With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new albums from Playboi Carti, Charley Crockett, Whatever the Weather, Circuit des Yeux, DJ Elmoe, Nels Cline, Curren$y & Harry Fraud, Bambara, and Hekla. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.)
Playboi Carti: Music [Interscope]
It took a long time, including release-date delays, but Playboi Carti has finally released Music. The Atlantan’s follow-up to Whole Lotta Red includes a handful of songs familiar to fans, namely “K Pop,” “HBA” and “Evil J0rdan,” along with guest spots from Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Young Thug, and more. See how we got here with Olivier Lafontant’s “Every Little Thing That’s Happened Since Playboi Carti First Announced I Am Music.”
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Charley Crockett: Lonesome Drifter [Island]
Grammy-nominated country star Charley Crockett is strolling back into the spotlight with Lonesome Drifter, his new album and Island Records debut. On the follow-up to his 2024 albums, $10 Cowboy and Visions of Dallas, the Texas singer-songwriter brings back his charming vocal twang and bluesy guitar touch for a dozen songs about learning from life’s lessons and forging on when the odds are stacked against you. Led by the slide guitar-dressed single “Game I Can’t Win,” slow-burning “Jamestown Ferry,” and the old-school opening title track, Lonesome Drifter is co-produced by Crockett and Shooter Jennings.
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Whatever the Weather: Whatever the Weather II [Ghostly International]
Loraine James returns to her Whatever the Weather alias for this album of introspective IDM/ambient hybrid productions. Wrought from a bevy of synths and pedals manipulated live in her London studio and mastered by Telefon Tel Aviv, Whatever the Weather II presents a song cycle themed around different temperatures, smudging tactile and vaporous sounds into an alluring collage.
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Circuit des Yeux: Halo on the Inside [Matador]
Haley Fohr returns with her eighth Circuit des Yeux album, Halo on the Inside. Romantic and gothic in equal strides, the follow-up to 2021’s -io incorporates industrial beats, art-pop hooks, and experimental flourishes that don’t sound too far removed from a Trent Reznor score. While “Canopy of Eden” and “Megaloner” showcase Fohr’s deeper vocals, recent single “Truth” highlights the opposite end of her range, with all three songs working together to represent the striking balance of brooding and energetic that Halo on the Inside pulls off.
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DJ Elmoe: Battle Zone [Planet Mu]
DJ Elmoe delivers a batch of homegrown footwork on Battle Zone, offering a counterpoint to the genre’s ever-forward momentum with an aesthetic that seems designed to be unearthed by crate-diggers decades hence. The Chicago-born producer (and alumnus of the landmark footwork compilations Bangs & Works) spools out dizzy jazz and soul loops that can slow to a crawl mid-track before getting revived by Elmoe’s defibrillating footwork beats. “I have an offset-style,” he said in press materials. “I like to change the dynamic of things in an unorthodox way but you’ll feel good about it. I mainly look for melodies that are parallel to how it makes me feel at that time.”
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Nels Cline: Consentrik Quartet [Blue Note]
Wilco guitarist Nels Cline taps into a different part of himself when performing on his solo jazz records, and that remains true on his latest effort, Consentrik Quartet. The eponymous debut of his band features saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, bassist Chris Lightcap, and drummer Tom Rainey all playing with Cline to swing their way through a playful yet serious pocket of jazz. From “The 23” to “Slipping into Something” and beyond, the natural chemistry between Cline and his bandmates as they improvise solos, fills, and counterpoint banter makes it clear why Blue Note scooped Cline up years ago, starting with 2016’s Lovers.
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Curren$y & Harry Fraud: Never Catch Us [Jet Life/Srfschl]
Prolific New Orleans rapper Curren$y links up with producer and frequent collaborator Harry Fraud for the duo’s fifth project together in as many years. Led by the singles “Dream Machines” (featuring Premo Rice) and “Airport Industries” (featuring Wiz Khalifa), Never Catch Us pairs Curren$y’s laidback but densely detailed bars with jazzy, breezy boom-bap beats that are tailormade for luxury boat rides exactly like the one depicted on the album’s cover.
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Bambara: Birthmarks [Wharf Cat]
Bambara stand right at the intersection between two of the most overexposed genres right now: post-punk and shoegaze. But the Brooklyn-based trio have enough gravitas and dynamic range to stand out from the pack. On their fifth studio album, Birthmarks, a song like “Letters From Sing Sing” builds to a nearly power-pop climax, complete with blasts of trumpet, while “Face of Love” wades deeper into the muck of trip-hop. All the while, frontman Reid Bateh serves as our sometimes-seductive, sometimes-menacing guide to Bambara’s seedy underworld.
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Hekla: Turnar [Phantom Limb]
It’s not every day one comes across the words “theremin virtuoso,” so, when you do, it’s best to pay attention. On her new album, Turnar, Icelandic electronic musician Hekla Magnúsdóttir wields her signature instrument—alongside cello, vocal, and organ accompaniment—in service of spine-tingling, alien soundscapes. The title of recent single “Ókyrrð” translates to “Turbulence” in English, so the fact that it’s one of the album’s least tumultuous tracks should speak volumes in and of itself.
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