This Week's Top 10 New Releases
New week, new stack. Here's what dropped, the tracklists, and what we think of each one.
1. Jamie T — Ghosts (100 Days of Morning)
Label: Polydor Records | Critics: 90 vs Fans: 72
His sixth album, and a big chunk of it started as old voice memos he'd forgotten about until a new phone made him go digging through the app. He fleshed them out into full songs, partly on a solo trip to Siena, and the whole thing is about the past resurfacing and learning to live with it rather than outrun it. "Cocktail" was co-written with Damon Albarn, "Chelsea Girls" has a 90s dance beat that reminded NME of Underworld and Leftfield, and there's a cover of The Jam's "Ghosts" sitting right in the middle. Highest critic score of the week, though fans are a lot cooler on it.
Tracklist: 1. 3310, 2. Cocktail, 3. Waist 36 Leg 32, 4. All I Wanna See Is Now, 5. The Won, 6. Chelsea Girls, 7. Ghosts, 8. Crimson & Clover, 9. Crucible, 10. Caught Cheating, 11. Tallahassee
2. HAAi — DIGITiSE
Label: Mute | Critics: 85 vs Fans: 80
Think of this as the club-facing sequel to last year's HUMANiSE. The opener picks up right where that record's last track left off, "Ignition" is a reworked take on "Go", and HAAi built the whole thing with DJ sets in mind, so it jumps between lanes the way a long night does, motorik rhythms and heavy low end on "I Wanna Feel Like Someone" (with James Massiah), a festival-sized closer in "Talking Walls." The Trans Voices choir collective is back on vocals too. A big step from her ambient-leaning early stuff.
Tracklist: 1. RE-HUMANiSE (feat. Kaiden Ford & ILA), 2. Printerlude, 3. Ignition (feat. Echonomist), 4. Depth Perception, 5. DIGITiSE (feat. Pat Alvarez), 6. Technology, 7. HUMANiSE Radio, 8. THANK U, 9. I Wanna Feel Like Someone (feat. James Massiah), 10. Talking Walls (HAAi x Skybreak, feat. Cantoalegre)
3. Troye Sivan — She's the Best
Label: Interscope Records | Critics: 80 vs Fans: 75
Fourth album, and a pretty deliberate left turn from the club-and-queer-nightlife energy of Something to Give Each Other. This one's more introspective, about love, longing and loneliness, with a fondness for women running through it. "Party" samples Madonna's "Music," and Lily-Rose Depp, his old co-star from The Idol, is the lone guest on closer "Lost Time."
Tracklist: 1. She's the Best, 2. Canada Dry, 3. Party, 4. I Do This for You, 5. Cowboy, 6. Embarrassingly, 7. Le Boy, 8. Sex Star, 9. Troye Meets World, 10. FF, 11. Love So Big It Hurts, 12. Lost Time (feat. Lily-Rose Depp)
4. Basht. — Poor Advice
Label: LAB Records | Critics: 80 vs Fans: 83
Debut album from a band that's already been out on the road with DEADLETTER, Everything Everything and Wunderhorse, and played The Great Escape and Live at Leeds. Produced by Ali Chant (Dry Cleaning, Perfume Genius, PJ Harvey), and you can hear that in the way the heavy, reflective songwriting gets these big sprawling arrangements around it. Critics and fans both like it, which is the best kind of debut.
Tracklist: 1. Dive, 2. Perfume, 3. Keira Knightley, 4. Terror TV, 5. Superchurch, 6. Vermilion Reptilian, 7. Circadia, 8. Moth, 9. Kids Vs Guns, 10. Poor Advice
5. Remi Wolf — Mud
Label: Island Records | Critics: 76 vs Fans: 82
Her third album and the follow-up to 2024's Big Ideas, and a noticeable shift toward live instruments and everybody playing in one room. It was pieced together across Nashville, a retreat in Big Bear, Electric Lady in New York and finally Joshua Tree, with her longtime partner Jared Solomon and a crew she calls a "family band." She describes it as warmer, more spacious and more emotionally direct, and the first single "Twiggy" got its live debut with Hayley Williams at Newport Folk.
