New Music Friday - June 16, 2017

Be sure to view a list of upcoming releases here!

Essential Full-Length Releases

Beth Ditto - Fake Sugar Ditto's band Gossip may have gone their separate ways last year, but Fake Sugar is not her first solo outing. It's her first full-length, but she released an EP (just called EP) in 2011. Like her work with Gossip, the style of this album pulls from a wide variety of genres, including dance-pop and garage rock. Here, she is more fully embracing her southern roots and incorporating elements of Southern rock. Watch: "Fire" Listen: "Oo La La"

Big Boi - Boomiverse Big Boi became known as one-half of the duo Outkast, but has had a long solo career, as well. He released his first solo album, Sir Lucious Left Foot in 2010. His most recent output was an unexpected collaboration with Phantogram as Big Grams two years ago. His third album sees him working with some of his more frequent collaborators, including Killer Mike and Sleepy Brown. Watch: "Kill Jill" (featuring Killer Mike & Jeezy) Watch: "Mic Jack" (featuring Adam Levine)

Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up It's been a long while since we last heard from Fleet Foxes. Following the release of 2011's Helplessness Blues, frontman Robin Pecknold took some time to attend Columbia University. He remained active in the music industry, but primarily as a guest on others' albums, including The Walkmen's last album, and Hamilton Leithauser's debut. Despite the gap, this new album is connected to the previous record, with the first track starting where the last track on Helplessness Blues left off. Watch: "Fool's Errand" Watch: "First of May/Ōdaigahara"

Lorde - Melodrama I was initially dismissive of Lorde. I recall a friend telling me about this new "Royals" song on the pop stations and I responded that I did not listen to those stations. Once I did hear her music, I was blown away. She doesn't really sound like any other pop artists out there and her follow-up album is even better than her debut. It's a surprisingly insightful post-breakup album from an artist barely out of her teens. Watch: "Green Light" Listen: "Liability"

Showtime Goma - Smiley Face Showtime Goma is Jen Goma of A Sunny Day in Glasgow. The band is still together, but she is embarking on her first solo project. She has spent the past few years working with a variety of artists, including Deerhoof, Ice Choir, and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Greg Saunier of Deerhoof returns the favor here, helping to produce the record. Watch: "Propel" Watch: "Secret NRG"

Other Full-Length Releases

2 Chainz - Pretty Girls Like Trap Music Watch: "Good Drank" (featuring Quavo & Gucci Mane) Listen: "4 AM" (featuring Travis Scott)

ARCADEA - ARCADEA Watch: "Army of Electrons" Listen: "Infinite End"

The Drums - “Abysmal Thoughts” Watch: "Blood Under My Belt" Listen: "Heart Basel"

Jason Loewenstein - Spooky Action Watch: "Machinery" Listen: "Superstitious"

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - On the Echoing Green Watch: "Tenderness" Listen: "A Song of Summer"

Kevin Morby - City Music Watch: "City Music" Watch: "Aboard My Train"

Palehound - A Place I’ll Always Go Watch: "Cushioned Caging" Watch: "If You Met Her"

Peacers - Introducing the Crimsmen Watch: "Haptic Chillweed" Watch: "Staying Home"

Peaking Lights - The Fifth State of Consciousness Listen: "Everytime I See The Light" Listen: "Coyote Ghost Melodies"

Portugal. The Man - Woodstock Watch: "Feel It Still" Watch: "So Young"

Ride - Weather Diaries Watch: "Charm Assault" Watch: "All I Want"

Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark? Watch: "I Only Lie When I Love You" Watch: "Hook, Line & Sinker"

Singles, EPs, Soundtracks, etc.

David Bowie - "Be My Wife" Picture Disc Listen: "Be My Wife"

Palm - Shadow Expert Watch: "Shadow Expert" Listen: "Walkie Talkie"

TOKiMONSTA - "Don’t Call Me" Watch: "Don’t Call Me" (featuring Yuna)

New Music Tuesday - 06/04/2013

New Full-Length Releases

Camera Obscura - Desire Lines Camera Obscura are yet another example of the incredible indie pop that comes out of Scotland. For their fifth full-length, they've enlisted such go-to guest vocalists as Neko Case and Jim James. Desire Lines promises to be yet another delivery of incredible pop from this band! Listen: "Fifth in Line to the Throne"

Eleanor Friedberger - Personal Record Eleanor Friedberger made a name for herself with her brother Matthew as one-half of The Fiery Furnaces. Although her brother has been an active solo artist for about seven years, Eleanor released her first solo album, Last Summer, in 2011. It's been four years since the last Fiery Furnaces album; I'm not sure if the siblings' respective solo albums signal a break for them. Listen/Watch: "Stare at the Sun"

Future Bible Heroes - Partygoing Future Bible Heroes is one of many side projects of The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt. In stark contrast to the baroque pop sound of his main band, this project delivers a more electronic sound. In more than 16 years together, this is only the band's third album. Stephin Merritt is a busy enough man to warrant the gaps in releases, though. Listen: "Sadder Than the Moon"

Portugal. The Man - Evil Friends Every time I think of Portugal. The Man the song "So American" gets stuck in my head. The opening track from their last album, In the Mountains in the Clouds, is easily my favorite song from the band. And so, I'm very confused on how I almost missed that they were releasing a new record! Although it was actually announced months ago, I only heard about it last week. Still, I'm pretty excited for some new music from these guys. Listen/Watch: "Evil Friends"

Quadron - Avalanche I kind of stumbled upon this Danish group recently, when I listened to the song "Better Off," which featured Kendrick Lamar. The lead singer, Coco O., was also recently featured on The Great Gatsby soundtrack. Their sound reminded me a bit of the indie soul of Jessie Ware. Are these two artists signaling a new trend in music? I certainly hope so! Listen: "Better Off"

Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork QOTSA work hard to keep driving, riff-filled hard rock alive, and they may be the best at it of any current bands. For this album, they teamed up with the visual artist Boneface for both the album artwork and a series of five music videos. Thanks to the visuals in those videos, this may be one of the creepiest albums to date. It's hard to listen without thinking of those terrifying characters! Listen/Watch: "My God Is the Sun"

Other New Releases

Future Bible Heroes - Memories of Love, Eternal Youth and Partygoing In addition to the new album up above, Future Bible Heroes is also re-releasing their first two albums, Memories of Love and Eternal Youth. So, if you're like me and hadn't taken the chance to check out this side project from Stephin Merritt, this seems the perfect opportunity to do it! Listen: "Lonely Days"

Ghost Brothers of Darkland County Stephen King may be best known for the numerous horror novels he has written, but he recently expanded his repertoire into musicals. Ghost Brothers was written with John Mellencamp. The soundtrack, released last week features tracks from Kris Kristofferson, Neko Case and Elvis Costello Listen: Elvis Costello - "That's Me"

Hodgy Beats Untitled 2 Hodgy Beats is a member of the hottest hip hop collective of the moment, Odd Future. Naturally, he's been featured on a number of other Odd Future releases, but has also released some in his own name. This is his second "Untitled" EP. Listen: "Years"