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....

There is a specific kind of caffeine-jitter energy driving the new collaboration from Doctor Noize, titled "Diversity". It hits you immediately a bright, bouncing sequence of notes played with the frantic urgency of a silent film chase scene, yet anchored by a stride-style rhythm that feels surprisingly sturdy. It’s the musical equivalent of a golden retriever that has just realized you are holding a...