8 albums you need to hear this week
With music from Squid, Olly Alexander, Inhaler, Biig Piig, Krept & Konan, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, Heartworms and HONESTY.
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 Squid, Olly Alexander, Inhaler, Biig Piig, Krept & Konan, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, Heartworms and HONESTY.
Squid – Cowards
After starting out in the late 2010s as a nominally post-punk band in line with the Brixton Windmill scene, Squid’s music has expanded and mutated beautifully since. Third studio album Cowards takes them further into avant-garde experimentation, jazz, psychedelia and beyond. The nine songs here each zoom in on an evil and twisted protagonist, from those ignoring the climate crisis to others blinded and driven by ego. Singer and drummer Ollie Judge says the album is concerned with “the idea of sleepwalking into a world of complacency,” a pertinent narrative thread that looks inward as well as lashing out, all told alongside music that is brilliantly experimental and unpredictable.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Olly Alexander – Polari
On his debut album as a solo artist, Olly Alexander leans into eighties club sounds and wide-ranging explorations of sexuality. The title is taken from a 19th century code language used by closeted gay men and it’s these themes of something secret and understated that drive the record forward. The foreboding synths of ‘Shadow of Love’ and production from Erasure’s Vince Clarke on the charming ‘Make Me Like A Man’ are among the highlights here. It doesn’t all land with the same punch and sometimes the Eighties aesthetic feels too ham-fisted, but it’s a bright and confident start to solo life.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Inhaler – Open Wide
There’s little reinvention of the wheel to be found on Inhaler’s third album, but fans of the Irish rockers will revel in the arena-primed anthems that they do so well. The title track is a slow-burning guitar beast that grows into something special, while the thunderous ‘A Question Of You’ feels like another screamed-back-at-you anthem to add to their burgeoning arsenal. What it lacks in originality and sonic innovation, it more than makes up for in unremitting fun. Come festival season, you sense that’s going to be enough to power them through.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Biig Piig – 11:11
The numbers 11:11, the title of Biig Piig’s debut album, have been “a recurring number throughout my life,” the singer says, “especially whilst writing this record. Whenever I see it, I take a moment to reflect and dream about the possibilities ahead.” Following her lauded mixtape Bubblegum, the debut album chronicles the growth the singer has experienced since she got her start in music, while imagining another future. It’s a story told through wide-eyed musical experimentation, touching pop, funk and beyond, and sees her excitedly diving into life.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Krept & Konan – Young Kingz II
After a decade spent at the forefront of UK rap, this third album from Krept & Konan sees the South London grab the chance to become rap royalty – as this title suggests – with both hands. Old school fans will lap up the drill-infused scrappiness of ‘Last Night In Kingston’, while tracks such as ‘Low Vibrations’ – an understated dancehall banger – show that they’re capable of still trying new things to great effect. It’s a thrill to have them back.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory – Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
Though technically the seventh album from Sharon Van Etten, this latest effort is the first time she’s shared title billing with her band. A single listen shows exactly why she’s taken this route, here is a record where Van Etten’s thunderous band elevate her to the next level. It’s evident on the spiky guitars of ‘Somethin’ Aint Right’, while the progressive drama of ‘Idiot Box’ is elevated by the full band approach. While less is sometimes more, in Van Etten’s case it’s clear that the full adoption of her band have allowed the New Jersey native to deliver one of the most thrilling albums of her entire career.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Heartworms – Glutton for Punishment
“We’re all so drawn to punishing ourselves, and I’m always drawn to singing about it, and thinking about it,” Jojo Orme says of her music as Heartworms. On much-anticipated debut album Glutton for Punishment, these ideas are presented via music that is deliciously dark and sneakily catchy. Mixing together personal stories of family troubles with ruminations on worldwide tragedies away from her doorstep, it’s an album that is both personal and political in the truest sense, with the two constantly intersecting.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
HONESTY – U R HERE
As they told us last year, the career of Leeds collective HONESTY has been mapped out since the beginning. 2024 mixtape BOX was written after their debut album, U R HERE, showing them as a band writing their own mythology and determined to tell a thorough and interweaving story. On the debut album, they pick from inspiration as far-ranging as UK bass and shoegaze, describing the creative process as “like passing the aux cable around at an afterparty”. Combined with consistently excellent and innovative visuals, it’s the next step from a collective doing things differently and asking for a close and keen ear.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music