5 albums you need to hear this week
With music from Dua Lipa, Rachel Chinouriri, Nell Mescal, Kamasi Washington and The Lemon Twigs.
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 Dua Lipa, Rachel Chinouriri, Nell Mescal, Kamasi Washington and The Lemon Twigs.
Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism
There’s bangers to be found on Dua Lipa’s third album – see singles such as ‘Training Season’ and ‘Houdini’ – but it’s hard to shake the feeling that this record could have been so much more. A self proclaimed sense essence of youth and pop-fuelled fun is undeniably there, but you can’t help feeling that it is, at times, a collection of overstuffed ideas held together by a handful of truly great singles.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Rachel Chinouriri – What A Devastating Turn Of Events
“In 10 years’ time, I’m hoping to look back knowing that my album has been really influential in helping move stepping stones for Black artists,” Rachel Chinouriri told Rolling Stone UK in a recent cover feature. What A Devastating Turn Of Events represents a career of the singer being told she wasn’t a ‘proper’ indie artist and being pushed into other ill-fitting boxes. The album recounts a dark time but sounds supremely confident, and is the sound of a singer gloriously stepping into her own skin.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Nell Mescal – Can I Miss it for a Minute?
As Nell Mescal told us in a recent interview, her debut EP might draw on personal pain but there’s a certain amount of joy to be found in knowing that these experiences are things that we’ve all probably gone through at some point.
This means that songs like the stirring ‘Warm Body’, taken from her debut EP Can I Miss It for a Minute? are about “growing up and navigating relationships with the worry that the people you love will leave you”.
But there is true indie-pop bangers too – ‘Killing Tim’e might just be her biggest song to date.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Kamasi Washington – Fearless Movement
Jazz virtuoso Kamasi Washington’s recent albums have dealt with the world on its grandest scale – space, heaven and ideas beyond our comprehension. On new album Fearless Movement, he is earthbound and considering dance and the human body. This new grounded feel can somewhat be attributed to him becoming a father – his child appears dancing around him in a daze on its cover – and brings earthier textures to his constantly boundary-pushing jazz.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
The Lemon Twigs – A Dream Is All We Know
Less than a year after releasing their last album, Everything Harmony, The Lemon Twigs return with its flipside – A Dream Is All We Know. If the 2023 album dug into the shadows and darkness of life, A Dream… lives in the light and sees the bright side. It takes the D’Addario brothers back closer to the fun-loving, Beach Boys-referencing bundles of energy that we first met on debut album Do Hollywood in 2016.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music