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...

Some pop songs are built for escapism. They offer a three-minute vacation from the weight of things. Paul Jenner, the creative force behind the musical project 50mething, seems uninterested in this kind of holiday. His work is consistently grounded in the here and now, tackling the social and political agitations of our time with a composer’s ear and a critical eye. His 2026 single, “You Can’t...