Some songs are protests. Others are warnings. But a rare few are something else entirely: they are stories that transport you to another place, another time, another possible future. Ted Stanley’s “Shoreline” is one of those songs. It’s a piece of music that feels less like a song and more like a modern myth, a folktale carried softly across a rising tide. It’s a story...

Kent Owens, a name that sounds like it should be on a library card next to “Hemingway,” but instead it's on the digital shelf next to my slightly messy playlist. This Cambridge-based creator of soundscapes – I’m resisting calling them songs, but…well – just released “Fade Away,” a single that feels like an open window after a long winter. It’s a soft rock hum...