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 Alvvays, Gilla Band, Sorry, Daphni, Open Mike Eagle, Courtney Marie Andrews, Macula Dog, Sofie Birch & Antonina Nowacka, and Shabason & Krgovich. 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.)
Alvvays: Blue Rev [Polyvinyl/Transgressive]
Alvvays, the darlings of dreamy indie pop, tear through a set of punchier, scuzzier anthems on their third album, helped along by festival-prepped producer Shawn Everett. The Toronto quintet, fresh from a five-year break after Antisocialites, layer haywire noise and distortion over yearning melodies from frontwoman Molly Rankin, in evidence on standout single “Pharmacist.” Tracks including “Very Online Guy,” “Belinda Says,” and “Easy on Your Own” also preceded the record.
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Gilla Band: Most Normal [Rough Trade]
Fronted by the fire-starting vocalist Dara Kiely, Gilla Band fill out their stark, noisy post-punk sound with flecks of hip-hop and mutant pop on their third album. The Irish punks, fresh from scrapping the “misgendered name” Girl Band, combine acerbic social commentary and captivatingly unhinged lyrics with industrial clangor, droning bass, kaleidoscopic pedal-work, and, on the improbably catchy single “Post Ryan,” a catchy new wave pop beat.
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Sorry: Anywhere But Here [Domino]
London indie upstarts Sorry are now staples of a scene that grew out of the Brixton venue the Windmill, with the likes of Black Midi and Goat Girl among its ranks. On Sorry’s second studio album, singer Asha Lorenz yelps and hollers over ornate tapestries of jangling guitar, antic percussion, pounding pianos, and hypnagogic effects. Portishead’s Adrian Utley co-produced the record with Lorenz, Ali Chant, and the band’s guitarist Louis O’Bryen. The singles include highlight “Let the Lights On.”
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Caribou’s Dan Snaith returns to his club-ready Daphni alias on Cherry. Led by its title track, which Pitchfork’s Philip Sherburne called “a summer anthem with sunrise raving written all over it,” the follow-up to 2017’s Joli Mai also features the singles “Arrow” and “Cloudy.” The essence of the latter, Snaith said in press materials, is “keeping it aloft—like occasionally nudging a balloon that’s only just heavier than air to keep it afloat.” He continued, “For something so buoyant, I’m surprised how much it bangs in a club.”
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Open Mike Eagle: Component System With the Auto Reverse [Auto Reverse]
Open Mike Eagle refers to his latest project as a “tape,” emulating the vibe of cassette mixtapes he made listening to hip-hop college radio in Chicago in the 1990s. Out through his own label, Auto Reverse, Component System With the Auto Reverse features guests R.A.P. Fererria, Still Rift, and Video Dave (“Multi-Game Arcade Cabinet”) and Armand Hammer (“Burner Account”), among others. Another single, “Circuit City,” was produced by Madlib.
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Courtney Marie Andrews: Loose Future [Fat Possum]
Loose Future is the latest full-length from singer-songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews, following her 2020 record Old Flowers. She wrote Loose Future in Cape Cod, and Sam Evian produced the project, which includes contributions from multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman and Grizzly Bear’s Chris Bear. Andrews found inspiration for “These Are the Good Old Days” from an uncle, and she shared it along with “Satellite” and Loose Future’s title track ahead of the album’s release.
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Macula Dog: Orange 2 [Wharf Cat]
“This album is a huge failure but may be our best work,” said enigmatic New York duo Macula Dog in a statement describing its second album, Orange 2. The LP arrives six years after the electronic project’s debut, 2016’s Why Do You Look Like Your Dog? After setting out to make a dozen distinctive pop numbers, the members said they ended up with 10 very different songs and “a singer you can’t understand.” The title track of the new record is about chemical preservatives, and, elsewhere, Macula Dog address temptation, misinformation, and other subjects. They previewed the album with “Neosporin” and “Plug.”
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Sofie Birch & Antonina Nowacka: Languoria [Unsound/Mondoj]
Last year, Danish ambient composer Sofie Birch and Polish singer Antonina Nowacka performed an improvisational set at Unsound’s Ephemera Festival in Warsaw, Poland. The experience laid the groundwork for their new collaborative album, Languoria, which they recorded in Copenhagen last winter. Birch braided her field recordings and ambient soundscapes with Nowacka’s vocals, recalling in a press release that “every small decision was very important…. That’s why such simple compositions can hold so much complexity and depth.” Read the track review for the LP’s single “Sunday.”
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Shabason & Krgovich: At Scaramouche [Idée Fixe]
At Scaramouche is the latest collaboration between Toronto saxophonist Joseph Shabason and Vancouver singer-songwriter Nicholas Krgovich. Following their 2020 LP Philadelphia (which also featured multi-instrumentalist Chris Harris), At Scaramouche was named after a somewhat tacky Toronto restaurant upon which the two musicians stumbled. The nine-song record features singles “I’m Dancing,” “In the Middle of the Day,” and “I Am So Happy With My Little Dog.” The latter track arrived with a music video starring Krgovich, happily dancing with his little dog.
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