Listening to Arnold J.’s new single, "Muddy Waters," isn't quite like anything else swirling around right now. It arrives with the gentle insistence of incoming tide, pulling you into its specific gravity. Arnold J., Ghanaian-born and now Canada-based, weaves a sound tagged as alt-country and folk, but those labels feel thin, like trying to contain smoke. There’s earthiness, sure, but his soulful vocal lines...

With their third single, "The Gods That You Pray To," Lee Feather and The Night Movers have crafted a song that doesn’t knock; it just walks into the room, sits you down, and stares into your soul. The track is built on a contradiction that absolutely works: a hypnotic, circling synth hook that feels like watching a coin spin on a bar top, endlessly...