6 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 Craig David, The Black Keys, Humour, For Those I Love, Ethel Cain and Mudi Sama.

Craig David – Commitment

Craig David’s ninth album shows that 25 years after his debut, the R&B legend is still adept at pairing silky smooth vocals against garage beats determined to worm their way into your head and stay there. That’s certainly true of the title track, a sultry duet with Tiwa Savage and ‘In It With You’, which sees him linking up with US star Jojo. These tracks are among the highs, though ‘In Your Hands’ – which features a bizarre interpolation of primary school assembly staple ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands’ – can be considered one of his more bizarre misfires. For the most part, however, there’s enough here to ensure that the king of UK R&B’s second time in the sun looks sure to continue for some time yet.

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

The Black Keys – No Rain, No Flowers

If you’re even vaguely familiar with the recent fortunes of The Black Keys, you’ll know that this title – essentially positing the idea that there’s no good things without the band – is a not so subtle nod to their recent fortunes. A US arena tour was cancelled last year due to poor sales and it led to them splitting with their management. Thankfully, then, this album shows that Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach should be back on the path to the good times. ‘The Night Before’ zips along with an irresistible pop-flecked groove, while ‘Neon Moon’ sees them lean into hazy and subtle psychedelia. On the basis of this record, you sense they’re back on the right path.

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

Humour – Learning Greek

The debut album from the Glasgow band sees frontman Andreas Christodoulidis exploring his identity over their most adventurous and exciting music yet. When he’s not digging into his Greek ancestry over songs that stray into post-hardcore noise, Christodoulidis also proves himself adept at writing surreal, absurd lyrics that stretch and warp reality. “Quite often, if it starts getting too clear what I’m talking about, I try and subvert that a little bit by making it a bit more abstract, or hard to pin down,” he told us in a new Play Next interview. “I just have an instinctive aversion to anything being too concrete or clear.

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

For Those I Love – Carving the Stone

David Balfe’s first album as For Those I Love – 2021’s self-titled effort – won plaudits across the globe for its unfiltered and stunningly raw depictions of grief. Carving the Stone, its long-awaited follow-up, still reckons with these wounds but also zooms out to look at inequality, gentrification and work. The album reckons with the “universal grief” of the current housing crisis in Dublin, as he told Rolling Stone UK recently, as well as the often problematic connection between love and work, a connection to his ancestry and how the personal and political intertwine.

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

Ethel Cain – Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You

There’s a rich history of albums exploring the realities of growing up in a small town, but few see things through the the unnerving lens that Ethel Cain offers on her second album. The follow-up to her 2022 breakthrough, Preacher’s Daughter, it’s a mixture of Americana and, as many have noted, a certain Lynchian tilt. ‘I wanna die in this room’, she offers on the unsettling opener ‘Janie’. There’s moments of epic beauty too, as seen on the eight-minute love song ‘Nettles’ and, trumping that, all fifteen minutes of ‘Waco, Texas’. It might be a challenging record for some, but stick with Cain through the darkness and you’ll find a perspective that allows her to shine as one of America’s most unique musical voices and – as shown by the four sold-out dates at London’s Hammersmith Apollo later this year – one of its most in demand too.

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

Mudi Sama – Will I Make It Out Alive?

“I just wanted people to know that this was the purest feeling from me,” Mudi Sama recently told Rolling Stone UK of his debut EP in a PlayNext interview. “I want it to be a foundation of who I am and I’m just putting my flag in the ground and I’m just gonna keep going.”

Songs like the soaring ‘Bad Life’ – flecked with spiky guitars – show that this aforementioned flag is representing the lineage of noughties indie, a genre clearly beloved by the British Nigerian star. But on the flipside, tracks like the woozy ‘Pretty Soon’ show a woozier and more contemplative side to the singer. When they combine, it proves that Sama is a uniquely talented voice within guitar music to be reckoned with.

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