Long before his 2024 full-length debut, Bleeding Heart, earned him Juno and MTV Video Award nominations, Toronto’s Alexander Stewart was wooing fans on YouTube, so he understands the fine art of seizing people’s attention and making an unignorable first impression. We’re no less than 30 seconds into his second album, What If?, and Stewart is already ripping his heart out of his chest on the skyscraping chorus of “Not Ready Yet,” a piano power ballad about a rocky relationship he’s desperately trying to save. That sense of do-or-die desperation serves as the album’s renewable energy source, as Stewart pirouettes along the platonic/romantic divide with guest Lauren Spencer Smith on the dramatic, string-swept serenade “Friends Don’t” while confronting a litany of past traumas on “Scared of Myself,” a trembling confessional marked by his disarmingly vulnerable vocals. And in response to his debut’s breakthrough ballad “blame’s on me,” What If? turns the tables with “Blame on You,” where Stewart channels his post-breakup angst into a cathartic blast of tropical synth-pop.