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...

Atlanta band Lotus Grove has shared "Ordinary People," the roaring second single pulled from their upcoming 12-track album project. Built upon a 15-year friendship forged in the sweaty anxiety of middle school, the group synthesizes their incredibly diverse backgrounds into something intensely physical. This latest cut leans hard into alternative rock and emo-pop, throwing a fast-paced, urgently emotional melody against a dense, fiercely propulsive...