Listening to RIOT SON’s new single, “Loneliest at Best,” is a curious exercise in emotional time-travel. The sound pulls you back to the early 2000s, to a time of angular guitars and heartfelt, frayed-collar vocals. It has that nervous, shimmering energy of indie rock that always sounded best on a pair of wired headphones, the beat prodding you forward even as the lyrics confess...

Glass Cabin’s latest single, “I Don’t Know,” feels less like a song arriving and more like something found already playing in a dusty, roadside motel room you didn’t intend to stop at. Jess Brown and Dave Flint, the architects of this Nashville duo, have conjured a piece that sits squarely in their poetic intersection of country rock atmosphere and gothic Americana shadowplay. It's a...