New Music Friday: Stream projects from Babymorocco, Smino, Kassie Krut, and more

Babymorocco is a bodybuilder turned vocalist whose songs are pure id and Amour is his trashy opus. The London-based artist delivers 16 tracks of scuzzy, sweat-drenched electro-pop that drip with pure euphoria. It's fair to say Babymorocco is pulling from a similar mood board as Charli xcx and, alongside executive producers Frost Children, the album taps into the Brat world of maximalist 2010s hedonism (with less introspection, admittedly). Opener "Give Me Luv" filters a children's choir over a pounding beat while "Babestation" is as horny and grubby as you would expect for a song named after an X-rated British TV staple. "Bikinis & Trackies," meanwhile, feels like being zoomed directly into the POV of the loudest guy in the club. No song goes by without a jackhammer beat or a synth that sounds like an air raid siren. The brash nature of his whole persona might be off-putting to some, but there is no denying that Amour offers undiluted access to his world and viewpoint. Following him as he chases that high is a thrill in itself. — David Renshaw

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

Put Smino's music on in the background, and you may not catch any suggestion of fraught internal conflict. The most buttery smooth of melodic rap's first generation, the Missouri-born, Chicago-made rapper might seem like the poster child for stoner neo-soul, laid-back vibes billowing like clouds. But Smino's staying power is rooted in the beautification of his struggles, where gospel melodies and ever-present vice collide: "Someday wanna be like Jesus, other day's young Jeezy," he raps on "Ms. Joyce," a Bun B-featuring track from his new project Maybe In Nirvana. Across the album, Smino explores his interior world with care and style, whether it's appreciating accomplishments some loved ones aren't around to see ("Dear Fren") or exploring the push and pull of a strong romantic connection ("Maybe In Nirvana"). Guest stars like Thundercat, Bun B, Monte Booker, and recent FADER cover star Ravyn Lenae help keep things feeling varied and fresh, an important factor as Smino explores the outer reaches of what "soul music" means for him. — Jordan Darville

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music

On Kassie Krut’s self-titled debut EP, the words matter less than vibes: clashing percussion and screeching synths that build into a bubble of anxiety that doesn’t ever go pop. It’s clear the New York City-based trio — Eve Alpert, Kasra Kurt, and Matt Anderegg — see music as solving (or perhaps, creating) a calculus-level math problem. To you and I, the variables and unknowns look like scribbles across the chalkboard, but they are sharp-eyed enough to see the pattern. Songs like the wordless “Espresso,” a minute-long jumble of clangs, swoops, and silence, somehow cohere into a legible symphony. “Hooh Beat” and “Racing Man” take cues from SOPHIE’s experimental electronic tome. It takes a lot of experience to be able to pull this kind of melodic inscrutability off, and Kassie Krut have it: Over 10 years ago, Alpert, Kurt, and Anderegg found critical acclaim with their equally complex rock songs as Palm, a project they disbanded in 2023. They’ve since found a new discipline to master, and their findings are exciting and unexpected on every level. — Steffanee Wang

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

Dazy always know how to have a good time, even when everything is falling apart. The project of Richmond, Virginia’s James Goodson’s, Dazy make pumping, propulsive guitar music evoking SoCal surf rock and slacker-pop that sounds bright and energetic even as we’re approaching dead winter, when parts of your soul start to get eaten away by the cold. New EP I GET LOST (when i try to get found) is a three-track collection of melodic chaos and unrelenting punk, an extension of the Dazy world that’s all hooky riffs and earworm melodies. “I gotta get out my mind and I’ll be alright,” goes the opening track “Get Out My Mind.” The cheerful nihilism continues on “I Get Lost”: “Kinda crooked, head don’t fit / forward looking, grin and bear it.” The world might be collapsing, but put on Dazy and it might be all okay. Eventually. — Cady Siregar

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp