10 New Albums to Stream Today
Photos via Myriam Santos, Broomberg & Chanarin, Eats Humans Music Lists New Albums
We’re nearing the midway point of 2019, and the stack of stellar new albums and EPs continues to grow. This Friday (May 24), we’re being treated to a wide range of new releases. Welsh singer/songwriter Cate Le Bon has reemerged with the release of her fifth album Reward. Alternative R&B artist and The Internet guitarist Steve Lacy just dropped his debut solo album Apollo XXI. Genre-hopping musician and rapper Flying Lotus released his star-studded new album, featuring Anderson .Paak, George Clinton, Solange, Toro Y Moi, Tierra Whack, Thundercat and Shabazz Palaces. Plus, we received new music from undisputed gospel legend Mavis Staples, former Wild Beasts frontman Hayden Thorpe and buzzy Atlanta singer/songwriter Faye Webster. Scroll down to sample 10 essential new albums from this week.
1. Faye Webster, Atlanta Millionaires Club
Faye Webster, country-leaning singer/songwriter and certified ATLien, released her third album, Atlanta Millionaires Club on Secretly Canadian today. Webster’s sound is in and of itself highly personal, one that pays homage to growing up in Atlanta and balances the inescapable trappings of folk alongside the city’s richly infectious R&B groove. She’s been immersed in the Atlanta hip-hop scene since high school and has snapped photos for the likes of Killer Mike, Lil Yachty, D.R.A.M. and Migos’ Offset. But the sounds on Atlanta Millionaires Club are entirely her own. —Ellen Johnson & Lindsay Thomaston
2. Hayden Thorpe, Diviner
Hayden Thorpe (formerly of Wild Beasts) has released his debut solo album Diviner via Domino Records, and it was recorded with close friend and long-time collaborator Leo Abrahams (Jon Hopkins, Brian Eno, David Byrne). On recent single “Earthly Needs,” Thorpe’s saintly vocals pour out in ribbon-like, cascading fashion as he mourns the often-irreversible nature of profound emotions. On “Love Crimes,” one of the most poignant tracks of 2019 so far, Thorpe sings with a gorgeous affection and icy tone, “Even the greatest of loves are made of modest stuff that I’m giving up.” And on the album’s title track, watery, grand piano and electronic scratches accompany Thorpe’s rousing falsetto. —Lizzie Manno
3. Amyl and the Sniffers, Amyl and the Sniffers
Melbourne’s Amyl and The Sniffers are one of the most buzzed-about punk bands to emerge from Australia this year, and their self-titled debut LP has arrived in time with the hype via ATO Records. Frontwoman Amy Taylor strikes a near-perfect balance between the rage of vintage punk and the heat of classic rock, and while those two sounds are familiar, her voice is singular—especially in 2019. Few bands are out there channelling their anger in such a focused, searing manner. —Ellen Johnson
4. Cate Le Bon, Reward
Welsh songwriter Cate Le Bon has released her fifth studio album Reward via her new label Mexican Summer. It’s her first solo record since 2016’s Crab Day. Le Bon wrote the new album while living in relative solitude in the Lakes District of the U.K. She spent her days learning to build solid wood furniture from scratch and her nights writing songs for Reward on her secondhand Meers piano. “There’s a strange romanticism to going a little bit crazy and playing the piano to yourself and singing into the night,” Le Bon says. Reward was eventually recorded around the U.S. and U.K. with Le Bon’s co-producer Samur Khouja and frequent collaborators H. Hawkline and Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa. —Adam Weddle
5. Flying Lotus, Flamagra
Flamagra is Flying Lotus’s fifth full-length album and his first since 2014’s You’re Dead! It arrives through Warp Records and features contributions from Anderson .Paak, George Clinton, Solange, Toro Y Moi, Tierra Whack, Thundercat and Shabazz Palaces. FlyLo released several singles from the album, including “Spontaneous,” “Takashi” and “Fire is Coming,” the last of which featured filmmaker David Lynch. —Adam Weddle
6. Middle Kids, New Songs For Old Problems
Following their 2018 critically acclaimed debut Lost Friends, Australian trio Middle Kids are back with their new EP New Songs For Old Problems. Featuring singles like “Beliefs and Prayers,” “Salt Eyes” and “Real Things,” the new EP mixes the guitar heaviness of indie-rock with a bit of new-age punk edge. The songs contain a similar sonically layered sound that made Lost Friends so good. Across New Songs For Old Problems’s six tracks, it seems Middle Kids are trying to one-up their debut, and it seems they just might have done it. —Molly Schramm
7. Steve Lacy, Apollo XXI
The Internet guitarist Steve Lacy released has his debut solo album, Apollo XXI via 3QTR—his first solo music since the 2017 EP Steve Lacy’s Demo. Apollo XXI highlights include “N Side,” with its honeyed vocals and listless guitar grooves and “Playground,” a springy funk number that tries to weld together jangle pop with a very, very obvious Prince influence. The alternative R&B artist has kept busy as of late releasing music with both The Internet and Vampire Weekend (alongside whom he appeared in a Jonah Hill-directed music video for their single “Sunflower”). —Clare Martin & Savannah Sicurella
8. pronoun, i’ll show you stronger
Debut albums are tricky, but Alyse Vellturo, better known as pronoun, knows exactly what sound she’s going for on i’ll show you stronger. With oodles of guitar, roaring synths, heavy drum beats and her uniquely gruff yet soft vocals, pronoun delves into the theme of recovery on the record. “It pretty much saved my life,” she says in a statement. “It helped me realize it’s ok to be sad, and crazy, and hurt, and vulnerable, but it’s just as important to stand up for yourself and know what you deserve, and lastly to move on.” —Molly Schramm
9. Mavis Staples, We Get By
Mavis Staples, gospel singer and a towering figure in music history, has released her 12th studio album We Get By on ANTI- Records. Backed by steady, rollicking blues guitar, the near-octogenarian’s rich voice is full of hope and perseverance as she sings, “What good is freedom / if we haven’t learned to be free” on the opening track “Change.” The new record was written and produced by Grammy winner Ben Harper and is composed of 11 tracks that Staples says “[deliver] such a strong message.” This message is visualized in the cover art, which features the photo “Outside Looking In” by the late photographer, author, musician and director Gordon Parks. The image comes from his Life-published photo essay “The Restraints: Open and Hidden,” focusing on the impact of segregation in the U.S. —Clare Martin
10. Black Mountain, Destroyer
Part of the fun of listening to a new album is playing detective with the music; each chord a clue, each lyric a key, to arriving at the truth of the record. But often the truth is just what we find and not what’s actually there. Case in point: Destroyer, the latest treasure from Canadian psych rock outfit Black Mountain, a heavy, crunchy, head-banging good time with eight tracks to throw the sign of the horns to. For any self-respecting rocker, the album’s a treat, but resisting the interpretive urge is impossible. What kind of apocalypse is Stephen McBean warning us of? He isn’t, it turns out. He’s just singing about getting his driver’s license back in 2017 and paying tribute to his car. Once that nugget of info’s settled in your brain, all visions of chaos implied by the word “destroy” come to a halt with the harsh cacophony of brakes screeching. Such is the mundanity of the album’s creative genesis. —Andy Crump