To listen to Stevie Hawkins’ take on "A Song For You" is to have a conversation with a ghost in a dimly lit room after the show has ended. Hawkins, long the rhythmic engine for the song's originator Leon Russell, steps from behind the drum kit to the microphone, and the space between these two roles compresses decades into four and a half minutes....

Janet Devlin releases "Candy", and she sounds like she’s wearing a smirk that could stop traffic. This track doesn't tiptoe; it struts. From the jump, we are met with a rhythmic, plucking string vibration a gritty, staccato backbone that acts like the nervous system of the song. It’s propelled by a heavy, stomping beat that feels authoritative, the kind of pulse that makes you...