Paste is the place to kick off each and every New Music Friday. We follow our regular roundups of the best new songs by highlighting the most compelling new records you need to hear. Find the best new albums of the week below, from priority picks to honorable mentions.
Babehoven: Water’s Here in You
Water’s Here in You is the first Babehoven release where Ryan Albert is credited as a co-writer, and the band’s developing partnership helps make the work feel fuller. From its first few moments, Babehoven arrives at the height of their powers. The album opener (and lead single), “Birdseye” is emotionally dense and its vocal melody stays with you. Maya Bon sings about forgiving an ailing family member in their last moments, and though the “one long arrow pointed at you” she sings about is intended to focus that care on them, the line is delivered with a softly threatening intensity—a well-executed balance at soundtracking estrangement. Guitar strums loop hypnotically, giving the song a constant thrum of urgency that simultaneously contrasts Bon’s soft voice while underscoring the intent in her words.
The album’s title is pulled from “My Best Friend Needs,” a song written in response to a friend’s car accident. The titular water is the lifeblood within Babehoven and the track’s inspiration, connecting them as it does to the rest of the world. Bon first sings, “my best friend needs something more than I can give,” and the helpless feeling that can accompany empathy when tragedy strikes is under-discussed. But it’s refreshing to hear a band whose music is this emotionally literate tackle such experiences head-on. And, coming right after “Birdseye” in the tracklist, this admission from Bon feels even more potent. Though songs like these, and the winsome “Lightness is Loud,” suggest a decisive pivot to a more traditional song structure, Babehoven also use much of Water’s Here in You to lean further into ambience. On “Millennia,’’ a deep, humming synthesizer accompanies Bon, and her point-of-view seems to shift to that of an omniscient figure looking out from above at a wrecked land—where she looks down at fires, floods, seas of garbage, Floridian stucco homes and the Cheesecake Factory. “Lonely Cold Seed,” too, is a chilling dose of hymnal indie folk, with a growling bass line stewing between the surface, cymbal crashes echoing out—and Bon’s voice more operatic than ever. —Eric Bennett [Read our full review and full feature]
Charley Crockett: $10 Cowboy
Charley Crockett is a machine, in other words, and that machine has a name: Jukebox Charley – dependable, irresistible and seemingly stocked with an endless supply of terrific tunes. Crockett’s new full-length, $10 Cowboy, adds a dozen more to his arsenal, this time inspired and informed by his extensive travels, first as an itinerant young and more recently as a busy touring act. Crockett’s stories often revolve around hard-living folks, people just scraping by and those on the wrong end of the war on the American dream. In “Hard Luck & Circumstances”—an album highlight—he laments their plight against a gospel-tinged chorus and classic honky-tonk. Elsewhere, Crockett bounces around from sound to sound, mixing country with slinky blues (the title track), searing rock ‘n’ roll (“Solitary Road”), moody pop (“Lead the Way”) and funky horns (“America”). The latter returns to the album’s main theme, expressing both love for and fear of the country he has criss-crossed so many times in his career. “America / You promised / And I’ve been waiting patiently,” he sings as the song soulfully seethes around him. “America / It’s easy / To get lost in this land.” It is heartening to hear Crockett use $10 Cowboy—and his fast-growing platform—to speak up for the little guy; here’s hoping he will continue to do so. His track record tells us he will, and he will do so very effectively. —Ben Salmon
ellis: no place that feels like
Linnea Siggelkow made no place that feels like her way. She produced her previous EP with her Hamiltonian friend, Charlie Spencer, and found that experience so refreshing that she reached out to him again for this record. Spencer is a character in his own right; he endorses lighting the same incense in the studio every day to train your brain to recognize a scent that will spark and nurture creative energy. Where Siggelkow felt like there were opportunities to take risks, she leapt for them. Take “it’ll be alright,” the album’s third single, for example: The song remained in a state of incompletion for a long, long time. Originally, Siggelkow wrote it as a ballad in 6/8 time, but nothing was working quite right. Serendipitously, her friend Derek Hoffman, a professional songwriter in the Canadian pop ecosystem, offered to workshop with her. “Historically, I’ve been really protective of my songs,” she says. “I demo it as far as I can with programmed drums, guitar, synths, and vocals until I am ready to record it properly. I was very nervous to workshop something unfinished with him.” Hoffman suggested bringing the song into 4/4 time and “letting it rock,” which ignited an explosion of creativity that brought the song to completion that very night.
