Oklou was facing the fresh uncertainty of life when she sat down and recorded Choke Enough’s title track, singing the lyric, “If I choke up now, will this life grant me the space?” “What is my experience at this moment,” she remembers asking herself at the time. “What path am I supposed to be taking?” This transformative process made Choke Enough into an album of big questions, its music meticulously tinkered to glide into the brain with as little friction as possible. Her existential bout – spurred by age, everyday ennui, and changes within herself – is swathed in glossy beats scientifically engineered to induce hypnosis, a separate but parallel artistic study. Marylou Maniel’s pop songs have always felt like intricately crafted puzzle boxes but her newest are exceptionally exquisite. The fact that they also feel like her most approachable yet — like on “Family and Friends” on which it sounds like she’s singing about starting a family — doubles the gratification. And it seems all her...