4 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 by Charli xcx, The Strokes, Baby Queen and Shania Twain.

Charli xcx – Music, Fashion, Film

Following up a cultural phenomenon like Brat is always going to be a thorny task – one which Charli xcx openly dissected in her mockumentary The Moment. Trying to chase that feeling again is futile, so instead, as said on the lead single of Music, Fashion, Film, “now we’re making rock music”. While the new album does indeed swerve away from the plastic-y, club-focused sounds of Brat, rock music proves a slight stretch to describe the new album. Instead, Charli makes a record less concerned with conceptual ideas and narrative through lines, instead returning with a reminder of her unparalleled pop songwriting and some intriguing sonic left turns.

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

The Strokes – Reality Awaits

Reality Awaits is an intriguing, if often frustrating beast of a seventh album from The Strokes. On one side there’s the glorious ‘Going Shopping’, which takes classic Strokes sounds and injects them with a spot of subtle political commentary. It’s a similar story on the fiery, guitar-charged ‘Going To Babble On’. But on the other side of this record, ‘Liar’s Remorse’ is a swirling dirge-y ballad. On the whole though, it’s one of their best records since the glory days of those noughties indie highs.

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

Baby Queen – I Hope You Don’t Remember Me

“When I began writing for this album, I was determined to be as present as possible which meant putting down any notion of the type of song I should be creating, and simply trusting that what naturally came out of me, was what was meant for me.” Baby Queen says of her new album, I Hope You Don’t Remember Me. In practice, this sees the singer, who shot to fame with her work on the Heartstopper soundtrack, going deep into love and rejection and confronting truths and feelings that had until then been buried deep. Described as a story that is still unresolved, the album instead sees her working through her feelings in real time, while sounding brilliantly assured in her songwriting.

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

Shania Twain – Little Miss Twain

As the pick-up truck and imposing pines on the cover art of Little Miss Twain suggest, we’re firmly back in country territory. ‘Dirty Rosie’ sounds like the soundtrack to a brilliantly deranged hoedown, while the soulful ‘Take It To The River’ features a cameo from Rolling Stones legend Ronnie Wood. It’s only country rock, but you sense that her fans will very much like it…

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