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 projects from Bon Iver, Porridge Radio, Japandroids, High Vis, Kelly Lee Owens, Lechuga Zafiro, Office Culture, Mediopicky, Machine Girl, and Kurious. 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.)
Bon Iver: SABLE, EP [Jagjaguwar]
Justin Vernon and his collaborators recorded the four-track SABLE, EP at the Bon Iver leader’s April Base studio in Wisconsin. Vernon shared just one single, “S P E Y S I D E,” ahead of the record, along with a moody black-and-white video directed by Erinn Springer and starring Vernon in a large hat. Vernon produced the EP with Jim-E Stack, who also co-wrote “S P E Y S I D E” with Vernon, Ryan Olson, and BJ Burton. Rob Moose also contributed to the record, playing viola and arranging strings throughout. Vernon named the project SABLE, after “near-blackness,” he said in press materials.
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Porridge Radio: Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me [Secretly Canadian]
On their fourth full-length, Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me, British post-punks Porridge Radio tap into 1990s grunge and alternative, conjuring the heft and sincerity of groups like the Cranberries and Screaming Trees. The band tracked the record with producer Dom Monks, who has worked with Big Thief, Laura Marling, and Nick Cave, to name just a few. These 11 songs were inspired by “a more frenetic and desperate kind of love,” as bandleader Dana Margolin put it, and that translates into the thrash of tracks like “Sleeptalker” and “Sick of the Blues.” The new record follows Porridge Radio’s 2022 LP, Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky.
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Japandroids: Fate & Alcohol [Anti-]
Vancouver duo Japandroids have issued their last album, Fate & Alcohol. Guitarist and vocalist Brian King and drummer and vocalist David Prowse announced their final chapter, and follow-up to 2017’s Near to the Wild Heart of Life, this year, stating that they wanted the new album to feel like “a more cinematic take on our signature sound.” Japandroids released the emo-tinged ballad “Chicago” as the record’s lead single, followed by a pair of pop-punk tracks, “D&T” and “All Bets Are Off.”
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High Vis: Guided Tour [Dais]
From the moment that car door slams and the wheels begin to spin on “Guided Tour,” the opening number and title track from High Vis’ new album, the London five-piece don’t plan on stopping. Guided Tour is a blend of cheeky British camaraderie and serious guitar riffs—an ode as much to Blur’s more gut-driven songs as it is the modern punk-goes-alt-rock of Militarie Gun. Their third album and follow-up to 2022’s Blending also includes the singles “Drop Me Out,” “Mob DLA,” and “Mind’s a Lie,” each one making good on their blend of Britpop and post-punk.
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Kelly Lee Owens: Dreamstate [DH2]
Dreamstate is the fourth album from Welsh producer-songwriter Kelly Lee Owens, behind her 2022 record LP.8. For her latest project, Owens enlisted co-producers and co-writers like Tom Rowlands from the Chemical Brothers, Bicep duo Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar, and George Daniel of the 1975, who also founded Owens’ new label home, DH2—an electronic imprint of Dirty Hit. Owens dropped a handful of singles before releasing Dreamstate, including subdued clubby cuts like “Love You’ve Got” and “Higher,” as well as the ethereal “Ballad (In the End).”
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Lechuga Zafiro: Desde los Oídos de un Sapo [TraTraTrax]
Uruguayan artist Lechuga Zafiro makes his debut on the electronic music label TraTraTrax with Desde los Oídos de un Sapo, a seven-song effort that was built upon field recordings of toads, sea lions, pigs, wood, glass, water, and more, all captured around Uruguay, El Salvador, Chile, China, Argentina, and Portugal. The project boasts glitchy dance music that jostles to bracing polyrhythms and processed blips of Zafiro’s varied source material.
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Office Culture: Enough [Ruination]
Office Culture go big across Enough, the Brooklyn band’s follow-up to 2022’s Big Time Things. The newly configured group—featuring frontman Winston Cook-Wilson with co-founding bassist Charlie Kaplan and Scree guitarist Ryan El-Solh—invited 25 performers to add to the expansive double-album. The result is 73 minutes of music that can feel like a dream—limitless, carefree, and unpredictable. The album never drags or bores as it scrapes jazz, pop, and rock, as singles like “Desire” and “Everything” make clear.
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Mediopicky: Bexaco y Rico [Salsa Fegol]
Bexaco y Rico is Dominican producer Mediopicky’s second album of the year. In fact, it’s his second album since summer ended. The artist, née Pablo Alcántara, shared his previous record, El Precio de la Yuca, in September. Since then, Mediopicky managed to drop a string of singles ahead of Bexaco y Rico, such as the chilled-out “Ya No Se,” and “Trabajando,” along with the more tweaked-out “Pa Que” and “Tu Me Haces.”
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Machine Girl: MG Ultra [Future Classic]
New York electronic hardcore duo Machine Girl are back with their first album in four years, following 2020’s U-Void Synthesizer. Their sixth LP, MG Ultra, mashes Chicago footwork, UK jungle, noise, and breakcore into a harsh and dizzying dance record. Bandleader Matt Stephenson and percussionist Sean Kelly issued the breakneck lead single “Until I Die” back in August, followed by the melodic new-wave-esque “Motherfather” and the jittery, aptly titled “Psychic Attack.”
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Kurious: Majician [Metalface]
Kurious, the Upper West Side rapper who got his start as a Def Jam delivery boy, is back with a new album called Majician, produced by Mono En Stereo. The record is also one of the last LPs executive-produced by the late MF Doom, Kurious’ longtime friend. Majician, the first new release on Metalface Records since Doom’s death, in 2020, includes early single “Untainted,” as well as 14 more tracks that bump to old-school, funk-injected beats and Kurious’ relaxed-but-commanding flow.
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Source : Pitchfork
