11 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Phoebe Bridgers, L’Rain, and More — Pitchfork

RESOLVING THE LEDGER

11 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Phoebe Bridgers, L’Rain, and More — Pitchfork | AIPROPX

Phoebe Bridgers: Lost Weekend [Dead Oceans]

In the six years since her last solo album, Phoebe Bridgers transformed from being indie-rock famous to pop-star famous: She earned 11 Grammy Awards nominations and won four of them, was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live twice (first on her own, and then with Boygenius), and earned a dedicated TMZ page along with the paparazzi hounds who populate it. As her star rose, though, Bridgers evaded the spotlight, and she returns on Lost Weekend willing to divulge the late-night anxieties of new love, the strained relationship with her late father, and the disaffected grief from that reclusive time. As the strange giddiness punctuating her scream in lead single “Lost Boys” implies, Bridgers is feeling the pressure and learning how to let it out, this time with her quietest songs yet and an unexpected list of collaborators in tow.

On “soulless cycle,” L’Rain sings in a deceptively skippy cadence: “I am so tired of being tired.” The New York musician has never shied away from difficult themes in her work. Her self-titled debut dealt with grief, Fatigue tackled post-pandemic loss and anxiety, and I Killed Your Dog, embraced her shadow self. Her fourth album, Fata Morgana, attempts to answer a timely question: How do you thrive in a world designed to see you fail? Across the album, L’Rain picks from a vast selection of genres—atmospheric folk, R&B, and swirling, blazing rock—while threading in poetic lyrics that move through mentions of vampires, cracked fruit, shadows, and bitter-tasting glitter.

On his past few records, Djrum made inquisitive music that evokes long, wonder-filled journeys; getting lost in the hedges was the point. Yet it took the British producer and DJ until now to actually use the title I Wander, and the six-song EP attached to it is worthy of the name and all of the peaks and valleys it proposes we explore. Djrum cracks open a new batch of heart-racing beats and skittering electronics, this time in self-proclaimed “bite-size chunks.” Listen to songs at random or take in the full EP for different narratives, all of which is perfect for walks long or short.

Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal: Doomed! [Backwoodz]

At first glance, Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal might not seem the most natural fit: . But there’s a clear reason the Project Blowed compatriots have fallen into natural step over the past few years: they’re like yin and yang, Eagle’s grim and incisive bars juxtaposed over Segal’s funk and synth-heavy stylings. On what is somehow their first full-length LP together, the duo get the chance to expand on this chemistry. They throw their weight behind a larger narrative that’s likely familiar to many: a recently ended relationship, which Open Mike Eagle sketches with humor, pathos, and plenty of unapologetic pain.

Sweeping Promises: You Say I Romanticize [Sub Pop]

Together as Sweeping Promises, singer-bassist Lira Mondal and guitarist Caufield Schnug make everything look easy: punching up their vocals with a punk rawness, inventing new-wave guitar riffs, churning out earworm after earworm. Mondal runs her voice ragged in the warped post-punk song “Cocoon” and Schnug strums relentlessly on “Shooting Shadows” until you find yourself pogoing on the dance floor. But what really makes You Say I Romanticize stand out on its own is how the anticipated follow-up to 2023’s Good Living Is Coming for You builds off their previous ideas while sounding like an entirely new concept. For Sweeping Promises, imagination and determination are never in short supply.

Laura Veirs: Temple Songs [Raven Marching Band]

In the lead-up to Temple Songs, Laura Veirs shared a video, for the jazzy folk earworm “Pulse,” in which she was cream-pied in the face, got showered in a hail of silly string, and—after a good and proper warm-up—deadlifted 110 pounds. Those are just a few of many herculean feats that went into the Found Light follow-up. Veirs wrote, recorded, arranged, produced, and performed the album herself, across three months in her backyard studio, using only acoustic instruments. (The one exception is saxophone by a secret special guest.) “I needed to make this album to connect more deeply with my taste, aesthetics, and confidence,” she says in press materials. “Eventually I found a flow—seeing the studio again, for the first time since my 20s, as a private place for exploration.”

In the nine years since their debut album, Taster, the typical Hovvdy song has evolved from a slowcore curio to a sort of waterlogged, would-be pop hit, increasingly irresistible but still transmitted like a secret broadcast to buried-treasure hunters. Big World invites you to keep digging: Foggy indie-pop earworms like “Blast” and “Try Try Try” seem precision-tooled not to be unforgettable but tantalisingly half-remembered, while the ballads use effortless, meandering melodies that would otherwise scan as Grammy bait to draw you deeper into their ineffable ambient textures.

Everything Is Recorded: Cut Off Your Nose [XL]

Everything Is Recorded has long been Richard Russell’s playpen, a freewheeling arena for the XL founder to conceive and execute ideas that nobody else—except perhaps Damon Albarn—would think to try getting away with. This surprise EP features two collaborations with Samantha Morton, who, fresh out of The Odyssey, jumps into the ring with both singer-producer Roses Gabor and the rapper Rian Brazil; another song pairs Peter Gabriel with Maryland rapper IDK. Meanwhile, on the title track, Russell reunites with Public Image Ltd’s Jah Wobble, who, in a press release, compares the producer to Can’s Holger Czukay. Decide whether to let that one fly below.

Michael Christmas / Chris Crack / Girl Talk: Don't Come to My House Sharing Your Location [C&G]

When three solo artists collide on a joint LP, you hope, at the very least, it will be a good hang. Luckily, that’s exactly the case on a new album from Boston rapper Michael Christmas, Chicago MC ...