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 full-length releases from Oneohtrix Point Never, Wilco, Animal Collective, Armand Hammer, Jorja Smith, Blonde Redhead, Maxo, MJ Nebreda, and Modern Nature. 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.)
Oneohtrix Point Never: Again [Warp]
Daniel Lopatin is back with a new Oneohtrix Point Never album, following collaborations with the Weeknd, the Safdie brothers, Soccer Mommy, and Weyes Blood. Again, which features “A Barely Lit Path,” was described in its announcement as “a speculative autobiography.” Lopatin clarified: “The album imagines what might have been, as the musician made his music through space and time. Which decisions foreclosed some realities? What might those other worlds have sounded like?”
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Wilco: Cousin [dBpm]
On their new LP, Cousin, Wilco enlisted Cate Le Bon to produce after meeting her at the 2019 edition of the group’s Solid Sound Festival—their first time working with an outside producer since 2007’s Sky Blue Sky. Reflecting on the experience in press materials, Le Bon said that “the amazing thing about Wilco is they can be anything. They’re so mercurial, and there’s this thread of authenticity that flows through everything they do, whatever the genre, whatever the feel of the record.” Wilco released Cousin’s lead single “Evicted” last month, followed by the title track. Cousin arrives after their 2022 LP Cruel Country.
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Animal Collective: Isn’t It Now? [Domino]
In June, Animal Collective returned with “Defeat,” a 22-minute piece of psychedelia that sits smack in the middle of their new album, Isn’t It Now? The nine-song LP follows last year’s Time Skiffs. “Defeat” was recorded with producer Russell Elevado and features cellist Leila Bordreuil, saxophonist Ben Chapoteau-Katzviolinist, and violinist Samara Lubelski. Animal Collective followed the shapeshifting track with “Soul Capturer” and “Gem & I,” both melding elements of 1960s psych-pop, folk, and even Renaissance music—a current fascination of Avey Tare and Geologist.
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Armand Hammer: We Buy Diabetic Test Strips [Fat Possum]
The production on Armand Hammer’s last LP, Haram, was handled solely by the Alchemist. For their new album, We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, they call on more than a dozen different beatsmiths, including DJ Haram, El-P, Kenny Segal, and the enigmatic Baltimore artist Jpegmafia, whose glitchy and abrasive sounds appear to have influenced billy woods and Elucid’s flows, as evidenced by the single “Woke Up and Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die.”
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Jorja Smith: Falling or Flying [Famm]
It’s been five years since Jorja Smith released her debut album, Lost & Found, and two years since she put out the transitional EP Be Right Back. Falling or Flying features the title track, “Little Things,” “Go Go Go,” and the J Hus–featuring “Feelings.” Smith said in a statement, “This album is like my brain. There’s always so much going on but each song is definitely a standstill moment.”
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Blonde Redhead: Sit Down for Dinner [Section1]
Blonde Redhead’s 10th album, Sit Down for Dinner, pegs their sweeping, baroque alt-rock to lyrics about the quandaries of friendship, aging, and adulthood, particularly the specter of grief. “It’s sort of about death, but the music is so alive and groovy,” said singer and multi-instrumentalist Kazu Makino in press materials. But the title holds another important meaning for the band’s Italian members. “Culturally, dinner is important to us,” drummer Simone Pace said. Buon appetito to that.
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Maxo: Debbie’s Son [Smileforme]
Debbie’s Son is Maxo’s second full-length of 2023, following February’s Even God Has a Sense of Humor. The Southern California rapper led the album with “PlayDis!,” a collaboration with Detroit’s Zelooperz—the sole guest vocalist on the record. While his prior LP was released on Def Jam, Maxo issued Debbie’s Son on his own Smileforme label. The 10-song album coasts on minimal, moody beats produced by the Alchemist, Beat Butcha, Lastnamedavid, Alexander Spit, Ahwlee, and others. Maxo shared his major-label debut, Lil Big Man, back in 2019.
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MJ Nebreda: Arepa Mixtape [Empire]
MJ Nebreda is a Venezuelan-born, Miami-based artist, producer, and DJ. Her latest project, Arepa Mixtape, draws inspiration from reggaeton, dembow, and raptor house—an electronic genre hailing from Caracas. The 10-song mixtape includes recent singles “Arepa,” “Subliminal,” and “Rápido.”
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Modern Nature: No Fixed Point in Space [Bella Union]
Jack Cooper, formerly of Ultimate Painting and Mazes, is back with his latest album under the name Modern Nature. For No Fixed Point in Space, Cooper handed musical notation to the players and instructed them to loosely interpret and improvise within that structure. Cooper said he wanted to find the “swing of humans” inside music instead of sterile grids: “I think the most important aspect of that idea is collectivism; the rhythm, melody, timbre, dynamics, all the aspects of music are not the responsibility of one instrument, they are the responsibilities of all the instruments.”
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