8 albums you need to hear this week
The best new releases on streaming this week, with music by Beabadoobee, Black Midi, and Mabel
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 Beabadoobee, Black Midi, and Mabel.
Beabadoobee, Beatopia
Beatrice Laus returns with a second album that’s more expansive in sound, and deals largely with the theme of finding yourself by being alone. Laus enlists The 1975‘s Matty Healy for ‘Pictures of Us’, a song that harks to the US emo soundscapes of Slint and American Football. The Nineties influences remain but this time Laus focuses less on nostalgia, twisting ideas into fresher forms.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Black Midi, Hellfire
Furious spoken-word moments, flashes of hardcore punk and accordion-led interludes are all present on the third record from Black Midi. And that’s just the first five minutes. Not that we’d expect anything less, mind. The South London outfit have developed a reputation for being one of Britain’s most experimental bands, delivering albums that are impossible to pigeonhole but remain endlessly intriguing at all times. On this third album, they push that reputation to the furthest musical corners imaginable.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Lil Silva, Yesterday Is Heavy
Despite 10 years on the scene, Yesterday Is Heavy is only the debut album of producer, musician, and vocalist Lil Silva. It sees him build on his background both in the cutting edge UK underground club scene and working with pop talent (Adele, Mark Ronson), with Silva working with a cast of international cast of guests including frequent collaborator Sampha, Ghetts, Little Dragon, serpentwithfeet, and Charlotte Day Wilson.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon Music
Lizzo, Special
On her fourth album (and second his breaking through to the upper echelons of pop stardom), Lizzo retains her sharp one-liners and TikTok-friendly track lengths with music that mines seventies disco and eighties synth-pop. Special was made with longtime collaborator Ricky Reed, as well as A-list pop producers Mark Ronson, Max Martin, and Benny Blanco, and closes out unexpectedly with a Coldplay-sampling song titled — wait for it — ‘Coldplay’.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Mabel, About Last Night…
Conceived when the world went into lockdown and finished as it reopened, Mabel’s new album About Last Night… is a celebration of the ‘big night out’: “getting ready to go out; feeling invincible; clocking an ex; crying in the bathroom; stumbling home”, as it’s described in a press release. Across the album the UK star draws from noughties club culture (dance-pop, R&B, euphoric house music) and works with past collaborators like Raye, MNEK, Kamille, and Jax Jones, along with new faces like SG Lewis and US production powerhouse Stargate.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Steve Lacy, Gemini Rights
Steve Lacy has worked with some of the most influential artists in the United States today (Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, the Creator, Solange, Vampire Weekend, and more), but his second album under his own name is very much a solo affair. The 24-year-old artist wrote, produced, and played pretty much everything on the album, embracing a diverse array of influences, ranging from OutKast to Sly Stone, to deliver something sexy, genderfluid, and full of longing, all with a sharp sense of humour.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Superorganism, World Wide Pop
London-based multimedia collective Superorganism flex their maximalist pop muscles for album number two. Disco raves, heady psychedelic pop, and cut’n’splice glitch oddities are found on the five-piece’s follow-up to their 2018 self-titled debut. Ruminations on technology and the future of the planet run thick here. US indie royalty — Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus — appears on ‘It’s Raining’, while Japanese rockers CHAI and Parisian alt-pop act Pi Ja Ma feature elsewhere.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Working Men’s Club, Fear Fear
Another second album to get attuned to this week. Working Men’s Club’s Fear Fear is an altogether more refined and cohesive listen than their self-titled 2020 debut. The Yorkshire outfit’s industrial electro-pop is both glowing and gritty, with tracks such as ‘Cut’ best showcasing singer Syd Minsky-Sargeant’s cutting vocal.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Amazon Music