Featured New Album Releases

Julien Baker / Torres

Send a Prayer My Way

Matador

Pop/Rock

The singer/songwriters reclaim the sounds of their childhood with heartfelt queer country songs that bring out the best in their music.

— Heather Phares

Neil Young

Coastal: The Soundtrack

Reprise

Pop/Rock, Stage & Screen

The soundtrack to a film about a Neil Young solo tour captures the great contrarian sounding weathered but fully engaged.

— Mark Deming

Rhiannon Giddens / Justin Robinson

What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow

Nonesuch

Country, Folk, Pop/Rock

A joyful, rootsy reunion of banjo and fiddle tunes between the former Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmates.

— Matt Collar

Malcolm Catto / Little Barrie

Electric War

Concord / Easy Eye Sound

Pop/Rock

Another heady dose of psychedelic funk from the high-octane pairing of the Heliocentrics' drummer and guitar hero Barrie Cadogan's band.

— Tim Sendra

Melvins

Thunderball

Ipecac

Pop/Rock

The grunge pioneers team with their first drummer and two noise musicians to add new wrinkles to their legacy of heaviness.

— Mark Deming

Tunde Adebimpe

Thee Black Boltz

Sub Pop

Pop/Rock

The TV on the Radio frontman continues his musical legacy with his passionate, imaginative, musically restless solo debut.

— Heather Phares

Adrian Younge

Adrian Younge Presents Something About April III

Linear Labs

R&B

The do-it-all ends his romantic psychedelic soul trilogy with a 30-piece orchestra and a cast of Brazilian vocalists singing his Portuguese lyrics.

— Andy Kellman

Beirut

A Study of Losses

Pompeii

Pop/Rock, Stage & Screen

A sweetly melancholy set of chamber folk songs and instrumentals for a circus show about a man who catalogs lost thoughts and creations.

— Marcy Donelson

Chime Oblivion

Deathgod

Pop/Rock

This collaborative project between Thee Oh Sees' John Dwyer and foundational punk drummer David Barbarossa channels the influence of early outsider punk and no wave.

— Fred Thomas

Divide and Dissolve

Insatiable

Believe Direct Limited / Bella Union

Pop/Rock

Intense and uncompromising yet compassionate sludge metal from guitarist/saxophonist Takiaya Reed and collaborators.

— Paul Simpson

Hieroglyphic Being

Dance Music 4 Bad People

Smalltown Supersound

Electronic

One of the most joyous, uplifting releases in Chicago house veteran Jamal Moss' endless discography.

— Paul Simpson

Index for Working Musik

Which Direction Goes the Beam

Tough Love

Pop/Rock

Dark, murky, experimental, and bleak, the band's second album hovers menacingly between gloom and doom, while occasionally rocking out pretty hard.

— Tim Sendra

Charles Mingus

Mingus In Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts [2 CD]

Resonance

Jazz

Drawn from two concerts on his 1977 South American tour, this previously unissued set showcases a stellar, if undercelebrated, quintet.

— Thom Jurek

Kenny Dorham

Blue Bossa in the Bronx: Live from the Blue Morocco

Resonance

Jazz

The legendary trumpeter leads his quintet on this hard-swinging live 1967 archival recording.

— Matt Collar

Freddie Hubbard

On Fire: Live from the Blue Morocco [2 CD]

Resonance

Jazz

A previously unreleased, scorching 1967 set by the trumpeter with Bennie Maupin, Herbie Lewis, Freddie Waits, and Kenny Barron.

— Thom Jurek

Various Artists

Electric Junk: Deutsche Rock, Psych and Kosmische 1970-1978

Cherry Red

Pop/Rock, Avant-Garde

Four-CD deep dive into the 1970s German underground, encompassing prog, psychedelic, hard rock, and experimental electronics.

— Paul Simpson

Various Artists

Get Ready for the Countdown: Mod, Brit Soul, R&B & Freakbeat Nuggets

Strawberry

Pop/Rock

An exceedingly well-chosen collection of mostly obscure tracks from the mid- to late-'60s U.K. music scene that's equally good for research or having a good time.

— Tim Sendra

Shirley Bassey

The Singer: Classic and Undiscovered Gems from the EMI/UA Years 1962-1979

Strawberry

Vocal, Stage & Screen, Pop/Rock

This once-abandoned multi-disc set offers a great-sounding retrospective with unissued tracks, diving deep into her most creative period.

— Thom Jurek

Hawkwind

There Is No Space for Us

Cherry Red

Pop/Rock

The space rockers continue a late-career renaissance with their most focused, holistic album in decades, completing a 2020s synth-focused trilogy.

— Thom Jurek

Kinsella & Pulse

Open Ing Night

Kill Rock Stars

Electronic, Pop/Rock

The Chicago art rock duo move beyond the chaotic electronic collages of their earlier work on this shadowy, interconnected set of songs.

— Fred Thomas

Polo & Pan

22:22

Virgin

Electronic, Pop/Rock

The electronic bon vivants' third LP is more song-based and collaborative than their earlier efforts.

— Timothy Monger

Quickly, Quickly

I Heard That Noise

Ghostly International

Electronic, Pop/Rock

The bedroom producer/songwriter moves further from his instrumental hip-hop beginnings with these vividly personal songs guided by the spirit of 2000s indie rock.

— Fred Thomas