Songs that tell us how to feel about one another are never in short supply. Far rarer is one that simply asks, then trusts the listener to do the work. "HUMAN", the new single from British independent singer-songwriter TaniA Kyllikki, puts the question in its title, repeats it until it becomes a mantra, and wraps it in a dancefloor pulse that keeps the feet busy while the conscience catches up.

Pete Meaney has made a record that sounds like it was recorded in the room next to yours, by a man who has just put the kettle on and wants to tell you something that matters. "Walk You to the Altar" arrives from Plymouth with no glossy sheen and no stadium-sized chorus. It has a guitar, a voice, a few walls, and a father's reckoning with the speed of the calendar.

Some bands arrive with a press release and a haircut. The Elusives arrive with thirty years of unfinished business. "Run Away Into the Night" is the sound of two old friends opening a cupboard they locked in the Clinton years, finding the music still warm, and deciding to let it out.

Pop music has never been short of songs about perseverance. They tend to arrive with a key change and a fist in the air, shouting encouragement at a listener who didn't ask for it. "On My Way" takes the opposite route. It begins almost in a whisper, and it's far more persuasive for it.

A debut album that opens with a title like this one is either a provocation or a pratfall. Pridhvi Sunain Zoro, a Santa Monica-based singer-songwriter, composer and producer, has made something rarer: a record that wears a slogan lifted from the loudest corner of American politics and quietly turns it inside out. Where the acronym usually shouts, Zoro asks what it would take for a country to feel like a community again, then spends nine songs working toward an answer.