5 New Albums to Stream Today
Photos via Peter Hapak, Getty Images & Conqueroo Music Lists New Albums
The 2019 music release calendar has gifted us one last stacked New Music Friday. There’ll be new albums and songs to arrive in the coming weeks, but the volume will significantly drop off after Thanksgiving. So soak up today, Nov. 22, with an expectedly creative Beck album, a Coldplay double album and two records from deceased artists whose catalogues continually supply new-to-us gems: Leonard Cohen and Harry Nilsson. There’s also a Tom Waits tribute album out today featuring Phoebe Bridgers, Joseph, Patty Griffin and many other Americana/folk/country stars. Happy trails, and happy listening.
1. Beck: Hyperspace
Beck can avail himself of any songwriting partner or hit-making producer on the planet and chances are the results are going to be extremely easy on the ears and occasionally brilliant. But when he strips everything else away and zeroes in on penning a purely gorgeous song, you can hear the spark that has made him one of the most consistent and creative mainstream artists of the past 25 years. It’s still in there, sometimes you just have to travel through Hyperspace to find it. —Ben Salmon
2. Coldplay: Everyday Life
For the past decade, Coldplay have had a bumpy ride. Their first album during that period, Mylo Xyloto, didn’t top its predecessors, but it was their only saving grace with its neon rock and ascendant keyboard pop. The next LP, 2014’s Ghost Stories, was largely a snooze of a breakup record, and 2015’s A Headful of Dreams turned out to be a pop disaster and cheesy call to arms. If that wasn’t disheartening enough, the band also collaborated with The Chainsmokers on the 2017 single “Something Just Like This,” and if that doesn’t signal a bleak turn, I don’t know what does. But four years on from their latest album, Coldplay have shared their first double LP, Everyday Life, which is split into two parts—”Sunrise” and “Sunset.” —Lizzie Manno
3. Harry Nilsson: Losst And Founnd
Early this year, the jovial Nilsson Schmilsson classic “Gotta Get Up” served as the theme song for Netflix’s Russian Doll, introducing Harry Nilsson’s work to a millennial audience. Several months later, millennial spokeperson Carly Rae Jepsen lovingly borrowed a Nilsson hook for the best track on Dedicated. Now, after 25 years of bootlegs and rumors, Nilsson’s last album, Losst and Founnd, is finally seeing release. It’s been newly completed by its original producer, Mark Hudson, who recruited a handful of the singer’s old buddies—Jimmy Webb, Van Dyke Parks, even Nilsson’s son Kiefo—to contribute. —Zach Schonfeld
4. Leonard Cohen: Thanks for the Dance
Adam Cohen closes Thanks for the Dance with “Listen to the Hummingbird,” which, even more than usual for Leonard Cohen, is essentially a poem set to music. Dark, moody piano frames four simple stanzas as Cohen downplays his own words and voice in favor of what he regards as deeper truths. “Listen to the mind of G-d,” he sings (the spelling is a Jewish custom showing reverence). “Don’t listen to me.” It’s a moving sentiment, though it comes 52 years after Cohen released his first album in 1967—in other words, more than half a century since Cohen proved himself to be someone worth listening to. Thanks for the Dance, Cohen’s fifteenth and potentially final studio album, shows that little has changed in that regard. Whether he’s singing about sex or death, or whatever else, Cohen’s voice remains indispensable. —Eric R. Danton
5. Various Artists: Come On Up To The House: Women Sing Waits
Some of the brightest and best singers in folk and Americana banded together for this stunning Tom Waits tribute, Come On Up To The House: Women Sing Waits, a 12-song collection of Waits covers sung by an all-female cast. Portland-based trio Joseph open the record with their take on “Come On Up To The House,” followed by tunes sung by Aimee Mann, Allison Moorer, Angie McMahon, Corinne Bailey Rae, Patty Griffin, Rosanne Cash, Courtney Marie Andrews and others. Phoebe Bridgers also appears on the album with her cover of “Georgia Lee,” which you can hear below. —Ellen Johnson