In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on December 8, 2023:
Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday 2
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- TIDAL
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- Apple Music
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The sequel to Nicki Minaj’s 2010 debut album Pink Friday has arrived. Clocking in at an hour and 10 minutes with a total of 22 tracks, Pink Friday 2 features guest appearances from Drake, J. Cole, Lil Wayne, Tate Kobang, Lourdiz, Lil Uzi Vert, Skillibeng, Skeng, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, and Future. The opening track, ‘Are You Gone Already’, samples Billie Eilish’s ‘When the Party’s Over’. “When I look back at a lot of my music, I’m like, Oh, my God, where was the me in it?” Minaj said in a recent interview with Vogue. “So, for this album, I went back to the old game plan.”
Tate McRae, THINK LATER
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- TIDAL
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- Apple Music
- Physical
Tate McRae has released her sophomore album, THINK LATER, via RCA Records. Co-executive produced with Ryan Tedder, the LP features the previously released hit single ‘greedy’. “Writing this whole thing was one of the most stressful, exciting, nerve racking, and fun things I’ve ever gone through,” McRae wrote on Instagram. “For the first time in my life I lived this year a little less with my head and a little more with my intuition – and I rlly hope u guys can feel that through the music. Through the biggest highs of my life to the lowest of lows – I feel so happy that it is now gonna be yours <3 here’s to 20 years old and figuring [out] who the fuck i am haha.”
Bory, Who’s a Good Boy
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- Apple Music
Who’s a Good Boy is the debut LP from Bory, the project of singer-songwriter Brenden Ramirez. Out now via Earth Libraries imprint Earth Worms, the album was recorded and produced by frequent collaborator Mo Troper. Following 2021’s Sidelined EP, it spans 11 tracks, including the previously released ‘End of the World’, ‘We Both Won’, and ‘Five-Course Meal’.
James Elkington, Me Neither
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- Apple Music
- Physical
British-born, Chicago-based guitarist and vocalist James Elkington has issued his latest album, Me Neither. It’s composed of a series of 29 brief instrumental pieces, which he describes as “library music.” “I’d improvise and record the first thing that came into my head, quickly record something else on top of that, try to add some random elements, edit it and mix it, then stop before it had the chance to get stale,” Elkington said in press materials. “The only rules I gave myself were that I should make most of the sounds with a guitar, changing the speed or processing of the recordings afterwards to get the effect I was looking for. I think I was hoping it would sound more like how electronic music sounded when it was mostly made from tape-manipulation in the ‘50s and ‘60s.”
body / negative, everett
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- Bandcamp
- Spotify
- Apple Music
body / negative – the solo project of multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Andy Schiaffino – has put out a new LP, everett, via Track Number Records. Following 2019’s Epoche and 2020’s Fragments, the LP was mastered by Slowdive’s Simon Scott, while Midwife’s Madeline Johnston co-produced the tracks ‘sleepy’, ‘ataraxia’, and ‘everett’. everett was initially set to be recorded in Midwife’s studio in Las Cruces, New Mexico, but Schiaffino ended up recording most of it themselves after their father fell terminally ill and entered hospice care. The artist has dedicated the album in its entirety to their late mother and father.
Other albums out today:
Jerskin Fendrix, Poor Things (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack); Breeze, Sour Grapes; Have Mercy, Numb; Neil Young, Before and After.