In the words of a fleetingly famous YouTube sensation, it’s Friday. And we’re pretty stoked about that. Fridays are doubly exciting around here because of all the new music that tends to arrive at the end of the week. Today’s New Music Friday brings a long-awaited new Bright Eyes album, a smashing new Bully record, the new release from this month’s Best of What’s Next pick and so much more. Keep scrolling to read our entire list of new albums we think should be on your radar today.
1. Bright Eyes: Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was
When Bright Eyes announced their first new album since 2011, the media excitedly reported on the band’s reconciliation. But, in reality, Bright Eyes never really broke up. They wandered in different directions, sure, but there were no hard feelings. Gathering to record Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was was a matter of good timing and schedules aligning. Frontman Conor Oberst suggested the idea for a new record at bandmate Nathaniel Walcott’s Christmas party in 2017, and the pair called the third member of their trio Mike Mogis from the bathroom to pitch the idea. “It was just something we wanted to do for ourselves, because we were all in this stage of our lives…” Oberst says. “Between kids being born and people dying and divorces and people falling in love and all of the crazy amount of life that’s transpired for the three of us, personally… It was just like, what are we going to do? Let’s do the thing we do best. Let’s make a record.” They certainly did some of their best work on Down In The Weeds… The album sounds undeniably like a Bright Eyes record, but it ebbs and flows with new anxieties and darknesses. Fans will delight in a true-to-style Bright Eyes record, but, at the same time, any music fan will be able to appreciate the gruesome grandeur of this folk-rock mastery. —Ellen Johnson
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2. Bully: SUGAREGG
Bully are one of the most exciting punk bands of the past decade. 2015’s Feels Like and 2017’s Losing didn’t necessarily reinvent anything, but its fuzzy, melodic rock songs were consistently invigorating, with Alicia Bognanno’s raspy voice packing a major punch. Bognanno is behind the boards again for her new record SUGAREGG, but this time she’s joined by a producer for the first time, John Congleton—not the worst choice for your first co-producer! Even after just one spin, it’s clear that Bognanno hasn’t taken her foot off the punk gas pedal. Her third album and second for Sub Pop is empowering, unrelenting and utterly gripping, with a chance of raw explosiveness at any moment. Even the more subtle numbers like “What I Wanted” and “Prism” will leave a cloud of exhaust smoke and tread marks. —Lizzie Manno
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3. Cut Copy: Freeze, Melt
Cut Copy have finally released their new album Freeze, Melt, out today via Cutters Records/The Orchard. “Like Breaking Glass” followed their previous singles “Cold Water” and “Love is All We Share.” “In the beginning ‘Like Breaking Glass’ started out as a completely different track,” Dan Whitford said of the song. “Before one weekend I was mucking around in the studio with just a drum beat and an acid bassline. I never managed to finish it, but when I came back to it the next week there was something about that beat that felt compelling, so I started writing a song over the top of it. It is about the conflicted feelings of a relationship that has begun to unravel.” This is the Australian electronic act’s follow-up to 2017’s Haiku From Zero. —Danielle Chelosky & Ellen Johnson
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4. Dolly Valentine: How To Be Good
Singer, songwriter and storyteller Dolly Valentine (who you know as Leslie Schott, one-half of indie pop pair Holy Golden) today releases her debut solo album How To Be Good, which was produced by Ryan Hadlock (Brandi Carlile, The Lumineers) and Paste favorite Sarah Tudzin of illuminati hotties. The album features the song “Michigan, 1997,” a buzzy debut single that arrived around this time last year which I described as “a stunning walk down memory lane.” How To Be Good also features Field Medic and Molly Lewis and was recorded partly at Bear Creek studio in Washington. —Ellen Johnson
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5. L.A. Witch: Play With Fire
