Best New Albums: This Week’s Records to Stream
Paste is the place to kick off each and every New Music Friday. We follow our regular roundups of the best new songs by highlighting the most compelling new records you need to hear. Find the best new albums of the week below, from priority picks to honorable mentions.
beabadoobee: This Is How Tomorrow Moves
On This Is How Tomorrow Moves, indie-pop phenom beabadoobee has found her groove. Early single “Ever Seen” is a charming and sugary sweet tune about Bea Laus finding sureness in herself through the love she and her boyfriend hold for each other. “I spent some time waiting for your face / Don’t want to risk just making all the same mistakes / The highest I think I’ve ever been / Said I had the prettiest eyes he’d ever seen,” she croons during the choruses, atop a gorgeous, dynamic build-up of driving drums and brass. Producer Rick Rubin brings out some of Bea’s most compelling artistry to date, notably on “Beaches,” as Bea dips back into the pure indie rock sound of her criminally underrated debut Fake it Flowers, detailing how her creativity thrives in the right environments (in this case, Rubin’s Shangri La studio in Malibu). “Days blend to one whеn I’m on the right beaches / And the walls painted white, they tell me all the secrets / Don’t wait for the tide just to dip both your feet in,” she sings alongside a double-tracked melody of glockenspiel and driving guitars. Bea has fully come into her own on this record, and she wants you to know it. —Leah Weinstein
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: Flight b741
King Gizz are back in their funk bag with their 26th studio album Flight b741. “Hog Calling Contest chronicles exactly what’s shown on the album’s cover: pigs flying. This absolute pork-puller of a tune sees Stu Mackenzie and co. stretching their technical abilities to the absolute limit with complex vocal harmonies and a bassline that refuses to quit. Complete with ad-libbed pig squeals, “Hog Calling Contest” sets up a standout record from the ever-prolific King Gizzard discography. Their foot stays on the gas on “Field of Vision,” an energetic wall of cascading guitars and groove. The song was almost cut from the album, but Mackenzie and Ambrose Kenny-Smith re-tracked it with a $100 harmony acoustic guitar filtered through blowout effects. It’s a blast of a tune, as is the whole dang LP. —Leah Weinstein & Olivia Abercrombie
oso oso: life till bones
The emotional tension of life till bones finds a release in its final stretch, as “application” showcases Jade Lilitri performing with a reinvigorated desire to get his shit together for a new love interest. “I want you so bad,” he repeats in the song’s steady, hopeful chorus. The following track, “Skippy,” starts with a bait-and-switch—an intro reminiscent of Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten”—before doubling in tempo in a delivery of tight power pop music that’s rewarding both in its build-up and in its dance-party conclusion to the record’s broader sonic narrative. “I like that when I’m with you I make the good choice instead” is sung by Lilitri atop triumphant vocal harmonies and driving guitars that sound like something off a Beths record. In oso oso’s world, hitting rock bottom is necessary before coming out on top, and that lesson is told with grace and poise on life till bones. Lilitri comes across as a humble, self-aware and favorable protagonist—and that’s only bolstered by just how fun and engaging the music is in the vacuum of the album. —LW [Read our full review]
Peter Cat Recording Co.: BETA
Last year, I wound up at one of Peter Cat Recording Co.’s shows on their sold-out, inaugural North American tour. The show was wild, and the Delhi fusion band absolutely blew the crowd away after gaining so much momentum with their sophormore album Bismillah. Now, their first record in five years—BETA—is here, and songs like “People Never Change,” “Suddenly” and “Foolmuse” are masterclasses in direction. Weaving in and out of jazz, orchestra, psych-rock, electronic, hints of disco and vocals from Suryakant Sawhney that could very well be just as beautiful on a mid-2000s jazz-pop standard, Peter Cat Recording Co. are back. It’s a bit jarring just how good a track like “People Never Change” is, as no moment on it stumbles for even a second. It’s full-throttle vibes from the first note, and Sawhney’s voice ushers us across a soundscape made vibrant by Karan Singh, Dhruv Bhola, Rohit Gupta and Kartik Sundareshan Pillai. “I can walk away, spineless, pretend it’s a movie,” Sawhney sings. “I don’t want to face a crisis, or something that’s so real.” What is real, though, is how perfect “People Never Change” is and how good of an album BETA remains. —Matt Mitchell
Other Notable New Album Releases This Week: Asake: Lungu Boy; Belong: Realistic; Destroy Boys: Funeral Soundtrack #4; Fucked Up: Another Day; Futurebirds: Easy Company; Google Earth, James Riotto & John Vanderslice: Street View; Latto: Sugar Honey Iced Tea; Mavi: Shadowbox; Maxwell Stern: In the Good Light; Osees: SORCS 80; Polo G: Hood Poet; Ravyn Lenae: Bird’s Eye