5 albums you need to hear this week
With music from Wunderhorse, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Yannis & the Yaw, Jon Hopkins and Jónsi.
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 Wunderhorse, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Yannis & the Yaw, Jon Hopkins and Jónsi.
Wunderhorse – Midas
Jacob Slater emerged as Wunderhorse in 2021 from the ashes of former project Dead Pretties, with debut album Cub seeing him mine his past and his new life as a Cornwall-based surfer, dropping the post-punk façade and instead gaining comparisons to Elliott Smith, Neil Young and Thom Yorke. Its follow-up, Midas, introduces Wunderhorse as a full four-piece band and is full of rough edges, imperfections and scything, untampered energy. The record has the feel of a band with now-telepathic energy rolling straight off the tour bus and being captured at their most unfiltered.
Read our full five-star review of Midas here.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Wild God
“I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me,” Nick Cave said of Wild God. “It bursts out of the speaker, and I get swept up with it. It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyously infectious.” Following the shimmering, deeply sorrowful Ghosteen, written in the wake of Cave’s son’s death, Wild God is somewhat of a return to the gnarlier, rougher Cave of old, though imbued with his newfound wisdom and thoughtfulness.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Yannis & the Yaw – Lagos Paris London
Yannis Philippakis told Rolling Stone UK of his new EP with the late, great Tony Allen: “We should put this out, partly to celebrate how versatile and amazing Tony is, but also to show this strange coupling of two people you wouldn’t necessarily predict, writing from different stages of their lives and from different cultures.” Lagos Paris London is a jubilant mixing of the pair’s unique styles, fusing Philippakis’ one-of-a-kind style of guitar playing with Allen’s incomparable drumming. It honours Allen’s legacy and also manages to be a fun-filled riot.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Jon Hopkins – RITUAL
Jon Hopkins was particularly lofty when describing new album RITUAL, saying: “It doesn’t feel like “an album” – more a process to go through, something that works on you. At the same time, it feels like it tells a story. Maybe it’s the story of a process I’m going through, and one that we are all going through.” Within this overarching theme, the producer and composer makes deeply immersive music with no defined beginning or end, just a swirling mass to get completely lost in.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Jónsi – First Light
With 2020’s Shiver, his second solo album, Jónsi worked with A. G. Cook, Robyn and more to reinvent himself from being a soaring post-rock frontman to a twisted, future-facing hyper-pop star. First Light, his fourth solo record, sees him pivot again, teaming up with a wellness platform to tell the story of “a momentary fantastical, over-the-top, utopian world where everyone and everything lives together in everlasting peace and harmony”.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music