California rock trio L.A. Witch have shared their second album Play With Fire via Suicide Squeeze, after its first single “I Wanna Lose” premiered exclusively with Paste. The album follows their 2017 self-titled debut. As they’re (normally) a busy touring band, L.A. Witch had just two months to write their new record, so they basically holed up for all of January and February to knock it out, only to be stuck inside for much longer than they expected due to the pandemic lockdown in March. “Play With Fire is a suggestion to make things happen,” Sanchez says of the new album. “Don’t fear mistakes or the future. Take a chance. Say and do what you really feel, even if nobody agrees with your ideas. These are feelings that have stopped me in the past. I want to inspire others to be freethinkers even if it causes a little burn.” —Lizzie Manno
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6. The Killers: Imploding the Mirage
Originally set for a May 29 release, but pushed back due to COVID-19, Imploding the Mirage is out today via Island Records. Imploding the Mirage is The Killers’ sixth studio album, following 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful, and features artists such as Weyes Blood, Adam Granduciel of War On Drugs and Lucius. Recorded in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Park City, Imploding the Mirage also includes previously released singles “Fire in Bone” and “Caution,” which topped both the Alternative and Triple A radio charts. —Lia Pikus
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7. No Joy: Motherhood
Jasamine White-Gluz is back with No Joy’s first album in five years. The Canadian outfit arrived in 2010 with their debut Ghost Blonde, and have been releasing feedback-cloaked shoegaze with mystifying beats ever since. Their new LP Motherhood is the most ambitious thing they’ve ever done, but White-Gluz’s ear for immersive soundscapes remains. Here, No Joy expand into the realms of pummeling metal (“Dream Rats”), groovy trip-hop (“Four”), pulsing electro-pop (“Ageless”) and skying dance-rock (“Birthmark”), and it’s a heady, wispy ride. Sometimes throwing in everything but the kitchen sink works out. —Lizzie Manno
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8. Nubya Garcia: Source
At 28, Nubya Garcia is doing her part to open the floodgates of U.K. jazz back up and illuminate the roots of the music and herself. Raised in London’s Camden Town and born to a Guaynese mother and Trinidadian father, Garcia studied at both the Royal Conservatory of Music and at the prestigious Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. But atop her classical training, she’s a resident DJ on London’s buzzy NTS Radio and recently filled in for U.K. alpha tastemaker Gilles Peterson on his BBC Radio show, playing cuts by everyone from Sister Nancy and Ahmad Jamal to Yoruba Andabo and Erykah Badu—influences who have helped shape the compositions of her debut full length album, Source, out now on Concord Jazz. —Adrian Spinelli
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9. Old 97’s: Twelfth
Alt-country group Old 97’s have shared their 12th album—appropriately titled Twelfth— via ATO Records, marking 27 years of the band playing together as a group. “It’s mind boggling to think that we’ve been able to last this long, that we’ve been able to support ourselves and our families on our own terms for almost thirty years,” says frontman Rhett Miller. “Twelve is a lot of records.” Influenced by Miller’s five-year sobriety, the album is a testament to the band’s resilience through the years. “Going back in, I thought, ‘What if I don’t bring anything to the table?” Miller said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “What if I’m like Samson and the whiskey was my long hair and I cut it off and can’t write songs anymore?’… But [Twelfth] was the first record where, top to bottom, I felt I was back in the driver’s seat, found my voice, and came out the other side. It feels good.” —Lia Pikus
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10. Troye Sivan: In A Dream
Pop singer Troye Sivan is back with his highly anticipated new EP In A Dream, which he only just announced last month. The record features previously released singles “Easy” and “Rager teengager!” (below). Sivan recorded most of the album alongside producer Oscar Görres (The Weeknd, MARINA, Tove Lo) between Stockholm and Los Angeles just before the pandemic caused everything to shut down. “A story that’s still unfolding, this small collection of songs explores an emotional rollercoaster period in my life when the feelings and thoughts were most shockingly fresh,” Sivan said in a press statement. “Revisiting these songs and moments is tough, but I’m proud of this music and excited to have it out in the world.” —Ellen Johnson
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