Listening to the new DownTown Mystic EP, "Mystic Highway", is a bit like finding an old, perfectly worn-in roadmap in the glovebox of a brand new car. It has the feel of something essential, something foundational, yet it’s being used to navigate a landscape of blindingly modern anxieties. Robert Allen, the architect behind this project, isn’t just playing classic rock; he's conducting a seance...

The first few notes of Megapenny Music’s single, "Across the Miles," feel less like an introduction and more like a resumption. There’s a quiet confidence here, a melody that seems to pick up a conversation left hanging four decades ago—a detail about the artist’s hiatus that you can’t help but feel in the song’s DNA. Delphine Savatte’s voice enters not with a bang, but...