There's an intimacy to the new FREE/MAN release, "The Reconnection EP," that borders on a welcome invasion of personal space. It is the sonic equivalent of someone leaning in, not to share a secret, but to create the silence where your own might finally surface. Charlie Freeman hasn't built a grand cathedral of sound here; he's simply furnished a quiet room with stark, necessary...

“For a while” sounds harmless until it is attached to a person. Then it can mean avoidance, longing, hope, or the kind of half-promise that keeps a conversation open long after it should have ended. Joely knows the phrase has weight. Her new 3:38 single, takes that compact title and gives it a deeply personal frame. She has called “For a While” the most personal thing...