In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on August 1, 2025:
The Armed, THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED
The title may trick you, but there’s no concept unifying THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED. That’s refreshing for a notoriously self-mythologizing band like the Armed, but the music is as pulverizing and thrillingly chaotic as ever. And the lack of a thematic framework doesn’t mean there’s no commentary on the state of the world. “It’s music for a statistically wealthy population that somehow can’t afford food or medicine – endlessly scrolling past vacation photos, gym selfies, and images of child amputees in the same feed,” vocalist Tony Wolski commented. “It reflects the dissociation required just to exist in that reality.”
Debby Friday, The Starrr of the Queen of Life
The ethos of Debby Friday’s second album may be summed up by its second track: ‘All I Wanna Do Is Party’. The Canadian experimental musician’s Good Luck follow-up is filled with sweaty, starry-eyed dance songs, but it doesn’t take long for The Starrr of the Queen of Life to veer into darker, shadowy territory, blurring the line between dancefloor escapism and being ‘In the Club’ while illuminating the dangers and possibilities lurking underneath. “This album is about the idea of reaching towards something,” Friday explained. “It’s about seeing the signs and following that impulse, always with the potential of either flying into the sun or falling back to earth.”
Reneé Rapp, Bite Me
Reneé Rapp has dropped her second album, Bite Me. Citing Alanis Morissette, Joan Jett, and Kate Moss as inspirations, Rapp once again worked with Alexander 23, the producer behind Snow Angel, for a set of punchy and irreverent pop songs, with a few R&B ballads rounding out the mix. The singles ‘Leave Me Alone’, ‘Mad’, and ‘Why Are You Still Here’ preceded the LP, which also features collaborators including Omer Fedi, Ryan Tedder, Julian Bunetta, and Carter Lang.
Wisp, If Not Winter
Whether or not it feels like summer where you are, If Not Winter plunges you straight into its gauzy, often tempestuous soundworld. The shoegaze star’s debut album was “inspired by a thriving community of artistic friends, mentors, and collaborators,” according to a press release, while also presenting a medieval fantasy quest that’s a triumph in “experimental cartography.” “I try to put as much emotion as I can into my own music, and I always try to write about something that is true to me and something that I’m feeling,” she told Apple Music. “And that way it doesn’t feel faked or it doesn’t feel ingenuine to my sound.”
Other albums out today:
Nuclear Daisies, First Taste Of Heaven; Ali Sethi, Love Language; Haru Nemuri, Ekkolaptómenos; Blush, Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever; Demahjiae, What Do You Hear When You Pray?; AraabMuzik, Electronic Dream 2; BETWEEN FRIENDS, WOW!; Wolfacejoeyy, Summersongs; Hard Chiller, BABY!; Retail Drugs, rECKless dRIVing; Travis Roberts, Rebel Rose; Mansur Brown, Rihla; Andy Graydon & Klaus Janek, A Book of Waves.
