Ben Heyworth returns with "Image of Roads (Montana Mix)", a track that feels like watching a blueprint suddenly sprout wings and take flight. Collaborating with the members of Minorplanet, Heyworth a man whose history suggests he’s been sketching the Manchester indie skyline for years revisits an older acoustic skeleton and wraps it in something far more sinewy. It is "urban folk" that has decided...

When the Malaga-based duo My State unleashed "Its Whatever", I half-expected my speakers to start smoking—or at least demand an apology for the sudden surge in voltage. It is rare to hear a track that captures the precise auditory frequency of snapping a pencil in half out of sheer frustration, but here we are. This isn't polite radio fodder. It is high-octane pop-rock that forgot...