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 and projects from Gorillaz, Model/Actriz, Maxo, Shame, Yeat, Tink, Katrina Krimsky, the Necks, and Sideshow. 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.)
Gorillaz: Cracker Island [Warner]
Bad Bunny, Thundercat, Stevie Nicks, and Tame Impala all make guest appearances on Cracker Island, the latest LP from Damon Albarn’s long-running animated endeavor, Gorillaz. He sticks to his tenets of pop melodies and hip-hop touches, recruiting Beck and the Pharcyde’s Bootie Brown as returning collaborators. “Cracker Island leans on classic Gorillaz tropes: a handful of attention-grabbing features, a touch of hip-hop, a splash of dub, and great big helpings of Damon Albarn’s big-hearted melodies to bathe the record in misty sunshine,” writes Ben Cardew in his review of the album. Read the rest of Pitchfork’s review of Cracker Island.
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Model/Actriz: Dogsbody [True Panther]
Dogsbody is the debut album from Brooklyn’s Model/Actriz, who inflect their busy, tense rock songs with references to popular culture, high art, and suburban living. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats reportedly had a significant influence on bandleader Cole Haden, too. The group shared “Amaranth,” “Crossing Guard,” and “Mosquito” from the album ahead of its release.
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Maxo: Even God Has a Sense of Humor [Def Jam]
Maxo’s latest full-length, Even God Has a Sense of Humor, was released this week on the Los Angeles rapper’s 28th birthday. The follow-up to 2019’s Lil Big Man features contributions from Madlib, Pink Siifu, Liv.e, KeiyaA, and more. Read about the single “Free!” on the Pitch.
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Shame: Food for Worms [Dead Oceans]
Shame’s follow-up to 2021’s Drunk Tank Pink is Food for Worms, an album they tracked live with producer Flood (whose credits include records by Nick Cave, U2, and PJ Harvey). Read Zach Schonfeld’s review of Food for Worms, which he writes “has a rousing, communal spirit that melts shards of icy post-punk into warmer forms.”
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Yeat: AftërLyfe [Field Trip/Geffen]
Yeat, the Portland rapper who inspired some deep fan fervor surrounding the release of last year’s Lyfë, is back with AfterLyfë. The 22-track project features YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Kranky Kranky, and Luh Geeky. Who else is getting a million followers in, like, a month? It’s Yeat, bro.
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Tink: Thanks 4 Nothing [Winter’s Diary/WD/Empire]
Less than one year after Pillow Talk, the singer and rapper Tink is back with her latest full-length. Thanks 4 Nothing is her latest collaboration with Hitmaka and it features only two guests: Ty Dolla $ign and Yung Bleu.
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Katrina Krimsky: 1980 [Unseen Worlds]
Katrina Krimsky’s life changed for good in 1980, marked by the pianist’s pivot from work oriented around classical training toward a more expansive approach that embraced improvisation and more freeform styles. On her Unseen Worlds release 1980, she presents recordings of three performances from a concert in Woodstock, New York, in June of the same year.
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The Necks: Travel [Northern Spy]
Ever committed to kinetic, longform instrumental dives, Australia’s the Necks return with Travel, a collection of four new recordings. Though pianist Chris Abrahams, drummer Tony Buck, and bassist Lloyd Swanton have operated together for more than 35 years, Travel emerged out of a more recently developed habit: The trio committed to 20 minutes of free improvisation before beginning a more formal rehearsal. Swanton called the practice “a really nice communal activity to bring us together in focus each day.”
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Sideshow: 2MM Don’t Just Stand There! [10k]
For the third year running, Tigrayan rapper Sideshow has released a new project via MIKE’s 10k label. After Wicked Man’s Reprise and Wegahta Tapes Vol. 1 comes now 2MM Don’t Just Stand There! The album features a lone guest appearance from Valee on “2MM,” as well as production from Popstar Benny, Alexander Spit, Alexander Dugdale, 454, and Omari Lyseight.
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