Tracklist: 1. Bottle, 2. Champagne, 3. Twiggy, 4. Burn Me Blue, 5. Jamie, 6. Covered In Mud, 7. Moon So High, 8. I Won't Cry, 9. Wine Drunk, 10. Guess, 11. Yellow Rose
6. Teenage Fanclub — Do Not Dare To Dream
Label: Merge Records | Critics: 74 vs Fans: 72
Their 14th album if you count the 2002 record with Jad Fair, self-produced and recorded on Great Bernera in the Outer Hebrides. It plays like a retreat record, unhurried, folky and pensive, with the title reading as a gentle jab at the whole "dare to dream" social media mindset. Euros Childs is in the backing band, and "Tomorrow People" is getting singled out as the standout.
Tracklist: 1. There Was You, 2. Tomorrow People, 3. Over And Over, 4. Be With You Tonight, 5. The Same Air, 6. I Do Not Dare To Dream, 7. Take Time, 8. Day In The Sun, 9. Somewhere To Land, 10. Young And Wise
7. Wage War — Landfall
Label: Fearless Records | Critics: 70 vs Fans: 73
Sixth album from the Florida metalcore band and the first one produced by a member of the band itself, guitarist Cody Quistad. The hurricane imagery from their Florida roots runs all the way through it, and the sound swings between downtuned nu-metal heaviness and full-on deathcore breakdowns. It follows this year's It Calls Me by Name EP, which has "Song of the Swamp" and "Blindfold" on it too.
Tracklist: 1. Landfall, 2. Sweet Dreams, 3. Silk, 4. Figure 8, 5. God Complex, 6. Stay with Me, 7. Silence Has Spoken, 8. Way of Pain, 9. Red Dot, 10. Blindfold, 11. Spellbound, 12. Song of the Swamp, 13. Silhouette
8. heavensouls — "cantu" of the sower
Label: NTS Recordings (exclusive license) | Fans: 85 (no critic score yet)
A six-track release that dropped October 7, with heavensouls handling production, mixing and basically everything else herself. Stickerbush guests on "shipping times and quiet streets," there's saxophone from Alyssa Mandel of your arms are my cocoon, and Akajazy is credited on "group working." Short, strange and personal, and one of the highest fan scores in the top ten.
Tracklist: 1. today is my favorite, 2. model housing, 3. star balcony, 4. group working, 5. shipping times and quiet streets (w/ stickerbush), 6. closing times
9. Teller Bank$ — NOAH
Fans: 80 (no critic score yet)
A 20-track self-released album, with a Bible-flavored tracklist ("40 Days," "The Flood," "Jonah," "Genesis," "40 Nights") bookending the whole thing. Guests include doseone, Fatboi Sharif, Rent Moneyy, Sha Ray, Kill Bill: The Rapper and q no rap name. Long, dense and very much underground hip-hop, so settle in.
Tracklist: 1. 40 Days, 2. The Flood (feat. doseone), 3. Jonah, 4. The Arc, 5. Abraham, 6. Thou Shall Not (feat. q no rap name & Lamb Rabbit), 7. Rain Dance, 8. My Brother, 9. Die Today, 10. Numbers, 11. Deuteronomy, 12. Benny & WE$ 4: The Fellowship of The Fiends (feat. Rent Moneyy), 13. Lights Off (feat. Sha Ray), 14. Hokie Poke, 15. What Are We Doin?? (feat. Kill Bill: The Rapper, q no rap name & Rav), 16. Genesis, 17. The Blind (feat. Fatboi Sharif), 18. The Shepherd, 19. Holy Man, 20. 40 Nights
10. Lil Darkie — red
Fans: 75 (no critic score yet)
Self-released, 11 tracks, and a bonus cut called "I am my own hell" tucked at the end. Most of the song titles are flagged explicit, so expect it to get pretty raw. Critics haven't weighed in yet, but his fanbase clearly has opinions.
Tracklist: 1. red, 2. amnesia, 3. dinner plate, 4. what i can't do, 5. i love you, 6. risk it all, 7. hypocritical spirits, 8. truthfully, 9. wheel of samsara, 10. finally free, 11. i am my own hell (bonus)
That's the stack for this week. Grab whatever's calling to you and we'll see you next Friday.