7 albums you need to hear this week
With music from Fred again.., MJ Lenderman, Fat Dog, Hinds, Max Richter, Sarah Kinsley, Paris Hilton and Nala Sinephro.
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 Fred again.., MJ Lenderman, Hinds, Fat Dog and more.
Fred again.. – ten days
Fred again.. made his name with three Actual Life albums, filled with diaristic storytellings and voice notes, field recordings and other fragments of pandemic-era life. He clearly thrives when telling stories through conceptual frameworks, and new album ten days tells, in Fred’s words, stories of “very small quiet intimate moments” across ten separate days. The now global superstar recruits The Japanese House, Sampha, Anderson .Paak and more, flexing both his phonebook and ability to work across the genre spectrum.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
Though noted for his work as the guitarist of Wednesday and as a collaborator of Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman is also the brightest star of a new wave of southern-fried indie music coming out of the United States. His 2022 album Boat Songs was a beloved collection of humorous, perfectly crafted alt-country songs, and new album Manning Fireworks takes his craft to the next level. Led by supreme first single ‘She’s Leaving You’, the album tells fictional stories with a wry eye and an unparalleled songwriting craft.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Fat Dog – Woof
“A lot of music at the moment is very cerebral and people won’t dance to it,” Fat Dog’s Charlie Hughes says of the landscape into which his fantastic, absurd band emerged last year. “Our music is the polar opposite of thinking music.” Instead of thinking, Woof demands complete abandon from its listeners and provides uninhibited chaos, translating the delirium of the band’s messy live show into a record with just as much unstable brilliance.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Hinds – Viva Hinds
Four albums in and Hinds are still hellbent on proving that they’re Spain’s main export of garage rock par excellence. There’s a brilliant collab with Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten on ‘Stranger’, while their comeback track ‘Coffee’ is an unrepentant ode to personal vices. “I like black coffee and cigarettes, and flowers from boys that I’m not sleeping with,” sings Ana Perrote. It’s no wonder they’ve attracted a captive audience across the continent and beyond…
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Max Richter – In a Landscape
Max Richter’s new album In a Landscape is his first solo record made at Studio Richter Mahr, his utopian countryside base, shared with his wife visual artist Yulia Mahr. The serenity and immersive nature of the surroundings bleed into this beautiful album, which blends acoustic and electronic, sprinkles in field recordings and serves as a stock take for one of modern music’s most eclectic and exciting composers.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Sarah Kinsley – Escaper
As Sarah Kinsley told Rolling Stone UK last month, her debut album is framed around the idea of fantasy worlds where grief can’t reach. On this stunning debut, it’s manifested in bold and cinematic pop epics that effortlessly flit between contemporary pop and the cinematic, widescreen visions of Kinsley’s classical music upbringing. There’s powerful 80s-tinged balladry on the soaring ‘There Was A Room’, while the concluding title track is a powerful reflection of eventually arriving on the other side of grief. On this debut, Kinsley marks herself out as a true original.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Paris Hilton – Infinite Icon
Eighteen years after her debut album brought us the cod-reggae beats of ‘Stars Are Blind’, Paris Hilton returns with an album that the world wasn’t exactly crying out for. Do we need it? Probably not? But are there moments that truly surprise us? Amazingly, yes. ‘BBA’ is a genuinely fun collab with Megan Thee Stallion, while the record’s forward facing aesthetic seems to take a pinch of inspiration from Rina Sawayama – with whom Hilton collabs on the Ultra Naté sampling ‘I’m Free’.
It doesn’t *all* work, but lean into the bonkers nature of a pampered heiress taking a second crack at pop fame and you’ll have quite the time.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
Nala Sinephro’s brand of ambient jazz thrives on repetition, space and atmosphere. New album Endlessness, the follow-up to the lauded Space 1.8 from 2021, revolves around a single arpeggio that plays throughout its 10 tracks. Around that, she invites the likes of Nubya Garcia, Sheila Maurice-Grey and former Black Midi drummer Morgan Simpson among others to touch on electronic, jazz and orchestral music and beyond.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music