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...

That is the intended emotional response to music. When people relate to you on a deeper level, they are more likely to stick around for the trip. Rapper G4ZZA of the United Kingdom is back with another rap tune titled "On Reflection" that speaks to the universal truths and emotions that many people experience daily but find difficult to articulate. The intensity of this song, which...