With their single “Ain’t Got Nothing But Time,” Electric High presents a glorious contradiction. Here we have a Norwegian rock band – a collective known for high-voltage, grit-under-the-fingernails swagger – serving up a sermon on the profound beauty of… doing nothing in particular. It’s a curious thing, like finding a Zen mantra scrawled on the back of a well-worn leather jacket. It feels both...

Shawn Brown’s EP, "Into the Furious Light," doesn’t slip quietly into the stream of modern indie-folk releases; it instead cups its hands around your soul like you’re a candle in danger of flickering out. The Portland troubadour crafts songs that feel like fragments of conversations—maybe ones you walked in on too late or letters unsent to someone dear but no longer near. You’re never...