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...

Naomi Jane has gone big with her latest single, "Pretty Boys", which promises artistic maturity going higher proportionally to the pace of her growing stardom. The fifteen-year-old girl's voice travels beyond her age to convey a message about the love of self and beating any superficial ruse. The story of the one, with its explicit and underlined feel of independence and self-worth, captures the hearts...