Siggelkow also stepped out of her comfort zone to craft the album’s visuals. “I don’t love making music videos—some people came from theater and this is truly their bag—I’m not that guy. I’m not totally excited to be on camera,” she says. However, with the help of her friend Justin Singer (who’s helped bring Chastity’s songs to life on video), she came up with ideas for videos that would flow into each other, all depicting her winding search for a home she so deeply covets. “At the end of ‘obliterate me,’ I’m in a car; then, in the beginning of ‘what i know now,’ I get out of that car. At the end of ‘what i know now,’ I approach a house, then in the beginning of ‘it’ll be alright,’ i’m in that house, in my best friend’s creepy attic bedroom,” she furthers. The last video, “home,” completes the cycle with a sequence that reinforces the idea that, even if these songs depict wildly different moments in Siggelkow’s life, they’re all connected by emotion, all gesturing towards her search for roots—both physically and metaphorically. —Devon Chodzin [Read our full feature]
Hovvdy: Hovvdy
Charlie Martin and Will Taylor take chances in their songwriting and recording processes, which gets them the well-deserved attention of their peers, but nothing about the end result is haughty or frosty. Hovvdy is the perfect showing of their absorbing but approachable product. It takes a ton of courage to write vulnerably about one’s family. The Texas indie-pop pair take this leap not just on one song but many times throughout Hovvdy. Martin fearlessly wrote “Song For Pete,” which appears on the stacked back-half of the record, for his grandfather—“Papa Pete, the proud father”—on the day he passed away. And on that day, it seems his mind was on not only the friendship and mentorship he found in his grandpa, but also a decades-long marriage for the ages: “An endless love / My grandmother / For 60 years.” Hovvdy is again in awe of an older generation on “Make Ya Proud,” another song Martin wrote in honor of his grandfather.
Much like Lucy Dacus’ “Pillar Of Truth,” it’s about watching a wise loved one fade and wishing there was more time to pick their brain—and thus being forced to consider what life might look like without them and how to best sustain their legacy: “How can I make you proud / Sing you a song, I will.” On “Bad News,” which takes some sonic cues from Hovvdy’s contemporary (and former tourmate) Alex G, the band again chases that ever-dwindling resource of time: “My time is all I have…Our time is all I want.” They’ve always dabbled in country, but on Hovvdy, a sparkling finish of twang and slide guitar has the duo sounding more boldly Southern than before. The scenarios are distinctly Southern, too. On “Big Blue,” there’s a listening party with “Uncle Tim” and his bootleg The Band albums. And on hooky single “Jean,” when things don’t go exactly to plan, there’s a trip five blocks over because “you got a cousin, says he can help me out.” If you have a big family in the South, you might be familiar with both the joys and havoc that a carousel of resourceful cousins can bring. —Ellen Johnson [Read our full review]
Joyer: Night Songs
For fans of Joyer’s previous projects, Night Songs will not be a game-changer. The poking, compressed acoustic guitars of 2020’s Sun Into Flies and the loose, winding melodies of their debut album aren’t hard to find here. Re-teaming with Bradford Krieger, who has produced and mixed projects by Horse Jumper of Love and Squirrel Flower, Night Songs allows for wheezing lap steel guitars, almost-too-clean cymbal hits and wiry textures to crop up at random. Early highlight “777” centers around a sluggish drumbeat, while the swirling melodies of the guitars and vocals unfurl in unison, emphasizing the song’s ever-present heartbreak. “I’ll say that I can be okay with this” closes one verse. Later, “Mason Dixon” offers a similar ambiance, allowing for the satisfaction of leaving for somewhere new to be rendered in widescreen elegance.
It’s worth noting that Night Songs is also the Joyer album with the clearest hooks, leaning into jangle pop in order to propel their anxieties forward. The uptempo “Fall Apart” bursts open with a Ducks Ltd.-esque rhythm, relying upon familiar, jangling textures to introduce things. Right before “Fall Apart” swerves in a different direction, bubblegum pop “doo doos” cut in, countering building tension with Brill Building instincts. “Star” almost conjures heartland rock with its meandering guitar solo, like a lost The War on Drugs demo fronted by someone who grew up on Stephen Malkmus instead of Bruce Springsteen. But each venture towards guitar pop territory brims with assurance, as if Nick and Shane have been nurturing a love for 12-string Rickenbackers this entire time. —Ethan Beck [Read our full review and full feature]
Lost Dog Street Band: Survived
While Survived retains Benjamin Tod’s signature intricate, brooding lyrical style, it often feels lighter than his previous work—a relief from the years of struggle and pain that brought it to be. Pairing guitar and fiddle with mandolin, the album begins with “Brighter Shade,” a love song written for Mae, before descending into requisite darkness in order to emerge on the other side wrapping up with “Survived.” In an homage to the band’s tradition of including a dark waltz on each album, “Survived”—which Tod anoints the best song he’s ever written—ruminates on the nature of and human proclivity for suffering. “Hardship is inevitable. Struggle is inevitable. Suffering is a choice,” he says. As if to illustrate that mantra, between the comfort of “Brighter Shade” and the reckoning of “Survived,” Tod dedicates his life to service in “Lifetime of Work,” eulogizes the crusty characters and tight community from Nashville’s Lower Broadway on “Divine to Be” and celebrates his beloved L&N train line (and the underdogs he rode it with) across “Last Train.” Looking forward to his new home, “Muhlenberg County Line” is Tod’s tribute to the famous county’s musical legends (The Everly Brothers, Merle Travis and John Prine’s “Paradise”) and influence on American music. Descending slowly into darker territory, Tod reminisces about bad decisions and the power of fear with “Son of Tennessee,” reminding himself “It’s hard coming down from all I’ve seen.” —Meredith Lawrence [Read our full feature]
