes.” Yacina has rarely sounded better than she does here, floating into the unknown. —James

“Donut,” the lead single from Wishy’s forthcoming EP Paradise, was an ecstatic flurry of shoegaze. Its follow-up is just as bewitching. “Too True” is a bittersweet dose of distorted indie rock, grappling with the disillusionment of growing up and the realizations that come along with it. The guitars are nostalgic but bright; Kevin Krauter’s vocals are sincere and poignant, enmeshed with Nina Pitchkites’ dreamy soprano. It’s further proof of the Indiana-based duo’s talent for crafting swirling sonic landscapes and evocative melodies, especially when Krauter sings the moving hook: “Too true/ I wanted to be like you.” —Danielle