Music

10 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Kaytraminé, Mandy, Indiana, Paul Simon, Kesha, and More

Kaytramins Amin and Kaytranada

Kaytraminé’s Aminé and Kaytranada, photo by Lucas Creighton

10 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Kaytraminé, Mandy, Indiana, Paul Simon, Kesha, and More

Also stream new releases from Blawan, Mega Bog, Summer Walker, Bar Italia, Slowspin, and Horse Jumper of Love

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, EPs, and mini-albums from Kaytraminé, Mandy, Indiana, Paul Simon, Kesha, Blawan, Mega Bog, Summer Walker, Bar Italia, Slowspin, and Horse Jumper of Love. 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.)

Kaytraminé, Aminé & Kaytranada: Kaytraminé [Venice Music]

Producer Kaytranada and emcee Aminé have combined their names and their powers for Kaytraminé, a collection of upbeat tracks built for pool parties and memorable summer hangs. They announced the record with the Pharrell Williams–featuring “4eva” at the beginning of April, and, during the first weekend of Coachella, Aminé stopped by Kaytranada’s Friday night set for the song’s live debut. The duo more recently shared the single “Rebuke.” Several guests appear on the LP, including Big Sean, Amaarae, Snoop Dogg, and Freddie Gibbs.

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Mandy, Indiana: I’ve Seen a Way [Fire Talk]

Two years after issuing their blistering EP , Manchester-based experimentalists Mandy, Indiana have returned with their debut full-length, I’ve Seen a Way. The 11-track LP was written by guitarist and producer Scott Fair and vocalist Valentine Caulfield, who sent demos back and forth, merging Fair’s original pieces and field recordings with Caulfield’s caustic French lyrics. When it came time to track the album, Fair set up makeshift studios in a cave and a crypt to capture unusual drum sounds. Though it maintains the harsh, industrial dance edge of the group’s prior work, I’ve Seen a Way features a handful of pop-leaning cuts, like back-to-back entries “Mosaick” and “The Driving Rain (18).” Check out Pitchfork’s recent Rising interview with the band.

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Paul Simon: Seven Psalms [Owl/Legacy]

After releasing In the Blue Light and reportedly retiring from touring in 2018, Paul Simon is back with a new studio LP titled Seven Psalms. He’s said that his newest 33-minute, seven-movement suite should be listened to as a single piece of music. Simon released a trailer for the project in April, which revealed a forthcoming documentary titled In Restless Dreams. Edie Brickell and the vocal ensemble Voces8 join Simon on Seven Psalms, which Simon co-produced with Kyle Crusham.

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Kesha: Gag Order [Kemosabe/RCA]

For Gag Order, Kesha swerved from party-pop into sparer, sometimes messier songwriting. The change of pace suits her. Still contracted to Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald’s Kemosabe imprint, the singer worked with Rick Rubin to channel her traumas and grievances into abrasively raw pop, in which—as Olivia Lane writes in Pitchfork’s review—“The survivor’s vim of Rainbow and youthful bacchanalia of its successor, 2020’s High Road, are gone; this Kesha is feeling her age, processing her trauma, relinquishing hope and then digging deeper in search of some more.”

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Blawan: Dismantled Into Juice EP [XL]

Dismantled Into Juice is the latest project from Berlin-based producer Blawan, who signed to XL Recordings in 2021. The five-track EP features lead single “Toast,” along with “Panic,” “Body Ramen,” and two collaborations with up-and-coming vocalist Monstera Black: “You Can Build Me” and the title track. Dismantled Into Juice follows Blawan’s 2021 XL debut, the excellent, five-song Woke Up Right Handed.

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Mega Bog: End of Everything [Mexican Summer]

Singer-songwriter Erin Eliabeth Birgy contemplates states of internal and external change on her latest Mega Bog album, End of Everything, which follows her 2021 LP, Life, and Another. Birgy co-produced the record with Big Thief drummer James Krivchenia, bringing Westerman, Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy, and others into the fold to build out her latest crop of songs. Lead single “The Clown” was, according to Birgy, “about the terrible, sensual, and chaotic release of merging one’s own multitudes.” She further previewed the record with “Love Is,” “Cactus People,” and “All and Everything.”

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Summer Walker: Clear 2: Soft Life EP [LVRN/Interscope]

Clear 2: Soft Life is the sequel to Summer Walker’s 2019 EP, Clear. The new nine-track project clocks in at 28 minutes and includes guest appearances from J. Cole on opening track “To Summer, From Cole (Audio Hug)” and Childish Gambino on “New Type,” as well as production by Solange, Steve Lacy, and John Carroll Kirby on the final song, “Agayu’s Revelation.”

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Bar Italia: Tracey Denim [Matador]

London rock band and recent Matador signees Bar Italia have released their latest album, Tracey Denim. The trio of Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi, and Sam Fenton dropped “Nurse!”—the first single on their new label—back in March, followed by “Punkt” and “Changer.” Bar Italia produced Tracey Denim, which was mixed by Marta Salogni. The new record follows two prior LPs, an EP, and a number of singles that were released on Dean Blunt’s World Music label.

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Slowspin: Talisman [Slowspinspace]

Zeerak Ahmed spent years pairing inventive rock- and electronic-oriented music with North Indian vocal traditions in her Karachi hometown before moving to New York and recording her debut Slowspin album, executive produced by Love in Exile musician Shahzad Ismaily. The Pakistani artist worked with venerable New York musicians including Greg Fox, Grey McMurray, and Aaron Roche on the LP, which combines folk and drone elements while threading together “the ecstasy of my highest loves, the smokey whispers of my deepest, quietest losses, and the overpouring rivers of my loudest calls,” as Ahmed puts it in press materials.

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Horse Jumper of Love: Heartbreak Rules [Run for Cover]

Heartbreak Rules is a new “mini-album” from Boston-based slowcore trio Horse Jumper of Love. Aside from a cover of “Luna” by the Smashing Pumpkins, the 11-song record was written and recorded solely by guitarist and vocalist Dimitri Giannopoulos, who laid down many of the songs near the Catskill Mountains in New York. Giannopoulos produced the album with Bradford Krieger, and welcomed contributions on piano by bandmate John Margaris. Heartbreak Rules follows last year’s Horse Jumper of Love full-length, Natural Part.

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