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: FU##IN’ UP
Neil Young’s latest effort with his longtime backing back Crazy Horse is both a new album and an old one. FU##IN’ UP is a spiritual sibling to their 1990 comeback album Ragged Glory, but this time repurposing each track with loose, sprawling, gutteral new edges. At nine songs and 65 minutes, this is the Crazy Horse we all know and love—“Chance on Love” (once called “Love and Only Love”) gets bumped up from 10 minutes to 15, while “Valley of Hearts” (originally “Love to Burn”) also grows from 10 minutes to 13. The album was recorded in November 2023 at a private show in Toronto, and it features longtime Crazy Horse members Nils Lofgren, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina, along with new addition Micah Nelson (son of Willie). Given the long-standing live chops of Young and Crazy Horse, it’s no shock that FU##IN’ UP still manages to give these 30-year-old tunes new signs of life. Look no further than the blistering five minutes of “Broken Circle (“Over and Over”),” where it’s obvious that, if anything is true and good in this world, we can always rely on that signature Neil Young guitar tone. —Matt Mitchell
St. Vincent: All Born Screaming
All Born Screaming, comes accompanied by highly stylized images of St. Vincent’s Annie Clark set against a total darkness that feels primed to swallow her. It’s fitting, as oblivion weighs heavily over every song. The surreal, slippery “Hell Is Near” is unlike anything Clark has done before—and particularly difficult to fully capture with words. Broadly psychedelic, a collage of 12-string guitar, piano and hydra-synth creates a song that feels like its own pocket dimension. Though the title may portend a fiery, eternal punishment, it’s more purgatorial in tone—its abundant distortion spilling over into “Reckless,” a song that opens with a funeral march. Clark prods at the finality of loss, knowing that memory keeps those we’ve lost alive; “Every part of you is in me now / There’s no going back / I breathe you out,” she contends. After a few minutes existing as a dirge, “Reckless” erupts and radar-like synths squeal, programmed drums act as both skittering pests and brute force boots barreling down to quash them as Clark’s voice calls out, lost in it all.
All Born Screaming loses no momentum as the dust settles and “Broken Man” begins. Over the metallic clank of drum machines, Clark breathlessly boasts about how she can “make your kingdom come.” Initially, it’s a sexy, slinky song—something that would have felt right amidst the neon leather tempest of Masseduction—but quickly her demeanor becomes more foreboding and confrontational, and her trademark jagged guitars descend. Dave Grohl takes over on drums, and it becomes something else entirely. It’s a massive song—a series of ideas stacked on top of each other—and, somehow, never topples under its own weight. The concept of collapse, though, runs rampant throughout All Born Screaming. Clark has long written about societal ills, whether they be social media narcissism, widespread vanity or the stifling nature of gender roles. Usually, she observes such topics with an outsider’s wit. On songs like “The Power’s Out” and “Violent Times,” the issues are all-consuming; she can’t escape their grasp. —EB [Read our full review and full Cover Story]
The Lostines: Meet the Lostines
Pairing elements of Motown and Spector-era girl groups with the timelessness of Gulf Coast dancehall and campfire country, the Lostines make love songs and ballads built to last through tongue-in-cheek lyricism, astral harmonies and, above all, a sincerity catalyzed by two voices and a symbiotic, earnest and adoring friendship. Camille Wind Weatherford and Casey Jane Reece-Kaigler aimed to expand their own ensemble and put as much intentionality behind each and every recording—filling out the Lostines sound with 12-string and baritone guitars, lap steel, omnichord, violin, viola and cello, fiddles, organs and tubular bells. The songs stretch out across genres, glueing together snippets of singer-songwriter folk, Southern rock, Cajun, country, bluegrass and, even, dream pop. While the songs on Meet the Lostines make stops in Los Angeles, Texas, Denver, Portland and Nashville, the Mississippi River, the Industrial Canal and Camille and Casey Jane’s friendship remains the magnetic, beautiful core. I listen to these tracks and it sounds like not just an entire lifetime playing out across an hour, but an entire lifetime shared between two people. They’ve been singing together for such a long time now that the harmonies come naturally and, though the Lostines didn’t consciously set out to make an album about their friendship, it was impossible for the sonic composite of the energy surrounding the album to not mirror the chemistry Camille and Casey Jane have long shared with each other in music and beyond it. —MM [Read our full feature]
Other Notable New Album Releases This Week: Bullion: Affection; Corridor: Mimi; Eric Slick: New Age Rage; Fat White Family: Forgiveness is Yours; Full of Hell: Coagulated Bliss; Glassing: From the Other Side of the Mirror; Iron & Wine: Light Verse; Justice: Hyperdrama; Microwave: Let’s Start Degeneracy; Mister Goblin: Frog Poems; Nisa: Shapeshifting; Owen: The Falls of Sioux; Parsnip: Behold; Pet Shop Boys: Nonetheless; The Zutons: The Big Decider