5 albums you need to hear this week

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 Circa Waves, Billy Nomates, Margo Price, Gabrielle Aplin and Belle & Sebastian.

Circa Waves, Never Going Under

The chirpy indie DNA of Circa Waves is all present and correct on their fifth album, though the birth of frontman Kieran Shudall’s first son finds them confronting loftier ideas about the state of the world he’s been brought into. On ‘Hell on Earth’, the band tackles lying politicians, while the soaring ‘Golden Days’ dreams of better days ahead.

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music

Gabrielle Aplin, Phosphorescent

On her fourth album, Gabrielle Aplin proves her versatility as a songwriter. There’s flourishes of Carole King on the powerful ‘Call Me’, while ‘Don’t Say’ sees her balladic vocals being paired against subtly upbeat synth pop sounds. As the title suggests, there’s plenty of light to be found here.

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Bandcamp| Amazon Music

Billy Nomates, CACTI

Tor Maries announced herself as a socially-conscious singer-songwriter for our times on her self-titled debut in 2020, facing down the maelstrom of modern Britain with wit, intelligence and artfully-channeled anger. After another two years of tumult, you’d expect a prickly follow-up to Billy Nomates even if it wasn’t titled CACTI, and sure enough, this second LP pulls few punches, although those familiar with its predecessor might be surprised to see Maries turning her aim inwards, whether it’s on the polished pop-punk cut ‘Balance Is Gone’, which sees her try to stomp her way out of a rut, or the lo-fi experimentalism of ‘Roundabout Sadness’.

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL |Bandcamp| Amazon Music

Belle & Sebastian, Late Developers

After a turbulent 2022 that saw both a slew of tour postponements and some of the strongest reviews of their recent career for ninth LP A Bit of Previous, Belle & Sebastian begin 2023 on the front foot with this quick-fire follow-up, Late Developers. Conceived and recorded during the same sessions in their native Glasgow that birthed their last album, the indie stalwarts veer away from that record’s stylistic mixed bag and instead aim for streamlined pop; ‘The Evening Star’ and the title track are irresistibly groovy, but the standout might be their bold stab at modern synthpop on lead single ‘I Don’t Know What You See in Me’.

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL |Bandcamp |Amazon Music

Margo Price, Strays

To date, Margo Price’s story has been one of survival, with the US singer-songwriter having beat the odds to emerge from poverty and addiction to form part of a new vanguard of artists from a rejuvenated Nashville who are steeped in the city’s rich country tradition. Now, having established herself, she’s branching out on a bold fourth full-length, penned after six days on magic mushrooms and accordingly replete with stylistic adventurousness. There’s an all-star cast of collaborators, too, including but not limited to Sharon Van Etten and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who brings searing riffery to the standout ‘Light Me Up’.