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 by Kasabian, Ellie Goulding, PRESIDENT, Arab Strap, Matilda Mann, Medium Build and Johnny Foreigner.

Kasabian – ACT III

Nine albums into their career, Kasabian are still finding new ways to impress. There’s glorious psych-pop on ‘Hippie Sunshine’ and ‘Great Pretender’, while the heartfelt ‘Superpowers’ leans back and heads into a borderline hip-hop groove. With a huge Finsbury Park show under their belt this summer and an arena tour at the end of the year, Serge Pizzorno’s Leicester stalwarts are still sounding as fresh as ever.

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

Ellie Goulding – I Know Too Much

On her first album in four years, the British pop mainstay explores the idea of “journalling through music” to deliver a record which proves to be surprisingly personal. The pulsing ‘Black Prada Press’ explores the contrast between looking like a million dollars but not feeling the same inside, while ‘Ravers’ is one of the biggest tunes she’s ever done. 16 years after her debut, Goulding is still capable of crafting electro-pop gems.

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

PRESIDENT – Blood of Your Empire

Their masks may remain firmly in place, but PRESIDENT reveal exactly what they’re capable of with debut album, Blood of Your Empire. Spanning 10 tracks, this theatrical and gloriously unpredictable record stretches far beyond the foundations of their wildly popular 2025 debut EP, King of Terrors. Of the new songs we were yet to hear until today’s release, ‘Sleepwalker’ feels as though it’s destined to become a live monster and fan favourite, ‘This Will Divide Us’ is a vocal showcase of extraordinary proportions, the reworked ‘Dionysus’ offers a fresh take on a track fans already know and love and the wildly different ‘White Devil’ closes the album, proving PRESIDENT aren’t interested in playing it safe at all. The band’s mystery may have drawn fans in initially, but Blood of Your Empire has made these metal ‘newcomers’ impossible to ignore.

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

Arab Strap – Half-Told Tales

After they named their last album I’m totally fine with it 👍 don’t give a fuck anymore 👍, Scottish duo appear to have mellowed a little on Half-Told Tales, if titles can give anything away at least. Now well past the reunion band status and instead settling into their second act as an ongoing concern, Aidan Moffatt and Malcolm Middleton do what they do best here, making strangely danceable songs about existential crises and meditations on the paralysing modern condition.

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

Matilda Mann – Kismet

“Kismet is defined as destiny; fate,” Matilda Mann says of the inspiration behind her second record’s title. “A hypothetical force or personified power that determines the course of future events. The world is so chaotic, full of questions, highs and lows and a lot of the time most of us don’t know what we’re doing.” The world might be tough indeed, but collections of soaring indie pop like these go far in allowing us to make a whole lot more sense of things.

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

Medium Build – King of Having Fun

Speaking to Rolling Stone UK in 2024, Nick Carpenter described his music as Medium Build as “soul songs for indie queer kids or country music for city kids”. New album King of Having Fun is based around a breakdown Carpenter suffered on tour just as his career was really taking off. It’s transmitted through homely and warm alt-country songs that defy their turbulent birth. He says it best and most stunningly on ‘Perceived’: “So I turn my private life into entertainment / Commodified all the thoughts I’d ever had / Had a menty b on stage on tour in Europe / Yeah, but all my friends say ‘Nick, it can’t be that bad’.”

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

Johnny Foreigner – Forwards!

Johnny Foreigner, stalwarts of the UK DIY punk scene, pay tribute to their hometown on new album Forwards!. Across the catchy and immersive record, the history of Birmingham is tracked from the Priestley Riots to present day racial tension. Local legend Bryn Bowen is recruited as narrator to embody the forces – landlords, politicians – who are trying to keep the city down, making a record that, as they explain, is “about Birmingham and Birmingham history. It’s a record of where we came from and why we are like this.”

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