6 albums you need to hear this week
With music from Self Esteem, Ghost, Viagra Boys, Samia, Sunflower Bean and Emma-Jean Thackray
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 Self Esteem, Ghost, Viagra Boys, Samia, Sunflower Bean and Emma-Jean Thackray.
Self Esteem – A Complicated Woman
Following a Mercury Prize-nominated second album, a huge and celebratory tour, a turn as Sally Bowles in the West End Revival of Cabaret and beyond, Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s revelatory reinvention as Self Esteem continues on third album A Complicated Woman. True to its title, the album shows Taylor in all her contradictions. As with all Self Esteem music, it’s bracing and brilliant in its forthrightness, dressed up in shiny pop production.
Read our five-star review of A Complicated Woman here.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Ghost – Skeletá
For their latest studio album, dramatic Swedish metallers Ghost are fronted by their latest leader, Papa V Perpetua. Skeletá is an album that thrives on the same fantastical world-building and anthemic arena-rock songwriting as the band’s best work, with pop music becoming an unlikely new inspiration. Frontman Tobias Forge told Rolling Stone UK: “When you make rock records, everything is about how heavy the guitars are and how big the drums sound. In the pop world, it’s different because there are no hard rules.”
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Viagra Boys – viagr aboys
The grit and the grime of ordinary life is where Viagra Boys live, and where new album viagr aboys is set. “I am a man that’s made of meat,” frontman Sebastian Murphy declares grimly on the album’s opening track. The Swedish punks have garnered a reputation as a brilliantly silly but brutally heavy live act, and this pairing is captured better than ever on the new album. As Murphy states: “This is like a self-titled album but a bit simple and stupid—because that’s how I am.”
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Samia – Bloodless
On her third album, Bloodless, Samia confronts the many faces she has painted on in the past in order to appease others. “I’ve spent the past two decades unintentionally conflating an abstract idea of men with my understanding of God,” she says. “The person I became in order to impress this imagined figure is inseparable from who I am today. A significant part of my personality was built around traits and behaviours I believed—whether through observation or hearsay—men would like. With this album, I’ve tried to confront that head-on.” It’s done through open-hearted songwriting and unflinching honesty, all presented with a pristine voice and clear, bright instrumentation, meaning the point comes across brutally clearly.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Sunflower Bean – Mortal Primetime
Before reconvening to write new album Mortal Primetime, distance and time and burnout made Sunflower Bean drift apart. Back with their most straight-forward and impactful album yet, the New York rockers have trimmed the fat and reconnected with the core of what made them start the project in the first place. “Coming close to losing something you fought for, for over a decade, is a really good way to get close to your heart as an artist,” vocalist and bassist Julia Cumming says. “Every long-term relationship, experiences challenges – you either stop or you go deeper.”
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Emma-Jean Thackray – Weirdo
Every note, word and arrangement on Emma-Jean Thackray’s new album Weirdo was written alone in her flat in south London. Written in the aftermath of the unexpected death of her long-term partner in 2023, the record provides understanding, solace and comfort to both her and listeners, mixing her jazz roots with music that edges closer towards electronica, grunge, pop, soul and beyond.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music