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...

Keeping going can sound deceptively simple as advice. Digging For Kanky complicate that idea on “Raining Stones”, their single. The Manchester trio put the cost of endurance in view. Their focus is not heroic triumph, but the pressure of carrying on when life has closed in. That makes this an alternative music release with a serious social charge. It does not settle for a motivational slogan. Instead,...