3 new songs and 3 new albums to check out this weekend
Welcome to our weekly music post, where we spotlight our favorite new songs and albums. Hop in the comments and tell us: What new music are you listening to?
Since the release of Laura Stevenson's last album, which came out in 2021, the singer-songwriter has earned a master's degree in music therapy. She's putting those skills into practice with her upcoming album, Late Great (out June 27). 'When I started this [music therapy] career path a few years ago, I kind of quieted my own healing relationship to music, because I honestly didn't have time, but this record is me getting back to it. This is me processing, and reconnecting with that part of myself, and it carried me through,' Stevenson explained in a press release. On 'Honey,' Late Great's first single, Stevenson turns her focus inward, vulnerably assessing the damage of a break-up.
'Elderberry Wine,' the new track from Wednesday (released, appropriately, on a Wednesday), leans more heavily into the band's alt-country side than their occasional dalliances with shoegaze. Singer and guitarist Karly Hartzman's gorgeous vocals are a Trojan horse hiding a deep pain at the center of the lyrics. ''Elderberry Wine' is about the potential for sweet things in life (love, family, success) to become poison if not prepared for and attended to correctly,' Hartzman explained in a press release. Earlier this year, guitarist MJ Lenderman announced that he would no longer tour with the band, though he'd continue to record with them in the studio.
Suede frontman Brett Anderson doesn't want listeners to have any illusions about the Britpop band's upcoming tenth album, Antidepressants (out September 5). 'This is broken music for broken people,' Anderson said in a press release. 'Disintegrate' is the first single, and it's also the album's opening track. 'Come down and disintegrate with me,' Anderson sings in the arena-ready chorus, and it's so catchy that he almost makes the bleak lyrics sound appealing.
Quit To Play Chess is a posthumous album from Cola Boyy, a musician, community organizer, and disability activist who died in 2024. Cola Boyy's disco-inspired sound (he called himself a 'disabled disco innovator') permeates Quit To Play Chess, which pairs his passion for bringing people together with groovy beats. 'Tell me, is there Hennessy in heaven? / If not, I'm gonna nosedive straight to hell,' he sings on 'Babylon,' giving listeners a good idea of what made him such a magnetic presence both on stage and in real life. Bandcamp put together an excellent tribute to Cola Boyy that features interviews with his friends and musical collaborators like Mac DeMarco and Juan Wauters, and it highlights how special and unique he was as an artist, and what a loss it is that he's no longer with us.
Good news: Stereolab is back, and they're just as weird and hard-to-define as ever. It's been 15 years since Stereolab's last album, 2010's Not Music, after which the band disbanded to work on other projects. Now, they've returned with a new album, Instant Holograms On Film. If song titles like 'Electrified Teenybop!' and 'Esemplastic Creeping Eruption' are any indication, Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier haven't lost a bit of their cerebral spark in their time apart.
Edgar Wright's 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers shined a long-overdue light on the relentlessly innovative band Sparks, who have been consistently releasing music since 1971. MAD! is the 25th album from the duo, which consists of brothers Ron and Russell Mael. The Maels' uncanny ability to reflect the current moment has always been one of their best magic tricks, and it's present here on songs like 'A Little Bit Of Light Banter,' in which a couple pointedly refuses to talk about any difficult topical issues in favor of putting their heads down and not making a fuss. MAD! reflects a world that's out of alignment, filtered through an absurdist lens. It's everything you could want from a Sparks album.
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