ESTHER ROSE Safe to Run (New West) — Esther Rose has done some roving. A Michigan native, Rose spent about a decade plying her musical trade with the city of New Orleans as her home base, putting out a trio of well-regarded studio albums in that span. A couple years ago, stakes were properly pulled up, and she headed to the Land of Enchantment, a big life change alluded to in “New Magic II,” a track on her new album, Safe to Run. With a charismatic ease reminiscent of Jenny Lewis at her very best, Rose sings, “There′s a town in New Mexico/ I’ve passed through a time or two/ Never stayed to see the seasons change/ Now that′s changing ’cause of you.” Across the album, Rose is in fine form, merging fine Americana melodies with lyrics that are alternately lovelorn and bristling with hope. “Stay” is a good example, in that it’s lilting, precise, and evocative, making it a fine audition tune to step in as the third member of Plains should Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson ever decide to revive that splendid side project. Rose enlist Hurray for the Riff Raff, a fellow veteran of the New Orleans music scene, on the steady, quietly determined title cut, and there are other collaborators present that speak to different stops in her travels. In its warmth and wonder, though, Safe to Run is a poignant work that feels like a pure expression of its primary author. In addition to those already mentioned, stop and hear the Rose with the following cuts: “Chet Baker,” “Dream Girl,” “Insecure,” and the wry “Arm’s Length.”

EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL Fuse (Buzzin’ Fly) — It’s not like it was difficult for Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt to reunite as Everything but the Girl. Although the duo announced that the band was properly kaput around the turn of the millennium, they let slip not long afterward that they’d long been a romantic couple (maybe an open secret while the group was active, but a secret nonetheless) and officially married in 2009. Still, it was startling in the best possible way when they announced that Everything but the Girl had a new album to bestow upon the masses, their first in nearly a quarter-century. The anticipation was only heightened by the lead single, a delirious chunk of house-influenced pop called “Nothin’ Left to Lose.” If the rest of Fuse, the album that holds it, doesn’t quite reach the delights of that re-introductory salvo, well, high bars are difficult to clear. The album is still a grand extension of Everything but the Girl’s late career turn to vivacious electronic pop music. Even when they dip back into the torch-song, jazzy inflections of their earliest efforts, as on “Run the Red Light,” there a defibrillator blast of buzzy modernity to liven it up. After the extended layoff Everything but the Girl enjoyed, the hopeful assumption would be that they wouldn’t come back unless they had art worth sharing. Fuse is that. Keep Fuse burning with the following cuts: “Caution to the Wind,” “Time and Time Again,” “No One Knows We’re Dancing,” and “Forever.”