"Why Not" is the latest single by American pop artist Naomi Jane, and it's a celebration of the romantic ideals held by those who hold on to hope even in the face of adversity. Great romance movies have an enduring influence on people, and this song seems to be reflecting on that experience as it compels us to let go of our limitations and dance...

Sophia Mengrosso’s new album, “Unforgiven”, doesn’t so much start as it does detonate, a thirteen-song treatise on survival. Her voice, a thing clearly trained for gilded halls and velvet curtains, instead wails from within a foundry’s clang and fire. The result is a bizarre and beautiful collision, the sonic equivalent of discovering a lost Caravaggio painting lit by a flickering fluorescent tube in a...