10 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 Shygirl, Skepta, Royal Blood, La Roux, James Blunt, Kings of Leon, Ciarán, Katie Gregson-Macleod, Do Nothing and Girl Tones.

Shygirl – SWALLOW!

New album SWALLOW! sees Shygirl embracing love and tenderness, adding soft textures to her signature wit. While it is somewhat of a reinvention, she says it doesn’t mean that she has to entirely shed previous versions of herself. “I don’t really like to box myself in,” Shygirl told Rolling Stone UK in a recent digital cover feature. “SWALLOW! is just another feather in my bow, rather than anything else – it’s not me saying goodbye. I’m widening the space I’m able to enter into.” 

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

Skepta – The Fork and Knife

Now an elder statesman of UK grime, Skepta frames his new album The Fork and Knife around the people and places that allowed him to ascend. Both the detractors (“Hey brown boy… what kind of a name is Adenuga?” one voice asks at the outset) and the supporters (“Mum, did you see what I done? / I turned my benefits into some millions.”) are given their space in an origin story of one of our most important artists.

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

Royal Blood – Dead Company

Royal Blood have used bold terms like ‘anti-produced’ to describe their fifth album, and a single listen immediately solidifies what they mean. “Everything or nothing / That’s how I roll”, comes Mike Kerr’s unrepentant cry on ‘Ten Over Ten’, one of the heaviest and most ambitious songs they’ve ever made. Made at their own home studio in Brighton, it’s the sound of a band going back to basics and coming out with something fantastically primal.

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

La Roux – Old Flames

By La Roux’s own admission, Old Flames marks a “Phoenix rising from the ashes moment” from the South London star.  

That much is abundantly clear on the electro-pop legend’s first album in six years, which sees her dissecting the end of her longtime relationship with a partner of 17 years. But when you learn that these songs were written before the break-up took place, the record takes on an oddly prophetical edge.  On the woozy ‘To Make Our Love’, she laments that it “feels like you’re slipping right out of my life”, a line which sadly came true.  It’s affecting stuff, but also a record which feels like the welcome return of a defining voice in UK music, and one who still has something important to say.

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

James Blunt – Airplane Mode

James Blunt’s eighth album sees him disconnecting from the world and refocusing on what matters to him. With a palette of melodic pop and occasionally rockier moments to get him there, it’s a welcome tonic for our especially trying times.

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

Kings of Leon – O My Beloved

They may be one of the 21st century’s most bankable guitar acts, but O My Beloved sees Kings Of Leon honing in on the music they actually want to make. ‘My Whole World’ sees Caleb Followill offer up a warming ode to his own family, while ‘Make It Count’ feels like a motivational anthem. It’s a collection of impressively reflective, Americana-tinged music which makes for one of their most consistent albums in years.

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

Ciarán – Róisín

Last seen as the singer and rapper Bearface in hugely influential US rap group Brockhampton, Ciarán MacDonald takes his own name and his own story back into his hands on debut solo album Róisín. Named after the planned middle name from his parents if he were born a girl, it reconnects the singer with his Belfast upbringing and peeks behind the curtain of the artist for the first time. “Because it’s my first album, and the first thing I’m really doing completely myself, when you’re in the context of Brockhampton, there wasn’t a ton of room,” he tells Rolling Stone UK. “It’s too nuanced of a thing for me to shoehorn into a band context, so I’m able to indulge in myself a little bit more when it’s a solo thing. I feel more open to expressing that.  

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

Katie Gregson-Macleod – Albatross

When Rolling Stone UK talked to Katie Gregson-Macleod in early 2025, she was luxuriating in a long-desired independence after a turbulent time on a major label. Her new album, Albatross, hints that it would never be that smooth. Its title comes from Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, where the albatross signifies a long-held wish becoming the thing that holds you back. These messy and conflicted feelings are transmitted gorgeously on an album that highlights her superb songwriting and unflinching honesty.

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

Do Nothing – Friend World

The latest album from Nottingham post-punks Do Nothing finds that the best policy is to dance through the discomfort. “For me it’s an album about a lot of bleak things, but it doesn’t feel bleak,” vocalist Chris Bailey says. “That’s the point of the album really. There are two sides to everything. Without the bad, there isn’t the good.”

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

Girl Tones – Precious

On their debut album, sisters Kenzie Shultz and Laila Crowe offer up a potent mix of garage rock, power pop and a consistently raised two fingers which underlines the spirit of the whole record. With production from Cage The Elephant’s Brad Schulz, the record takes on an arena-rock primed edge. ‘Cherry Picker’, in particular, is a spirited punk stomper, while the closing track ‘Mirror’ is a more contemplative and stripped back effort, proving that this duo can effortlessly tackle the light and dark.

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