5 albums you need to hear this week
With music from Charli XCX, Danny L Harle, Cardinals, Jill Scott and Converge
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 by Charli XCX, Danny L Harle, Cardinals, Jill Scott and Converge.
Charli XCX – Wuthering Heights
Most might not have expected Charli XCX’s first post-Brat move to be a creepy, wild soundtrack album for a sexed-up 21st century adaptation of Wuthering Heights, but upon listening it makes plenty of sense. The new film (also out today) is described by Rolling Stone as “the horniest literary adaptation ever made,” and the soundtrack album, in just over half an hour, brings the same sensuous yet dark energy. Its lead single, the John Cale-featuring ‘House’, is the perfect encapsulation of this dark, dangerous and fascinating new world.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Danny L Harle – Cerulean
Cerulean is officially billed as Danny L Harle’s debut album, and while many might have considered that 2021’s Harlecore, the new record does bring together everything that the producer stands for. A sincere and ecstatic love for 2000s trance is in abundance here, while the star-studded list of singers who have been in Harle’s orbit through his time as a key player in the hugely influential PC Music scene – Clairo, Caroline Polachek, Oklou – all add their voices, as does his Radical Optimism collaborator Dua Lipa.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Cardinals – Masquerade
Cardinals make a strong claim to be the next great Irish post-punkers on this assured and enjoyable debut. ‘She Makes Me Real’ offers a familiar blast of atmospheric guitar to kick things off and set their stall, while the soaring ‘St Agnes’ shows they’re capable of crafting songs that will go off their at their gigs with a bang. “I know I’m not the only one who suffers,” spits singer Manning on the later darkness of ‘Anhedonia’. Here is a band that can do it all, offering moments of light and dark to create something worthy of greatness.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Jill Scott – To Whom This May Concern
A decade on from her last album, R&B pioneer Jill Scott returns with a record which blends her powerhouse vocals with accomplished storytelling and powerful jazz moments. ‘Don’t Play’ is sheer joy, while ‘The Math’ is one of the stronger romantic moments on the record. Her fans will lap it up.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Converge – Love Is Not Enough
Converge singer Jacob Bannon describes the knife edge upon which the band’s 11th album, Love Is Not Enough, exists. “There’s always obstacles in the world,” he says. “Personal, professional, economical, whatever. But I feel like we’re in a pressure cooker somewhere on our evolutionary line. It’s a lot just to be a human being in the modern world, trying to function, maintain, grow, have empathy, have compassion. It takes more than it used to, to do all those things.” The album, a pulsating and kinetic blast of noise and creativity, does well to transmit this sense of terror and of endings.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music