Featured New Album Releases

Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava

KGLW / Recycled Black Wax

Pop/Rock

Born out of improvisational studio jams, the album turns out to be one of the band's loosest, most energetic and inspiring to date.

— Tim Sendra

Broken Bells

Into the Blue

30th Century Records / Aural Apothecary

Pop/Rock

The duo returns from an eight-year hiatus with an album that gives equal time to bittersweet moods and inventive sonics.

— Heather Phares

Willow

Coping Mechanism

Roc Nation

Pop/Rock

Wildly entertaining collision of heavy music genres that finds Willow evolving yet again with another stylistic shift.

— Neil Z. Yeung

Alvvays

Blue Rev

Polyvinyl

Pop/Rock

After a five-year absence, the group return with a bulked-up and refined version of their sound that adds even more energy and drama.

— Tim Sendra

Bartees Strange

Farm to Table

4AD

Pop/Rock

The eclectic indie artist offers a sophomore album of emotional honesty, unique arrangements, and understated originality.

— Timothy Monger

Charlie Puth

Charlie

Atlantic

Pop/Rock

The pop songsmith's third full-length buffers post-breakup pain with bittersweet, synth-based production.

— Neil Z. Yeung

The Cult

Under the Midnight Sun

Black Hill Records / Round Hill

Pop/Rock

These rockers deliver their first album since 2016 while embracing almost every direction they've explored over 40 years, and some new ones.

— Thom Jurek

Jean Dawson

CHAOS NOW*

Handwritten / Handwritten Records

Rap, Pop/Rock

The second full-length from this hard-to-pin-down artist expands his hybrid sound, jumping from '90s-informed alt-rock to rap to sad indie folk.

— Fred Thomas

The Orielles

Tableau

Heavenly

Pop/Rock

Switching from a light indie pop sound to a darkly arty approach, the band's third album shows impressive growth.

— Tim Sendra

Dungen

En Är För Mycket och Tusen Aldrig Nog

Mexican Summer

Pop/Rock

The Swedish psychedelic act expand their sound by introducing ideas that are both unexpected and unlikely.

— Fred Thomas

Bush

The Art of Survival

BMG

Pop/Rock

The revitalized ninth album from the English grunge survivors is their heaviest to date and one of their all-time best.

— Neil Z. Yeung

Daphni

Cherry

Jiaolong

Electronic

The third album from Dan Snaith's back-to-basics project adds experimental spontaneity and touches of techno with invigorating results.

— Heather Phares

TSHA

Capricorn Sun

Ninja Tune

Electronic

The fast-rising producer and DJ blends Afro-house, progressive house, rave, and dance-pop on her emotionally rich debut album.

— Paul Simpson

Action Bronson

Cocodrillo Turbo

Loma Vista

Rap

Action Bronson sounds reenergized on his trippy, absurd seventh album.

— Paul Simpson

A.A. Williams

As the Moon Rests

Bella Union

Pop/Rock

The second album from the U.K. singer and songwriter, whose blend of folk, metal, goth, and classical has gained greater depth.

— Mark Deming

Peel Dream Magazine / Joe Stevens

Pad

Slumberland

Pop/Rock

The third album from this evolving project moves from overt Stereolab imitation to gentle, psych-informed chamber pop.

— Fred Thomas

Peter Astor

Time on Earth

Tapete Records

Pop/Rock

Typically thoughtful and pretty songs about death and youth delivered with subtle grace from one of the great under-appreciated songwriters of his era.

— Tim Sendra

Esmerine

Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More

Constellation

Pop/Rock

The elegant, cinematic seventh full-length from the Montreal-based chamber rock ensemble.

— Paul Simpson

Courtney Marie Andrews

Loose Future

Fat Possum Records

Pop/Rock, Folk, Country

Good times and uncertainty are both in the mix from one of the best songwriters in the Americana community.

— Mark Deming

Open Mike Eagle

Component System with the Auto Reverse

Auto Reverse / Otherground Records

Rap

Open Mike Eagle's eighth album channels the spirit of making mixtapes from late-night college radio freestyle rap sessions.

— Paul Simpson

Johanna Warren

Lessons for Mutants

Wax Nine Records

Pop/Rock

An often theatrical sixth album that negotiates thoughtful folk, nightclub balladry, and forward-leaning alt-rock for its tested-relationship songs.

— Marcy Donelson

Keiji Haino / Sumac

Into This Juvenile Apocalypse our Golden Blood to Pour Let Us Never

Thrill Jockey

Pop/Rock, Avant-Garde

The third improvised collaboration between the guitar legend and the post-metal trio has a more controlled sense of dynamics than the first two.

— Paul Simpson

Lamb of God

Omens

Epic

Pop/Rock

The veteran New Wave of American Heavy Metal architects deliver an antagonistic set of uncompromising might on their ninth full-length effort.

— James Christopher Monger

Lindsey Stirling

Snow Waltz

Concord

Holiday

Second set of holiday-themed tunes from the contemporary violinist is a warm, festive ride on her pop-crossover sleigh.

— Neil Z. Yeung

Indigo Sparke

Hysteria

Sacred Bones

Pop/Rock

The Aussie expat follows up her brittle indie folk debut with a more expansive, anguished follow-up produced by the National's Aaron Dessner.

— Marcy Donelson

Jacqui Abbott / Paul Heaton

N.K-Pop

EMI

Pop/Rock

The duo's follow-up to U.K. number one Manchester Calling continues in kind, returning the same crew and wry, lively, tuneful approach.

— Marcy Donelson

Tenniscoats

Tan-Tan Therapy

Häpna

Pop/Rock, Avant-Garde, International

Collaborative work from this curious Japanese duo and Swedish counterparts Tape results in an album of unbusy beauty and sophisticated but restrained arrangements.

— Fred Thomas