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...

It is clear that Gal Musette poured her entire essence into this song and sang from the very depths of her existence when she performed it. The American singer's follow-up single to the smash hit "Into the Blue" is now available digitally under the title "Pendulum," and it was released only recently off her 11-track album. The song examines a broad spectrum of human feelings and...