Today is Friday, the most wonderful day of the week for music lovers because it’s the day when new albums are released. Let’s celebrate by highlighting some of today’s new records.
Various Artists
Black Panther: The Album (Interscope/Top Dawg/Aftermath)
It’s not often that a soundtrack pops up in a “top new music” roundup, but then again not all soundtracks are curated and produced by Best Rapper Alive™ Kendrick Lamar. Black Panther: The Album is the musical companion to the upcoming Marvel blockbuster film and is quite literally a who’s who of modern hip-hop and R&B. Not only is Kung Fu Kenny at the helm, but Black Panther also showcases the considerable talents of James Blake, SZA, Vince Staples and Anderson .Paak, just to name a few. And even with the big personalities on hand, they meld together seamlessly, like in the subgenre blending “King’s Dead,” which combines Blake’s skeletal production, Kendrick’s and Jay Rock’s west coast swagger and Future’s lean’d out trap weirdness and somehow makes it work very well. You come at the king, you best not miss.
Listen on: Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal
Brian Fallon
Sleepwalkers (Island)
2018 is already shaping up to be a pretty good year for Brian Fallon. The Gaslight Anthem frontman will not only see the New Jersey rock band’s landmark sophomore album The ’59 Sound turn 10 (an event commemorated by the end of the band’s three-year hiatus for a string of shows) but also the release of his second solo album, Sleepwalkers. And if the funky, Motown-flecked “If Your Prayers Don’t Get to Heaven” is any indication, it would appear Fallon’s got his soul back, a part of his musical identity curiously absent from his occasionally somber solo debut, Painkillers (as well as Gaslight’s downright morose final album, Get Hurt). In fact, “My Name is the Night (Color Me Black)” is the closest Fallon’s gotten to emulating the ’59 sound since, well, The ’59 Sound. Fallon visits Milwaukee’s Turner Hall Ballroom on April 18 and Chicago’s House of Blues on April 19.
Listen on: Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal
Son Lux
Brighter Wounds (City Slang)
Ryan Lott has an uncanny ability to make the strange sound majestic. His brainchild, Son Lux, melds elements of post-rock and trip-hop, combining ethereal vocals, grandiose sampling and atmospheric ambience to make songs that sound cinematic in nature. At least that’s the case with Brighter Wounds, Lott’s sixth album under the Son Lux moniker. Tracks like “Dream State” evoke a sort of paranoia, with its repetitive “How do we feel?” closer almost shouting out into the vacuum, earnestly asking for a reaction to a world that seems to be falling apart. Son Lux isn’t out here to cure your anxiety, dread and lethargy, but simply score it. Lott plays Chicago’s Lincoln Hall on March 29.
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