New Music Friday: Stream new projects from King Krule, Christine and The Queens, and more

The fifth studio album from Archy Marshall arrives three years after Man Alive! (You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down, a live album, was released the following year). The singles from Space Heavy have all displayed an enchanting wooziness, whether it's a peppy ballad ("Seasick"), R. Stevie Moore-esque forlornity ("Flimsier,") or a transmission from the empty jazz club in his heart ("If Only It Was Warmth").

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Héloïse Adélaïde Letissier’s third studio album as Christine and the Queens was released just last year — it’s called Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue), and it’s a pop record as odd as it was underrated. Following the “prologue,” the main event has arrived today: Paranoïa, Angels, True Love. It features 070 Shake and Madonna, and includes “To be honest,” the single that signaled Christine’s return to his anthemic synth-pop sound.

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Since the release of 2018’s Dirty Computer, Janelle Monáe has stayed in the spotlight more as a movie and TV star than as a pop artist. With The Age of Pleasure, Monáe returns to music, this time prioritizing self-love and liberation. “Float“ and “Lipstick Lover“ preceded the album’s release.

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Last year, Williamson teamed up with Waxahatchee for a new duo called Plains and the album I Walked With You a Ways. The new solo album from the Texan singer-songwriter tracks heartbreak, love, and the shifting nature of the heart with a unique country sound that's both glossy and worn-in. "Ultimately," she told The FADER this year, "I have made peace with and even embraced the reality that the meanings of my songs will change for me over the years and there is something really beautiful to me about the songs evolving with time."

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Ascendant St. Louis rapper Sexyy Red returns with a new project featuring star-powered guest appearances from Nicki Minaj (on the recently released remix of her song-of-the-summer contender “Pound Town”), as well Juicy J and Sukihana.

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Decisive Pink are Kate NV and Deradoorian, and their debut full-length collaboration Ticket To Fame is a pristine collection of krautrock compositions glinting with Yellow Magic Orchestra’s playfulness. Its lead single “Destiny“ was a Song You Need.

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Released on Tuesday, the long-awaited debut album from Atlanta’s Bickle is chamber pop for a new generation. “The Suburbs,” Biblickle‘s final single, was released on Monday and quickly became a Song You Need.

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The 17-track sequel to New Orleans rapper Rob49’s 2021 tape 4God is packed with features. Roddy Ricch, Icewear Vezzo, G Herbo, Trippie Red and more appear on the record, the first full-length project Rob’s released since he was wounded in a shooting on the set of a French Montana music video in January.

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The first joint album between Bay Area natives Nora Stanley and Benny Bock is a collaboration 10 years in the making. Stanley’s saxophone and Bock’s keys sound cosmic amid contributions from some of jazz’s most exciting experimentalists, including guitarist Jeff Parker.

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Beloved hip-hop producer Statik Selektah is going all out in celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary with Round Trip, his 10th studio album under the moniker. Loads of Wu-Tang Clan members (Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killa, Method Man, and Raekwon) show up for features, as do Benny The Butcher, IDK, Bun B, Joey Bada$$, and, De La Soul's Posdnous.

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It took eight years for Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington to release a second DARKSIDE album after 2013’s Psychic, with Spiral arriving in 2021. A third project from the left-field electro-prog group was revealed just this week, a collection of jams with drummer and new member Tlacael Esparza called Live at Spiral House. “When we decided to get the band back together with Tlac,” Jarr says in a press statement, “we knew we needed a space where we could explore what that meant. After a couple of months of rehearsals, we started inviting friends and family to the space and many of these recordings share the fun and cozy spirit of that time.”

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Canadian DJ and producer Jayda G releases her most ambitious and personal project yet with Guy. The project and its narrative were inspired by video tapes recorded by Jayda's father prior to his death. Her vocals are front and center on the adventurous new songs, which range from the neo-soul disco of "Meant To Be" to the glowing house sheen of "Scars."

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The debut album from the poet and community organizer weaves jazz and gripping spoken word with instrumentation provided by a stellar band; it's music that speaks to deep sicknesses with clarity, hope, and love. Its fourth single "why my love" premiered last month on The FADER.

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The fifth solo album from singer-songwriter and former Rilo Kiley member Jenny Lewis had its genesis in the months before the pandemic. “I joined a week-long virtual songwriting workshop with a handful of amazing artists, hosted by Beck,” Lewis remembers. The challenge was to write one song every day for seven days, with guidelines from Beck. The guidelines would be prompts like ‘write a song with 1-4-5 chord progression,’ ‘write a song with only cliches,’ or ‘write in free form style.’”

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Pittsburgh noise-pop four-piece feeble little horse evoke the early bedroom-punk gems of fellow Pennsylvania native Alex G on their sophomore album, Girl with Fish. “Anything that makes us laugh or puts a smile on our faces, we usually end up keeping in the songs,” says the group’s drummer Jake Kelly, shedding light on the irreverent energy that keeps the album interesting all the way through.

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Detroit rapper Boldy James’ serious car accident hasn’t stopped his momentum as one of his city’s most consistent artists. Announced just this Wednesday, the Prisoner of Circumstance EP is produced by ChanHays. Enjoy it while you wait for DrugDilla, an upcoming full-length Boldy project featuring previously unreleased J Dilla beats.

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Olof Dreijer made his much-anticipated return to music this year, co-producing songs on the new mutant-pop album Radical Romantics from Fever Ray, the project led by his sibling Karin Dreijer. His new LP (and first ever under his own name) is a collaboration with Mt. Sims. Together, they create an suite of dreamy soundscapes centering one of the first steel drums created by the Trinidadian artist Ellie Mannette.

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Squid distinguished themselves from other artists in the U.K. post-punk boom with their 2021 debut Bright Green Field, an excellent collection of kinetic guitars and barbed yelps. They endeavored to avoid repeating themselves on O Monolith, their sophomore effort, which was written during a tour and even previewed during live performances. “We were quite keen on pushing ourselves musically in a way that was a reaction against what we’d done before,” says guitarist Louis Borlase. “So we were playing elements of Bright Green Field alongside quite free explorations of all these new ideas.”

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Trevor Powers’ return to Youth Lagoon after shuttering the indie rock project in 2016 arrives after two solo albums released under his own name (2018’s Mulberry Violence and 2020’s Capricorn) as well as a seriously harrowing acid reflux issue that lasted eight months. Triumphantly, Powers’ voice takes center stage on Heaven on richly emotional, piano-forward tracks like May Song You Need “The Sling.” “Heaven Is a Junkyard is about all of us,” Powers says. “It’s stories of brothers leaving for war, drunk fathers learning to hug, mothers falling in love, neighbors stealing mail, cowboys doing drugs, friends skipping school, me crying in the bathtub, dogs catching rabbits, and children playing in tall grass.”

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The “nepo baby” discourse got a curveball earlier this year when Rob Grant, father of Lana Del Rey, announced his debut album. The self-taught composer enlists producers like Jack Antonoff and Zach Dawes for Lost At Sea, out today via the piano label Decca Records. Yes, Lana features twice on the album, too.

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