7 albums you need to hear this week

In the age of streaming, it’s never been easier to listen to new music — but with over 60,000 new songs added to Spotify every day, it’s also never been harder to know what to put on. Every week, the team at Rolling Stone UK will run down some of the best new releases that have been added to streaming services.

This week we’ve highlighted records from CMAT, Sabrina Carpenter, Blood Orange, Nova Twins, The Hives, Jehnny Beth and The Beaches.

CMAT – Euro-Country

Sitting somewhere between a pop star and a country singer, Thompson’s music is driven by humour but never sugar-coats the sincere and necessary messages at the core of her songs. Like Self Esteem before her, she’s managing to Trojan-horse underheard topics and perspectives onto the radio waves. This approach is also shown on ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’, a song she insists is “not a diss track” to the TV chef, but instead an exploration of her own capacity for hatred. “Ciara, don’t be a bitch,” she tells herself in the last chorus. “The man’s got kids and they wouldn’t like this.”

This delicate balance of humour and profundity is achieved perfectly throughout Euro-Country, an album that deserves to make CMAT a household name, a path she appears to be already on.

Read our full five-star review of Euro-Country here.

Listen on: Spotify | ‎Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music

Sabrina Carpenter – Man’s Best Friend

“The album is not for any pearl clutchers,” Sabrina Carpenter recently told CBS of Man’s Best Friend. “But I also think that even pearl clutchers can listen to an album like that in their own solitude and find something that makes them smirk and chuckle to themselves.” That’s partly seen in the divisive cover art – which prompted a discourse for the ages – but also in the nudge/wink themes which dominate the record. ‘My Man on Willpower’ shows off a distinctively 80s vibe, while ‘Tears’ – which features Colman Domingo in its video – leans into classic disco pop. Carpenter’s superstardom is very much here to stay.

Listen on: Spotify | ‎Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music

Blood Orange – Essex Honey

Dev Hynes’ first album as Blood Orange in six years, Essex Honey, sees the polymath look to the star-studded pool of collaborators around him to achieve a vision of home. Caroline Polachek, Lorde, Mustafa, Turnstile’s Brendan Yates and more all appear across a record that sees the now-New York-based Hynes mine his Essex childhood to find answers to grief and growing up. It’s his most personal album yet, and beautifully delivered.

Listen on: Spotify | ‎Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music

Nova Twins – Parasites & Butterflies

The meaning of Nova Twins’ third album truly arrived when Amy Love and Georgia South witnessed a solar eclipse together the day before they entered the studio. “We started to see themes of chaos and beauty, which are parallels and opposites — and that’s how we felt at the time,” South told Rolling Stone UK. “Everything felt very turbulent, mentally, and up and down, so you can really hear it on this record.” It’s shown brilliantly on a record that sees the brightest duo in UK rock tackle both light and dark.

Listen on: Spotify | ‎Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music

The Hives – The Hives Forever Forever The Hives

You need only look at the title of the seventh album from The Hives to see that there’s no intention of backing down or calling it a day for these Swedish rock veterans. And why would they? Their brilliant live shows – which takes in a show at Ally Pally next year – deliver a sense of simultaneous fun and ferocity that’s all too present on this record. The bone-rattling ‘Enough Is Enough’ gleefully kicks out against the fuckers of the world, while the joyous title track ranks among the best things they’ve ever done. As the crowns and cloaks of the album cover show, they’re now deserved rock royalty.

Listen on: Spotify | ‎Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music

Jehnny Beth – You Heartbreaker, You

Since the breakup of Savages, Jehnny Beth has taken the dark magnetism she showed as a punk frontwoman into an intriguing and consistent solo career. Her latest album, You Heartbreaker, You, is her most fully realised album as a solo artist, as well as her most visceral. As she explains: “We’re living in a dark time, full of drama and barbarous tragedy. It became clear to me that, in these times, we either learn how to scream really well, or we learn how to whisper.”

Listen on: Spotify | ‎Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music

The Beaches – No Hard Feelings

As The Beaches recently told Rolling Stone UK, their third album takes a wider look at the entire Canadian group, after their breakout 2023 hit ‘Blame Brett’ and second album Blame My Ex saw singer Jordan Miller dissect the end of a recent relationship. In casting the net a bit further, they have created an album that is inspired as it is eclectic. The euphoric ‘Lesbian Of The Year’ is a tender ballad which reflects the coming out story of guitarist Leandra Earl, while an indie anthem in waiting emerges in ‘Last Ones At The Party’ – an ode to their own friendship. It’s louder, bigger and more fun than ever, and it all makes for one of the year’s best indie pop records.

Listen on: Spotify | ‎Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music