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 Phoebe Bridgers, Getdown Services, James Ellis Ford, Jungle, KATSEYE and Hovvdy.

Phoebe Bridgers – Lost Weekend

In the years leading up to new album Lost Weekend, Phoebe Bridgers did what seems nigh-on impossible for a 2020s pop star: she totally disappeared. The singer and songwriter’s retreat from the public eye came after a period of the complete opposite. Between releasing the era-defining Punisher in 2020, a balm for millions through Covid lockdowns across the world, and becoming an arena star as one third of the supergroup boygenius, Bridgers became the undoubted poster girl for a generation of alternative music fans.

Despite that, on the first line of Lost Weekend, she’s “crying in a suit and tie”, her go-to onstage attire for the years that saw her become a superstar. Much of Lost Weekend ruminates on the impact of this transformational but exhausting period in Bridgers’ life, as well as the parent she lost and the love she found between the release of Punisher and now. In her devastating signature style, Bridgers delivers these reflections through intensely specific anecdotes that are told with such precision that you feel compelled to transport yourself into the middle of them. 

Read our full five-star review of Lost Weekend here.

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

Getdown Services – Massive Champion

\On their second album, Getdown Services prove that their brilliant live shows effortlessly translate into one hell of a record, too. If their first record employed a thrilling blend of disco and T-Rex-adjacent classic rock to dissect the drudgery and dissatisfaction of their everyday lives, here they aim for something bigger entirely. ‘Cha Cha Slide’ is a charming ode to the reality of lifelong anxieties, while ‘The Radiator’  a dance-punk banger which sees the pair namecheck the Dyson Airblade, among other things – feels like an almighty triumph and the sound of a band being fully liberated. 

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

James Ellis Ford – Lost in Another World

]James Ellis Ford’s latest album was recorded in the bleakest of environments: an isolation ward at St Bartholomew’s Hospital to protect his immune system during treatment for acute myeloid Leukemia. It’s ironic then, that this is a record teeming with experimental sounds and ultimately, life. On ‘Did You Ever Want to Go to Your Own Funeral?’, he transcends that seemingly bleak title to reflect on the overwhelming love and support he received during treatment. “This whole process has been some of the darkest and some of the brightest moments of my whole life,” Ford recently told Rolling Stone UK.

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

Jungle – Sunshine

After emerging with enduring hits such as ‘Busy Earnin’’ and ‘Time’, 2023 album Volcano gave the duo of Tom McFarland and Josh Lloyd-Watson a welcome shot in the arm with the refreshing presence of singer Lydia Kitto. Kitto is now a full-time member of Jungle for fifth album Sunshine, but little else has changed. Whether Sunshine is a perfect new summer soundtrack or another risk-averse effort from a band who have found their lane and rarely left it depends entirely on your previous conceptions of Jungle. It’s unlikely that new fans willflock to the band on the basis of the record, but there remains a charm and luxurious feeling to their smooth throwback hits.

Read our full review of Sunshine here.

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

KATSEYE – WILD

As KATSEYE recently told Rolling Stone UK, their new EP sees the K-Pop group continuing to push boundaries in pursuit of something altogether exciting.

“I feel like WILD is a more convicted version of us. It comes much more directly from us. It is more authentically our stories and our voices,” they say. “Everything feels like a beautiful evolution from where we were and where we left off with Beautiful Chaos. When you listen to it, you’ll hear that we sound more mature and that the music feels fuller and cooler. It’s really just our growth.”

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

Hovvdy – Big World

With their 2024 self-titled double album, US duo Hovvdy – Charlie Martin and Will Taylor, and it’s ‘howdy’ if you’re saying it out loud – spread their wings across a sprawling 17-track record that revolved around the pair’s interweaving harmonies. Despite its title, follow-up Big World is a smaller and cosier record. “With this one, we wanted to take on the challenge of making something more concise and to the point, and give the fans something that feels like a shorter but more exciting ride,” Martin says, and Big World is a next step that sees Hovvdy more secure and comfortable in themselves than ever.  

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