Over the last 75 years, the role of music producer has evolved from a cigar-chomping session boss who corralled musicians, wrote arrangements and ran the soundboard to a musician who often uses the recording studio—often with little more than a laptop—as a musical instrument, creating whole songs and albums…

Just when you thought ’80s-inspired, feel-good, pop music had been played out, Nashville’s COIN has come to correct you. On third offering Dreamland, the band’s first since 2017’s How Will You Know If You Never Try, and the first since the departure of bassist bassist Zach Dyke, COIN experiments with synthesizers, interludes,…