A rubber band ball, meticulously constructed and then unceremoniously dropped, that's what Outside Pedestrian's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" feels like. Not the ball itself, mind you, but the brief, elastic snap of unexpected order being momentarily... let go. We know the Bach tune. It’s a holiday staple, often served up with a side of polite reverence. But here, Anthony Fesmire’s guitar, David Lockeretz’s...

“Hangin On” makes letting go feel like a workout for the hands. Julia Appleton’s new indie-folk single takes a familiar moment, packing up a place full of history, then refuses to tidy up the feelings around it. The song came from helping her boyfriend sell his childhood home. This is a release about memory, movement, and the bruising pause before a person admits that forward...