It’s another New Music Friday in the year of our lord Lady Gaga! Today brings new releases from the aforementioned pop queen, plus a sort-of surprise project from cult-favorite rapper Freddie Gibbs. In other news, there are a slate of great new indie albums out today including from power-pop newcomers 2nd Grade, brooding singer/songwriter Christian Lee Hutson and honky-tonk’s high-kicking hero Jaime Wyatt. We can’t make the quarantine end any quicker or make the warmer summer days get here any faster, but we can share the news of these May 29 releases. Enjoy them all with your favorite summer beverage and maybe the dog days will get here even faster.
1. 2nd Grade: Hit To Hit
Philly power-pop band 2nd Grade are releasing their debut album Hit To Hit on Double Double Whammy today. The record finds bandleader Peter Gill (who you know from Friendship and Free Cake For Every Creature) grappling with identity and stereotypical ideas of masculinity. “Some of the songs take that approach of a person who feels like they have to be taking up so much space and adopting this super macho image,” Gill says in the liner notes. “And then on the other side, some of the other songs present a vulnerability behind that and a lack of self confidence.” —Ellen Johnson
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2. Christian Lee Hutson: Beginners
Beginners is Hutson’s debut, however he has contributed to various lauded music projects, co-writing a song on the boygenius EP as well as co-writing two songs for Better Oblivion Community Center’s self-titled album. Hutson has worked closely with Bridgers throughout his emerging career, with Bridgers producing and recording Beginners. “I went with Beginners as the title because that’s where I feel like I am in my life—like I’m still just learning and trying to figure out how to navigate the world,” Hutson says. —Natalia Keogan
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3. Deerhoof: Future Teenage Cave Artists
Deerhoof’s last proper album, 2017’s Mountain Moves, was an eclectic affair with excursions into rap and opera and an enviable slate of guest stars. For the follow-up, Future Teenage Cave Artists, Deerhoof follows the opposite path, eschewing outside contributors and retreating into its own insular world of noise: explosive rhythms, serrated guitar riffs, damaged fragments of melody and sweetness. The band says it was “borne of self-isolation and deprivation,” which is just as well, because self-isolation is where you’ll be listening to it. —Zach Schonfeld
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4. Freddie Gibbs & the Alchemist: Alfredo
Surprise! Freddie Gibbs and producer the Alchemist have shared a new project, which they announced Thursday. Among the guest features are Tyler, the Creator, Rick Ross, Griselda’s Benny the Butcher and Conway the Machine. The pair’s last release together was a 2018 collaboration with Curren$y called Fetti. Freddie Gibbs’ most recent album was Bandana, another collab with Madlib. —Ellen Johnson
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5. Fusilier: Upstream EP
Brooklyn-based, Atlanta-born singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Blake Fusilier, who records as Fusilier, has released a new EP Upstream via Brassland (a label run by The National’s Bryce and Aaron Dessner). The title track comes with a self-directed, iPhone-shot video from his apartment while under quarantine in Brooklyn. “‘Upstream’ is ‘a song for the next day,’” Fusilier says. “I decided it’s okay to enjoy the taste of eggs in the morning, and to have nothing else to smile about. It’s okay to treat the streetlamp like the sun when you need light at 3am. I’ll find light.” —Lizzie Manno
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6. Honey Lung: Post Modern Motorcade Music EP
London quartet Honey Lung have shared their EP Post Modern Motorcade Music via Big Scary Monsters (American Football, Beach Slang). “Big,” released ahead of the EP, followed their previous singles “Juggle” and “Be My Friend.” Post Modern Motorcade Music is the follow-up to their 2019 demos and singles collection Memory, which Paste named one of the best EPs of last year. —Lizzie Manno
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7. Jaime Wyatt: Neon Cross
Grammy Award-winning producer Shooter Jennings worked with L.A.-born, Nashville-based country/Americana crooner Jaime Wyatt on her latest album, the smoldering, kickass Neon Cross, her debut for New West Records. “I tried not to have any filter with these songs,” Wyatt said in the liner notes. “Because I’ll be honest — it feels like I’m gonna die if I don’t tell people how I feel and who I am. It sounds so dramatic, but that’s the truth. It’s been just this gnarly, gnarly process, but one that is so human. So there’s been a lot of turmoil and drama. But this record is a lot about rebirth, too.” —Ellen Johnson
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8. Jake Blount: Spider Tales
On his expressive and intensely spirited new album Spider Tales, banjo player and fiddler Jake Blount explores the deep roots of African American music. Spider Tales is an enlightened and alive folk album, but it’s also so much more than its persistent sonics. “There’s a long history of expressions of pain in the African-American tradition,” Blount said in a press statement. “Often those things couldn’t be stated outright. If you said the wrong thing to the wrong person back then you could die from it, but the anger and the desire for justice are still there. They’re just hidden.” —Ellen Johnson
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9. Joyce Manor: Songs From Northern Torrance
It’s a great day: California’s beloved emo-punks Joyce Manor have released a new album titled Songs From Northern Torrance via Epitaph, which they announced only earlier this week along with the single “House Warning Party.” The album is comprised of remastered old material from 2008 to 2010, including songs that were on their compilation album Collection. —Danielle Chelosky
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10. Lady Gaga: Chromatica
Chromatica, the long-awaited new album from Lady Gaga, features a small but eclectic cavalcade of guest appearances, including Ariana Grande, Elton John and K-Pop megagroup Blackpink. Many fans hope for the album to be a return to the maximalism of her Born This Way and Artpop eras, heralded by Chromatica lead single “Stupid Love,” Gaga’s very first collaboration with starmaker Max Martin. Back in February, she told Zane Lowe “I’ve never worked with him, I’ve always sort of gone, ‘I write my own music, I produce myself, I don’t need to work with Max, right?’ I decided to stop being an asshole, meet him at least, you know?” The album is executive produced by frequent collaborator Bloodpop as well as future house pioneer Tchami. —Austin Jones
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