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...

Violet Love has a bright idea for the end of summer: make the feeling of finally fitting in feel big enough for a playlist. "Airport Road," her forthcoming original single, comes from a personal place, her proposal to her fiancé and her welcome into his family, but its appeal is built around a feeling lots of listeners recognise. You can spend years looking for the right...