In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on May 16, 2025:
Tune-Yards, Better Dreaming
Tune-Yards are back with a new album, Better Dreaming, out now via 4AD. Effortlessly funky, occasionally downcast, and lyrically pointed, it finds Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner returning to making music primarily as a duo; most of the songs were built around Garbus’ drum looping, as they were on early albums such as BiRd-BrAiNs and W H O K I L L. “Making art in this day and age for me is a battle for focus; we’re in an age of interruption,” Garbus remarked.
Friendship, Caveman Wakes Up
Philadelphia band Friendship have released a new album, Caveman Wakes Up, their second for Merge Records. The record – bleary, somber, and diaristically evocative – started taking shape in the summer of 2023; frontman Dan Wriggins had just left the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and the breakdown of a relationship led him to crash for several weeks at Jake Lenderman and Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman’s home in North Carolina. Joined by guitarist Peter Gill, drummer Michael Cormier-O’Leary, and bassist Jon Samuels, Wriggins returned to Philly to lay down the album in five days with engineer Jeff Ziegler (Mary Lattimore, War on Drugs). He tracked vocals with engineer Bradford Kreiger, while organ, violin (Jason Calhoun), and flute (Adelyn Strei) were recorded by Lucas Knapp in a West Philadelphia church. The singles ‘All Over the World’ and ‘Resident Evil’ arrived ahead of the release.
spill tab, ANGIE
We first featured spill tab in our Artist Spotlight series back in 2021; several years and EPs later, the Korean-French singer-songwriter has dropped her debut album, ANGIE. Working with collaborators including David Marinelli, Solomonophonic, Wyatt and Austin and John DeBold, her playful versatility continues to shine through. “I love this collection of songs so deeply,” Claire Chicha shared, “they feel more honest than anything I’ve created in a long time, and I’m so proud of the hundreds (thousands??) of hours that were spent writing, producing, chipping away at vocals, tightening up harmonies, re-writing bass lines, deleting entire sections, coming up with completely new ones, with all the the insane collaborators that worked on this project. It’s really special to hear all these experiences on love and loss, rejection and passion, walking away and holding on too tight, all coexisting together in one place: a cumulation of these last few years of my life.”
Billy Nomates, Metalhorse
Tor Maries has returned with her third album as Billy Nomates, Metalhorse. The follow-up to 2023’s CACTI was once again co-produced with James Trevascus. Joyful and persistent, it’s described by Maries as a concept record. “Whether it’s real or not is up to the listener, but to me Metalhorse is this crumbling fairground where some rides are nice to get on and some rides aren’t,” Maries explained. “That’s how life felt for a minute, and it still feels like that a bit now.” She added, “From the second I started working on this album, every other month has brought this massive life shift that has either been weirdly magical and brilliant, or quite the opposite. What I’m really looking for, now, is something in between.”
Pelican, Flickering Resonance
Chicago post-metal outift have dropped Flickering Resonance, their first album in six years. Recorded by longtime collaborator Sanford Parker, it marks the return of founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec after a ten-year sabbatical. “When Laurent left and we were able to carry it through, there became a real sense of gratitude for the fact we still have this artistic outlet and a community of people who want to support it,” Shelley de Brauw said in press materials. The singles ‘Pining for Ever’, ‘Indelible’, and ‘Cascading Crescent’ preceded the release.
Triathalon, Funeral Music
Triathalon — the New York-based trio of Adam Intrator, Chad Chilton, and Hunter Jayne — have through with their fifth album, Funeral Music, via Lex Records. The group wrote, recorded, and mixed the recorded in various bedrooms, studios, and houses over the span of two years, resulting in some of their most dynamic, and darkest, songs to date. The phrase “play this at my funeral” kept coming up throughout the process, hence the album’s title.
Other albums out today:
Lido Pimienta, La Belleza; Rico Nasty, LETHAL; Shanti Celeste, Romance; Artificial Go, Musical Chairs; Grails, Miracle Music; Ezra Furman, Goodbye Small Head; M(h)aol, Something Soft; Slow Mass, Low on Foot; R2R Moe, Road 2 Riches, Vol. 1; The Gotobeds, Masterclass; Water Damage, Instruments; Morgan Wallen, I’m The Problem; Aminé, 13 Months of Sunshine; Your Grandparents, The Dial; Chuckyy, I Live, I Die, I Live Again; Sofi Tukker, Butter; Jin, Echo; Peter Doherty, Felt Better Alive; David Handler, Life Like Violence; Nicole Lawrence, Time in Love; Yuno, Blest; Arm’s Length, There’s A Whole World Out There; Taz Modi, Involuntary Memories.
