Level 4 releases festive music just in time. Christmas With You is the group's first holiday album of original Christmas songs. Music was designed to be felt before it was heard, and their Christmas tune brings back warm memories you didn't actually expect. It has the emotional depth and authenticity of the golden age of rich, soulful albums from the first note. No pressure to...

Take Jack Horton, a Portland-based singer-songwriter whose path to folk-Americana included stops at Japanese law school, Tokyo piano bars, corporate boardrooms, and government offices. His latest EP, "Imperfections," feels like finding someone's private journal set to music. And that someone happens to write really, really well. The five-song collection opens with "Set Me Free," a piano-driven confession that might surprise anyone expecting typical breakup bitterness. Horton...