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...

Myles Sky’s new single, "Goodbye Letter", plays like a document found in a time capsule you buried for yourself only yesterday. It’s the sound of a very specific, solitary ritual: the final message written not to be sent, but to be known. It’s an act of emotional carbon dating, a way of proving to yourself that you were here, that you felt this, and...