Listening to Arnold J.’s new single, "Muddy Waters," isn't quite like anything else swirling around right now. It arrives with the gentle insistence of incoming tide, pulling you into its specific gravity. Arnold J., Ghanaian-born and now Canada-based, weaves a sound tagged as alt-country and folk, but those labels feel thin, like trying to contain smoke. There’s earthiness, sure, but his soulful vocal lines...

Britney Freud is here to shake up your playlist and your preconceived notions of what it means to be a man. The debut single "Feelings For Violence" hits you immediately with a wall of sound that is as chaotic as it is catchy. Dragut Lugalzagosi, the creative force behind this new solo project, has traded the expansive folk of his previous band, The Great Dictators,...