10 New Albums to Stream Today
Photos by Chris Carroll/Corbis via Getty, Gary Burden, Bao Ngo Music Lists New Albums
There were plenty of solid new albums released today, but if you’re looking for some exciting rock ‘n’ roll rarities and live recordings, you’re in for a treat. This week brought live albums from Sonic Youth, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, each capturing an important era in their respective careers. As for new original releases, we received full-lengths from Palehound, Stef Chura, Lust For Youth and more. Scroll down for 10 essential new albums released Friday, June 7.
1. Bob Dylan, The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings
Featuring 148 tracks (more than 100 of those previously unreleased), Bob Dylan’s The Rolling Thunder Review: The 1975 Live Recordings is a foray into the iconic first leg of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour. With live rehearsals and dynamic live performances of favorites like “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and “It Ain’t Me Babe,” the album showcases the artistry and poetic lyricism that made Dylan the legend he is today. The live album also accompanies the Martin Scorsese Netflix documentary about Dylan. —Molly Schramm
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2. Dumb, Club Nites
Vancouver four-piece Dumb quickly followed up 2018’s Seeing Green with another new album for Mint Records, Club Nites. Per a press release, “Club Nites is a collection of narratives drawn from the nightlife ecosystem. Attempting to break from the typical romanticized version of ‘the club’ as seen on TV, the album instead depicts a bleak social setting, where we zoom in on seemingly petty details in order to reveal the cracks that Hollywood forgot to fill.” One highlight is “Beef Hits,” a saxophone-laced punk tune equipped with a snotty lyrical shrewdness and crystalline production style to counteract the band’s scrappy energy that can’t be curtailed. —Lizzie Manno
3. Froth, Duress
Noise rockers Froth have unleashed their first album in two years via Wichita Recordings, and it was co-produced with longtime friend and collaborator Tomas Dolas (Oh Sees, Mr. Elevator). With wiry guitars and feverish synths, the album marches boldly into shoegaze, psychedelia and post-punk territory. With Duress, Joo-Joo Ashworth, Jeremy Katz and Cameron Allen take listeners on a visceral trip. —Molly Schramm
4. Lust For Youth, Lust For Youth
For the past decade or so, Scandanavian duo Lust For Youth have consistently dished out dark wave, electro-pop and New Wave with finesse. On their self-titled new album and fourth for Sacred Bones, they opt for a more expansive direction, leaning on dance-y synth-pop and atmospheric dream pop rather than the monochromatic grooves they’ve utilized in the past. Hannes Norrvide’s vocals have a neon, futuristic synth-pop sheen, and it enhances their more intuitive melodies while revamping the somewhat forgettable ones. Lust For Youth would be most gratifying as a poetic indulgence or as the perfect music festival set in the dead of night, but their entrancing guitars and synths and exuberant percussion would quench the thirst of anyone looking for a pensive album with tantalizing, well-produced textures. —Lizzie Manno
5. Mariee Sioux, Grief In Exile
Mariee Sioux’s music possesses healing qualities, and that’s no accident. The singer/songwriter and California native began exploring alternative medicinal practices in her 20s after fighting alcoholism and depression, and she emerged on the other side with a new sense of purpose. Her third album Grief In Exile is a collection of ruminations on loss, heartbreak and the benefits of a healthy relationship with grief. —Ellen Johnson
6. Palehound, Black Friday
“And if you quit smoking / Will you just start drinking?” Ellen Kempner sings on “Company,” the opening track of her band Palehound’s third album, Black Friday, setting a tone of curiosity and concern about close friendships that drives the songs to follow. Black Friday floats inside these currents of love and risk that churn through relationships—especially platonic ones—which involve serious, prolonged leaning on other people. Throughout, the band explores how we move toward and away from people we care about, and how both orientations strain the resources we have available for love. Ultimately, Black Friday is a constantly modulating love song to the very human experience of clinging to other people, but through her sharp writing, Kempner offers insight on how to rely on ourselves when everyone else leaves: “Nothing worth loving ever sticks around / But you.” —Annie Galvin
7. Neil Young, Tuscaloosa
Neil Young can be irascible at the best of times, but things were looking particularly dour when he and his band The Stray Gators rolled into Tuscaloosa, Ala., in February 1973. Though his 1972 release Harvest was the top-selling album in America that year, Young was not in a celebratory mood. He was shaken by the recent death of his ex-bandmate Danny Whitten and was also unsettled enough by his growing solo success that he sought to undercut it by loading concerts with new material that audiences wouldn’t have heard before. Maybe that accounts for the arrival in October 1973 of Time Fades Away, a piecemeal live album of previously unreleased songs, instead of the hit-laden setlist from his Feb. 5 show at the University of Alabama. Young kept that recording locked away for 46 years before selecting it for his ongoing Archives series. Tuscaloosa showcases Young’s full range, which makes it a rare glimpse of a now-iconic performer at a moment when he was working to find a balance between satisfying himself and pleasing his audience. —Eric R. Danton
8. Sonic Youth, Battery Park, NYC: July 4, 2008
Sonic Youth devotees wanting to hear Battery Park, NYC: July 4, 2008—a bonus collection of live tracks supplementing their final album, The Eternal—were S.O.L. for years. The assemblage of tracks spanning their 30-year reign has been out of print for a decade, and streaming services never managed to lock it down. That is, until now. Battery Park, NYC: July 4, 2008 has finally been released in both physical and streaming formats via Matador Records in honor of its 10th anniversary. This recording showcases exactly why they’re so influential. Pulling material from works like Daydream Nation and Dirty, the album gives enthusiasts a lot to appreciate. —Drew Novak
9. Stef Chura, Midnight
“If only you could hear me scream,” Stef Chura sings at one point during her sophomore release, Midnight, her first full length for Saddle Creek. She makes good on her promise and does quite a bit of screaming throughout, even channeling a modern DIY Karen O at times. Produced by Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo, Midnight takes everything you love from his band and applies it to Chura’s transfixing voice, a perfect match for the rising act from Detroit. She’s long been building up buzz in the indie rock community; Midnight may launch her to stardom, a jump that’s been long overdue. —Steven Edelstone
10. Tim Heidecker, What The Brokenhearted Do…
Tim Heidecker describes his new album, What The Brokenheared Do…, as “a breakup record, kinda like a bunch of sad songs,” adding after a beat, “not autobiographical.” Our first taste was the Harry Nilsson-saluting lead single “When I Get Up,” a jaunty ode to depression and alienation. Produced by Jonathan Rado (Weyes Blood, Whitney, Father John Misty) of Foxygen, the album finds Heidecker blending music and comedy in a way that makes his work a moving interpretive target, as is his wont. —Scott Russell