Stephen Thompson

Singer-songwriter Andrea Silva is enormously adept at dreamy, languid balladry. Even when crisp, gorgeous guitars dominate the mix, it's hard not to hang on her every word.

Joy and aggression coexist in this band from Glasgow, Scotland.

An Australian singer-songwriter with a gift for deadpan observation and deftly deployed guitar licks, Carla Geneve sneaks up on you.

L.A. singer-rapper Steven G finds more or less the exact midpoint between sleekly stylish R&B and slyly playful hip-hop.

Derince plays a stringed instrument called an elektrobağlama — think of a long-necked, amplified lute — that lends his arrangements a springy sense of playfulness

Tomás del Real's songs possess the gentle sway of the Chilean folk music in which he's steeped, but they're also burnished with notes of jazz and influences that stretch to the U.S. and Europe.

This year's pure pop find from the great city of Austin is Sydney Wright, whose "You Can Stay" exudes dynamism and drama.

Patio's guitar-forward post-punk packs sweetly raggedy hooks, funny lines delivered as conversational asides and references to other bands into a span of just 95 highly eventful seconds.

Some bands deepen their impact with abstract examinations of the human psyche, but Vistas' sweet and shiny songs are just irresistible, high-wattage joy dispensers.

A sense of feeling stretched thin and far from home informs the Yumi Zouma's songwriting, but the dream-pop group's chemistry remains undeniable.

Affection pours out of the Welsh indie-pop band The School — affection for classic '60s girl-group pop, sunny springtime harmonies and lyrics that yearn with maximum sweetness.

At the helm of Why Bonnie, Blair Howerton writes glossy, synth- and string-inflected guitar-pop songs that fit a mighty, beating heart underneath all the gleaming hooks.

The four women in Pillow Queens write queer punk and pop songs with sharp, anxious edges — imagine a gnarlier Cranberries, maybe? — and endearingly thick Irish accents.

Rasmus Littauer calls himself School of X as a tribute to the experimental 1960s Copenhagen art collective of the same name, but his arty aspirations don't drown out his pop sensibilities.

Rema is an Afropop superstar with a distinctive sound mixing pop and trap, a Barack Obama endorsement and a prominent magazine cover — and he still hasn't yet released his full-length debut album.

Jordan Mackampa has spent his life straddling identities. His music juggles genres, too, as it mashes classic pop together with tinges of gospel and dramatic, timeless, string-swept soul.

Led by singer-guitarist Dimitri Giannopoulos, the band's songs sound hypnotically beautiful, with arrangements that magnify small narrative details into big, booming moments of catharsis.

The electro-pop band KAZKA has participated in — but fallen short of winning — both the Eurovision Song Contest and the Ukrainian X-Factor, but it parlayed the TV exposure into massive hits.

Aymen Saleh makes sweetly jangling, goodnatured Britpop. Dispensed with abundant charm and grace, his songs feel warm and lived-in.

"Creatures," from Malco's forthcoming full-length debut, taps briefly into the singer's softer side, but uses it primarily as a foil for a soaring string of marvelous, ever-grander choruses.