In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on April 18, 2025:
Julien Baker and TORRES, Send a Prayer My Way
Julien Baker and TORRES have released their first collaborative album, Send a Prayer My Way. A country-inspired record that’s been in the works since the singer-songwriters met in 2016, it was preceded by the singles ‘Bottom of a Bottle’, ‘Tuesday’, ‘Sylvia’, and ‘Sugar in the Tank’. The albumless concerned with reclaiming the genre’s traditions than reframing enduring themes of shame, betrayal, and heartache through a new, resilient lens and – more importantly – in good company. It’s an embrace, not some kind of reappraisal, which can make the ice thaw faster and devastating times, God willing, less so. Read the full album review.
Tunde Adebimpe, Thee Black Boltz
Thee Black Boltz, the debut solo LP by TV on the Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe, has arrived. Electrifying, immediate, and often defiantly hopeful, the record includes the previously released singles ‘Magnetic’, ‘Drop’, ‘God Knows’, and ‘Somebody New’. It was co-produced with Wilder Zoby, who also executive produced it, features additional production and contributions from Jaleel Bunton and Jahphet Landis (of TV on the Radio), among others. Making it “was my way of building a rock or a platform for myself in the middle of this fucking ocean,” Adebimpe explained. “The sparks of inspiration/motivation/ hope that flash up in the midst of (and sometimes as a result of) deep grief, depression or despair. Sort of like electrons building up in storm clouds clashing until they fire off lightning and illuminate a way out, if only for a second.”
Beirut, A Study of Losses
Zach Condon’s latest release as Beirut is an 18-track odyssey commissioned by the Swedish circus Kompani Giraff for an acrobatic stage show of the same name. An interpretation of Verzeichnis einiger Verluste, a book by German author Judith Schalansky, A Study of Losses circles through 11 songs and seven extended instrumental themes, named after the lunar seas and informed by the story of a man obsessed with documenting all of humanity’s lost thoughts and creations. Though appropriately mournful, it’s in many ways a departure from the chilling atmosphere of 2023’s Hadsel, buoyed by string arrangements from cellist Clarice Jensen. “When I was first approached about writing a soundtrack for a circus, a certain amount of ‘Elephant Gun’ era trauma initially came rushing up,” Condon admitted. “I had been pigeon-holed for years as a whimsical circus waif, full of sepia-toned images of penny farthings and perhaps lion tamers with handlebar moustaches. It couldn’t have been further from how I pictured the music I was making. Ironic then, that I found Kompani Giraff’s project so enticing.”
quickly, quickly, I Heard That Noise
quickly, quickly – the project of Portland, Oregon, artist Graham Jonson – has followed up his impressive 2021 debut The Long and Short of It. Johnson initially conceived of what would become I Heard That Noise as a folk album before his penchant for experimentation naturally bore its influence, and the results are strikingly varied and evocative. Jonson likens the unpredictable shifts and bursts of distortion in his songs to “jump scares” in horror films. “Experimenting with the idea of being comfortable, and then some crazy shit flies at you,” he said, “takes you out of it for a second, and then maybe brings you back in.”
Mozzy, Intrusive Thoughts; CHIME OBLIVION, CHIME OBLIVION; Superheaven, Superheaven; Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson, What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow; The Convenience, Like Cartoon Vampires; Melvins, Thunderball; ZORA, Z D A Y; Divide and Dissolve, Insatiable; Heavy Lungs, Caviar; Fotoform, Grief Is a Garden (Forever In Bloom); Davido, 5ive; Hieroglyphic Being, Dance Music 4 Bad People; Mayday Parade, Sweet; Adrian Younge, Something About April III; King Kraken, March of the Gods; Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto, Electric War; Tony Holiday, Keep Your Head Up; Lucy Railton, Blue Veil; Tennota, Rosa Anschütz, Tornamented Walls.
