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 Fontaines D.C., Rachel Chinouriri, XO, Nieve Ella, The Avalanches, Two Shell and Jersey.

Fontaines D.C. – Dopamine Chamber

The first thing you will hear on the fifth album from Fontaines D.C, is the futuristic synths and the imposing bass that kicks off its first track, ‘Six Shot Morning’. “Silicon Valley took a photograph,” comes Grian Chatten’s vaguely sinister chant on that song.

As those big-tech-gazing lyrics suggest, here is an album where Ireland’s boldest band are imparting the ever-relatable message that while the future is here, promised utopias of old couldn’t be further from the truth and the world is, in a word, fucked. The eponymous Dopamine Chamber, for instance, is partly a reference to the devices which disturbingly allow us to self-prescribe happiness every day. Through 12 bold and consistently brilliant tracks with the ability to make you feel an entire gamut of emotions, the band have deliberately created their own chamber. 

Read our full review of Dopamine Chamber here.

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

Rachel Chinouriri – I Think I Spoke Too Soon

Rachel Chinouriri is fast becoming your favourite pop star’s favourite pop star, touring with Sabrina Carpenter, Florence + the Machine, Louis Tomlinson and more. The biggest stars in the world see something in Chinouriri, then, and it’s abundant on her second album, I Think I Spoke Too Soon. The names who have taken her under their wing, most notably Abrams, thrive through zooming in on universal feelings and presenting them with hyper-specific lyrics and scenarios. This is also the mode of Chinouriri’s new album, a meditation on growth and the distance between where you are and where you want to be, told through the lens of a revelatory night on the town.

Read our full review of I Think I Spoke Too Soon here.

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

XO – Need To Know

One of Britain’s leading girl-group lights shines bright on this latest mini album. The lead single ‘Hotline’ is brilliantly hooked around a fictional advice centre for getting over your ex, while ‘Stacey’ – a powerful retort to cheating partners – proves to be an anthem in waiting. It’s a breezy collection of songs from a group with a seemingly huge future ahead.

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

Nieve Ella – How Long Will It Take

On her debut album, Nieve Ella offers up an irresistible cocktail of indie licks and alt-pop melodies to deliver a record which proves to be daring and endlessly bold. The moody bass of ‘Drive’ skips along with an unrepentant swagger, while ‘Back To Basics’ offers a more thoughtful and introspective edge. The result is a singer proving to be, for the most part, exactly where they need to be.

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

The Avalanches – No Bad Memories

After taking 16 years to follow up their debut album, two records in the decade since is quick going for Australian electronic masters The Avalanches. No Bad Memories, their fourth studio album, dives into both the beauty and the dark undercurrent of capitalism, told through the lens of the advertising that they grew up with. They explain: “It’s been interesting as an adult to reflect on this often stunning period of marketing – the creativity, filmmaking, photography and music –  but which was also a kind of extreme propaganda. The capitalist dream we all were sold has proven to have such a dark and ugly underbelly.”

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

Two Shell – Infinite Now

After endless speculation about their identities, sending body doubles to DJ sets and assorted other tomfoolery, Two Shell’s new album doesn’t see things get any more straightforward. The universe of Infinite Now contains all manner of tracks released in random bursts over the last six months, and is collated on an “ultimate” version – what most of us would call a 10-track album – that spans the breadth of modern dance music and shows their superbly sharp ability for production and melody writing.

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

Jersey – Nothing’s Fake

Even those of us who consider ourselves relatively tech-savvy will have been doing double-takes at videos online in recent years, wondering whether something is legitimate or an AI fake. This surreality and confusion is at the heart of the debut album from French dance duo Jersey. “We have to live with this question now: is it fake or not?” the band’s Carl Amiard told Rolling Stone UK in Paris recently. While everything on the album is real, its use of warped visuals and absurd masks plays into the modern confusion over reality vs. fabrication. At the same time, it’s just a superbly fun and well-crafted dance-pop record.

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