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 projects from Mannequin Pussy, Schoolboy Q, Faye Webster, Yard Act, Amaro Freitas, That Mexican OT, Staś Czekalski, Ben Frost, and Lelo. 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.)
Mannequin Pussy: I Got Heaven [Epitaph]
Mannequin Pussy returned in riotously anthemic fashion with the title track of I Got Heaven, and the album continues in similar fashion. Frontperson Marisa Dabice said in press materials, “There’s just so much constantly going on that feels intentionally evil that trying to make something beautiful feels like a radical act.” Pitchfork’s Sadie Sartini Garner concurred in an 8.8 review, writing, “It’s hard to imagine an indie-rock record better suited for the moment.”
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Schoolboy Q: Blue Lips [Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope]
Schoolboy Q recruited a number of notable guests—such as Rico Nasty, Lance Skiiiwalker, Freddie Gibbs, Ab-Soul, and Jozzy—for Blue Lips, his first album since 2019’s Crash Talk. He also worked with producers including TaeBeast, Kal Banx, Cardo, DJ Khalil, and J.Lbs. According to a press release, Schoolboy Q made Blue Lips “in a period of self-reflection that at first yielded more questions than answers,” and he’s described the LP as being “about speechlessness.”
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Faye Webster: Underdressed at the Symphony [Secretly Canadian]
Faye Webster reclines ever deeper into her cushy alt-country groove on fifth album Underdressed at the Symphony, named for her impromptu visits, in a difficult year, to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Sometimes the record teeters into yacht rock, full of louche, whistling gusto; elsewhere, fellow Atlantan Lil Yachty appears on “Lego Ring” to bring the pair’s childhood friendship full circle, ad-libbing and harmonizing with Webster’s slackidasical truths.
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Yard Act: Where’s My Utopia? [Republic]
Yard Act made an unlikely breakaway from the British crop of talky post-punks with 2022’s The Overload, collaborating with Elton John (on the “100% Endurance” rework) and crossing the Atlantic for late-night TV spots. That set the scene for their dancier second LP, Where’s My Utopia? The record harnesses the bigger budget to sprawl outwards in every direction, mashing James Smith’s acerbic bar-stool raconteurism into grooves that might evoke Fela Kuti or Beastie Boys, with guests including Gorillaz producer Remi Kabaka Jr., and Rose Matafeo. Read more in Jenessa Williams’ Rising feature “Yard Act Are Seriously Kidding.”
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Amaro Freitas: Y’Y [Psychic Hotline]
Amaro Freitas pays homage to “the forest, especially the Amazon Forest, and the rivers of Northern Brazil,” on Y’Y, which features a crack band of Jeff Parker, Shabaka Hutchings, Brandee Younger, Hamid Drake, and Aniel Someillan. With an eye on the climate crisis, the Brazilian pianist spent time in the Amazon basin to inspire an album of grand, quiet ambition: “a call to live, feel, respect, and care for nature, recognizing it as our ancestor,” as he put it in press materials.
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Staś Czekalski: Przygody [Mondoj]
Staś Czekalski makes puckish electro-acoustic symphonies on Przygody, whose title translates to Adventures. The Warsaw-based composer blends haywire ambient motifs with hypnotic, glitchy rhythms and otherworldly sound design to render a digital fantasyland every bit as charming as the delightful cover art.
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That Mexican OT: Texas Technician [Manifest/GoodTalk/Good Money Global/Capitol]
That Mexican OT follows his breakout album, Lonestar Luchador, with Texas Technician. The new mixtape opens with “02.02.99” and features collaborations with DaBaby, Paul Wall, Z-Ro, Moneybagg Yo, Fredo Bang, and more. Read about That Mexican OT’s “Johnny Dang” at No. 82 on Pitchfork’s “The 100 Best Songs of 2023.”
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Ben Frost: Scope Neglect [Mute]
Ben Frost finds the seam between death metal and wintry ambient on Scope Neglect, his first proper album in seven years. The follow-up to The Centre Cannot Hold mixes looped snatches of disfigured guitar riffs with field recordings, unsteady beats, buzz-saw synths, and sonar recordings of sperm whales, evoking a tectonic landscape that is thunderous yet oddly meditative.
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Lelo: Nightingale [self-released]
Lelo is a young Detroit rapper who’s caught some attention for songs like “Drapes,” “Rob Zombie,” “All Came Down,” and “Terraces.” His new project, Nightingale, features recent tracks “Hughes” and “Flakers,” as well as one named for his and his collaborators’ calling card, “New Detroit.”
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