This Friday’s album release output might be a bit sparse, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few diamonds in the rough. This week, we’ve got the vivacious post-punk debut from Necking, the delicate fifth album from singer/songwriter Jesca Hoop, an experimental album from Democratic Republic of Congo electronic outfit KOKOKO! and a few more records worth your while. Scroll down to check out five of today’s most essential new albums.
1. Necking: Cut Your Teeth
Cut Your Teeth, the debut album from Vancouver quartet Necking, has too much nuanced humanity to write them off as just another punk band. Their minimal, shouty post-punk and grunge-tinted rock songs would fall flat if they weren’t performed with discernible gusto or infused with as much simmering rage or relatable sulk. Their frenzied rhythms have a sense of urgency, and their twitchy, melodic guitars utter a threatening “Get out of my way” just as much as an overwhelmed “I’m losing my mind!” —Lizzie Manno
2. Jesca Hoop: STONECHILD
Originally a Los Angeles native, singer/songwriter Jesca Hoop now lives in the U.K. and recorded her new album STONECHILD in Bristol with producer John Parish, who’s worked with artists like PJ Harvey and This is the Kit. On STONECHILD, Hoop sings softly and sweetly, but she leads us through dark territory. But the hope is to inspire some comfort with this record, or, in Hoop’s words: “wrap its arms around our human planet spinning in its increasingly precarious wobble.” —Ellen Johnson
3. KOKOKO!: Fongola
Fongola, the debut album from Kinshasa collective KOKOKO! doesn’t fit neatly into any boxes. Their experimental electronic music is one-of-a-kind, and that’s not just because they’re using instruments like a one-string guitar made out of a bike brake and a powdered milk tin. With lyrics that explore everything from love and sorcery to corruption, KOKOKO!’s music contains a glowing spontaneity and a deep rhythmic intuition. —Lizzie Manno
4. The Soft Cavalry: The Soft Cavalry
The Soft Cavalry is Steve Clarke’s first time helming a record himself, the culmination of a career spent playing in and featuring on other people’s bands since the late 1990s. Though it features his wife, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, The Soft Cavalry is fully his, an introduction to and retrospective of his recent life and times. The album is divorced from both Slowdive and Mojave 3’s respective styles, an airy dream pop middle ground separating shoegaze from country rock. —Andy Crump
5. Mark Mulcahy: The Gus
From his days with Miracle Legion and then Polaris, Mark Mulcahy has always had a laid-back, summer-porch pop styling that often betrays his complicated lyrics. On The Gus, Mulcahy unfolds a map of any neighborhood in America and then tears it apart, piece by piece, revealing a quiet underbelly of want and despair, of neediness and love in tiny truths and microscopic fictions. —Libby Cudmore