The risk inside a good day gives Biernacki’s “Up & Down” its pulse. The Kraków songwriter and producer places a close vocal over piano, delicate percussion, bass and electronic detail, then lets the pressure collect rather than explode. This is polished alt-pop with a melancholic streak, built for the listener who knows that relief can sometimes make the mind start looking for the next thing...

To listen to Stevie Hawkins’ take on "A Song For You" is to have a conversation with a ghost in a dimly lit room after the show has ended. Hawkins, long the rhythmic engine for the song's originator Leon Russell, steps from behind the drum kit to the microphone, and the space between these two roles compresses decades into four and a half minutes....