Robin James Hurt’s “A Song, A Story Told” arrives with a sound you can almost run a thumb over, like worn corduroy. In an age of sterile, diamond-polished productions, this album is a defiantly handmade thing, tracked onto vintage cassette machines. The result is not a flaw, but an ingredient. A faint, persistent hiss breathes alongside the instruments, a ghost in the machine who...

Lexi Berg plunges us willingly "In So Deep," her latest single offering a welcome submersion into the heady waters of shared existence. This London-based, Swedish-American artist wields a voice that carries its own weather system – there’s a satisfying rasp there, less a flaw, more like the unique grain in reclaimed timber, lending strength and character. The song itself claims indie pop territory, nodding...