The Ukrainian-American artist Kelsie Kimberlin has crafted a musical confession that cuts through the noise with its raw honesty and polished production. Kimberlin, who recently received both the United Nations Humanitarian Award and the St. George's Royal Medal of Honor from King Charles for her support of Ukraine, brings her activist spirit into her art. She wrote the song while she was shooting a movie about...

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...