Your Smith (Caroline Smith), courtesy.

This week we bring you soul music from Cautious Clay, alt-rock from Roe Kapara, pop from Dela Kay, Your Smith and Windser, and folk by Susto Stringband.

Cautious Clay, “No Champagne (6am) — This new track is a soulful meditation on connection beyond celebration. Joshua Karpeh, aka Cautious Clay, delivers a tender ballad, asking, “When there’s no champagne, when there’s no real reason to celebrate/ How are we actually connecting?” His emotive, tender vocals and stripped-down production heighten the song’s intimacy.  It’s a stirring reflection on love, authenticity and presence. It might leave you feeling fuzzy and warm inside just as it did for me.

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Roe Kapara,”Feel-Sexy” — Saint-Louis-born, Los-Angeles-based musician Roe Kapara shares a playful, offbeat alt-rock anthem that echoes the energy of early 2000s icons like Panic! at the Disco and Modest Mouse. With a quivering voice, witty lyricism and a driving beat, Kapara (who we first met at an artist discovery event in Las Vegas a couple of years ago) navigates love, desire and body insecurities with humor. The lively video—featuring a marching band outfit and a goat—adds to its quirky charm. Overall it’s a nostalgic yet fresh take on rock. Best of all, it’s immensely catchy.

Dela Kay, “Anybody Else” — This poignant pop ballad explores love and loss with heartfelt vocals and raw emotion—enough to have you belting the chorus in your car. “Anybody Else” captures the ache of longing in a way that feels both intimate and authentic. Dela Kay’s soaring vocals glide over polished production, delivering emotionally charged, radio-ready pop. It’s her second appearance in Tuesday Tracks.

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Susto Stringband, “Friends, Lovers, Ex-Lovers: Whatever” (Susto cover) — Susto Stringband is a collaboration between Justin Osborne, frontman of rock band Susto, and fellow South Carolinian Americana band Holler Choir. Susto has been playing this timeless-sounding tune at shows for more than a decade and it’s become a fan favorite, but it gets the folk ballad treatment treatment on a release.

With a string band arrangement that leans more traditional than contemporary, it carries a universal relatability. It captures the bittersweet transitions of relationships with warmth and authenticity. The collab band will also release an album, Sustro Stringband: Volume 1, out March 28 via New West Records.

Your Smith, “Peaches” — After a four-year hiatus, alt-pop artist Your Smith (singer-songwriter Caroline Smith) returns with this tune. It offers breezy melodies and a rich arrangement. Smith’s warm vocals flow effortlessly over a steady groove. Reflecting on nostalgia and longing, Smith has explained that the song is “about wishing I could just scoop us up and drive us away, but also wishing I could have done that in our childhood.” It captures the desire to escape while holding onto the past. It’s carefree yet bittersweet.

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Windser, “Abandon” — This powerful and deeply personal track feels like letting go. Rising independent artist Jordan Topf, originally from Santa Cruz but living in L.A., recounts a pivotal childhood moment when his father left him alone in a hotel room in Costa Rica at just 7 years old.

Repetitive line “you never loved me much” makes for a haunting hook. It’s an exhilarating listen that’s filled with raw emotion and catharsis. This is off his self-titled album, out May 16 via Bright Antenna Records.

Sery’s Pick: It’s the charm of Your Smith’s “Peaches” for me this week. I like the imagery, like the wind blowing embers into your hand, that the song evokes.