6 albums you need to hear this week
With music from Sam Fender, The Murder Capital, Porridge Radio, Nao, Youth Lagoon and Baths
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 Sam Fender, The Murder Capital, Porridge Radio, Nao, Youth Lagoon and Baths.
Sam Fender – People Watching
As the title suggests, this third album from Sam Fender sees the Tyneside star switching his gaze towards the lives and people who constantly inspire him. There’s anthemic rock in the title track, while ‘Crumbling Empire’ will invite you in with warm classic rock sounds, but – as the title suggests – its all too familiar tales of people facing the struggle of living in a land where nothing works have the ability to impressively blindside you. It’s a great third effort.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
The Murder Capital – Blindness
It’s the guitars that grab you first. The ear-splitting, triumphant sounds of ‘Moonshot’ – the first track from The Murder Capital’s Blindness will capture you with a immediacy that rarely lets up. The jagged ‘Words Lost Meaning’ is delightfully spooky, while ‘Love Of Country’ – following in the vein that frontman James McGovern told Rolling Stone UK last year – is a stinging riposte to blind patriotism. It’s varied and attention-grabbing at every turn.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Porridge Radio – The Machine Starts To Sing
Brilliant indie quartet Porridge Radio say farewell on new and final EP The Machine Starts To Sing, released after the band announced their breakup. The songs here are taken from sessions for last year’s excellent Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me album, and flesh out the inner workings of a special songwriter in Dana Margolin. The highlight is lead single ‘Don’t Want To Dance’, a song driven by acoustic guitar and showing the balance of light and shade that the band slowly perfected over their decade together.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Nao – Jupiter
“Jupiter is joyful; it’s the planet of growth, expansion and personal transformation,” Nao said of her fourth album, adding: “I wanted to make a record that embodied all of these things so that hopefully when you listen to it you’ll feel a beautiful shift in your own vibration of joy.” These feelings are transmitted on an album that is brilliantly bright and warm, led by jubilant lead single ‘Happy People’.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Youth Lagoon – Rarely Do I Dream
After taking a hiatus from his Youth Lagoon project for six years, which included a time where he was unable to sing due to a medical condition, Idaho songwriter Trevor Powers returned in 2023 with the excellent career highlight of Heaven Is a Junkyard. New album Rarely Do I Dream fleshes out the sonic ideas presented on that album, with the album given its thematic through line after Powers discovered – and then recorded – all manner of home videos from his childhood. These snapshots are splashed all over Rarely Do I Dream, an album of hazy memories and reflection transmitted via excellent songwriting.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music
Baths – Gut
On Gut, his first album as Baths for seven years, Will Wiesenfeld takes a striking step away from the sprightly electronic sounds that have defined the much-loved project so far. Instead, Gut is driven by twiddly guitars and live drums. Wiesenfeld’s distinctive voice slots perfectly into this new sonic landscape, and when electronics do come back into the fold – like on the single ‘Eden’ – they melt together surprisingly well with this new rock-centric sound.
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music