Time is meaningless now, if you haven’t heard, but one thing that Friday brings besides another sunrise/sunset pair is an onslaught of new music. Today is especially exciting because that includes the long-awaited release of Fiona Apple’s fifth album Fetch the Bolt Cutters, which is, obviously, really freaking good. Today (April 17) also brings new records from rapper DaBaby, buzzy Brooklyn collective Girl Skin and pop up-and-comer Rina Sawayama. We’ve included all the noteworthy new releases below. Don’t forget to track down your bolt cutters if you haven’t already.
1. DaBaby: BLAME IT ON BABY
Rapper DaBaby today shares his sophomore album BLAME IT ON BABY, a follow-up to 2019’s KIRK and the stream of mix tapes before it. BLAME IT ON BABY features Quavo, Future, Roddy Ricch and Megan Thee Stallion, among others. —Ellen Johnson
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2. Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Fiona Apple frequently avoids doing what is expected of her, so it’s funny that Fetch the Bolt Cutters, her fifth album, is exactly what so many expected it to be: brilliant. In a surprise to probably no one, Fiona Apple is now five for five. Over the last 25 years, she has made five albums that have all—in due time—ascended to holy text status, even if it took some longer than others to come around to her genius. Her most recent, the staggeringly good The Idler Wheel… arrived in 2012. Before that: Extraordinary Machine, in 2005. But Apple isn’t just sitting on these songs during the long gaps between albums; she’s buffing them to perfection. Fetch the Bolt Cutters is finally here, and it’s another miraculous case of bottled lightning. —Ellen Johnson
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3. GIRL SKIN: Shade is on the other side
Brooklyn six-piece band GIRL SKIN today share their debut album, Shade is on the other side, via Jullian Records. Following their previously released single “Forever & Always,” GIRL SKIN recently premiered the track “Soft Gun” on Paste. It’s hard to get a classic rock-indebted sound just right. At best, you risk cheesiness or at worst, you risk being called a rip-off, but GIRL SKIN largely swerve these obstacles and hit the sweet spot—by first and foremost, tapping into the heart. “Soft Gun” rests on a bed of warm guitars, bittersweet strings and frontman Sid Simons’ suitably serene vocals. Atop light guitar fuzz and aching violin, Simons sings wistfully, “If I was in your shoes / I would reassure you.” It reads like a retro pop or folk-rock gem—or even a lost George Harrison song. —Lizzie Manno
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4. Jerskin Fendrix: Winterreise
Winterreise is the debut album from classically-trained musician and Speedy Wunderground (black midi, Squid, Black Country New Road) alum Jerskin Fendrix, but it’s also the name of a song cycle by Austian composer Franz Schubert (seems like Fendrix’s Cambridge education came in handy!). Imagine an experimental punk ethos with funhouse-like, PC Music surprises. Dance, grime, electro-pop and punk coexist in a chrome cauldron—“Black House” is a creepy, intergalactic explosion, “A Star is Born” is a danceable, EDM-tinged romp and “Oh God” is a longing electro-pop triumph. —Lizzie Manno
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5. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Chunky Shrapnel
Australian jam wizards King Gizzard & The Lizard are sharing a feature-length live music documentary covering their 2019 tour at 6 p.m. ET tonight, as well as an accompanying live album. It is only screening for 24 hours. —Ellen Johnson
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6. Malena Zavala: La Yarará
Argentine singer/songwriter Malena Zavala today releases her second album La Yarará, the follow-up to her 2018 debut album Aliso via Yucatan Records. “Memories Gone,” which followed previous singles “En La Noche,” “I’m Leaving Home” and the title track, is a yearning chamber pop number with Zavala’s gently caressing vocals guiding listeners through the confines of her mind. The brisk warbles of her 10-stringed ronroco add a poignant beauty and make this track feel as if you’re floating in a palatial dreamscape out of harm’s way. It’s a painful surrender to the limitations of one’s recollection, and Zavala unpacks each complex emotion with elegance, eventually building towards a curtain close of layered vocal opulence. —Lizzie Manno
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7. Rina Sawayama: Sawayama
You might hope that a record released in the midst of a pandemic would be able to distract you from the current state of affairs—a record interesting enough to make you forget, even just momentarily, that the world is pure chaos. Rina Sawayama’s debut LP Sawayama (out today via Dirty Hit Records) does exactly that. Sawayama is an exhilarating reminder of a bygone time when boy bands ruled all and commercialism ruled the boy bands. That era is long gone, but that particular brand of maximalist pop is back, only better now than before. —Annie Black
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8. RJD2: The Fun Ones
RJD2, aka Ramble Jon Krohn, is back with the seventh “solo” album in his growing catalogue. This one features a talented cast including Phonte Coleman, J-Zone, Kid Koala, Mr. Lif, and Son Little, among others, and a slate of classic hip hop touchstones, heavily drawing on “modern funk and instrumental music,” per a press release. —Ellen Johnson
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9. Sarah Siskind: Modern Appalachia
Sarah Siskind’s latest album, titled Modern Appalachia, is an ode to her home state of North Carolina and a lovely tribute to Appalachian music throughout history. Recorded at the famed Echo Mountain Recording Studios in Asheville, Modern Appalachia features quite the talented band including Mike Seal on electric guitar), Jeff Sipe on drums, Daniel Kimbro (bass) and vocals by Rose Cousins, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Julie Lee and Elizabeth Foster. —Ellen Johnson
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10. Shabazz Palaces: Don of Diamond Dreams
Diamond Dreams, the first Shabazz Palaces release since a pair of 2017 albums examining a fictionalized America from a distant planet, contains the group’s most expansive and freeform material to date. It seems to exist in an alternate universe where Funkadelic pastiches and Outkastian alien synths have defined the past 20 years of hip-hop. —Zach Schonfeld
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