In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on August 8, 2025:
Ethel Cain, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You
Ethel Cain‘s new album is billed as the prequel to her 2022 breakthrough Preacher’s Daughter, a debut album that served as the beginning of a trilogy following three generations of women. If Willoughby Tucker “closes the chapter” on Anhedönia’s alter ego, as she has claimed, it’s an unwaveringly tender and astounding portrait, caught between nostalgia and dreams of violence, tangled yet steadfast in its romantic beliefs. And while she has framed the ambient-leaning Perverts as a standalone project, it also acts as a musical bridge to the new album, which balances her atmospheric and narrative world-building. Cain can’t help but draw a line from love straight to death, but not without submerging herself in it. Read the full review.
Ada Lea, when i paint my masterpiece
Ada Lea’s new album, when i paint my masterpiece, emerged from a period of burnout, during which the singer-songwriter took a break from music to focus on painting, poetry, and teaching. She found ways to practice her love of songwriting that weren’t reliant on music industry expectations, leading to a collection of unburdened, intimate, and free-associative songs, several of which are up there with her best. It was previewed by the singles ‘midnight magic’, ‘something in the wind’, and ‘baby blue frigidaire mini fridge’.
Amaarae, Black Star
Amaarae is back with Black Star, a recklessly hedonistic and radiant follow-up to 2023’s Fountain Baby. On the early single ‘Girlie-Pop!’, the Ghanaian American artist sings about leaning genres into pop, a principle she applies to a variety of dance styles ranging from baile funk to Eurodance, ampiano to techno. The record boasts guest spots from PinkPantheress, Naomi Campbell, Charlie Wilson, Bree Runway, and Starkillers.
Gordi, Like Plasticine
Gordi’s third album, Like Plasticine, has arrived. “Today, as I finally set this album free, I am reminded of its beginning,” Sophie Payten reflected in a press release. “Deep in the middle of the pandemic I began writing the songs that would make up Like Plasticine, wondering what the purpose of music was at all. I tried to stop thinking and just feel. When I look back on that time now, sitting in Phoenix Central Park surrounded by things I could make music with, I see ‘Like Plasticine’ arriving as though it was a fire hydrant erupting. Everything we try to contain comes out one way or another. So when you listen to this record, un-contain yourself, stop thinking, and just feel.”
Humour, Learning Greek
Humour’s debut album is as fiercely heartfelt as it is surrealist, full of dreamlike hooks and tender revelations. “I don’t think the album needs or should be interpreted as being about Greece or learning the language or anything to do with that,” frontman Andreas Christodoulidis explained in our Artist Spotlight interview. “I liked the idea of learning Greek meaning exploring the past, exploring memories and nostalgia and fragments of memory and identity. For me, it’s not so much about the language particularly, but coming back to the past and the building blocks of yourself.”
Teethe, Magic of the Sale
While Magic of the Sale feels like a significant upgrade from Teethe’s self-titled debut, the band didn’t mess with their approach too much. They worked in separate rooms spread between Dallas and Austin, uploading demos and musical bits in a shared folder, before vocalist Boone Patrello edited it all together over four painstaking months. Co-vocalist Madeline Dowd, who painted the cover of their first album, also painted the new one’s cover art. As lushly atmospheric as it is melodic, the record features contributions from Hovvdy’s Charlie Martin, Xandy Chelmis of Wednesday/MJ Lenderman, Logan Hornyak of Melaina Kol, and Emily Elkin cello.
Wombo, Danger in Fives
Danger in Fives, the third album by Wombo, is eerie, jagged, and entrancing. The Louisville band introduced more digital texture and drum machines this time around, aiming to “get away from a results mindset, where it’s about producing things for a certain expectation instead of doing it all for the joy of exploring,” per guitarist Cameron Lowe. They also explored different writing techniques, balancing wackiness with genuine emotion. Vocalist/bassist Sydney Chadwick added, “I don’t want to be in a band that’s confined to one form of writing. Where’s the fun and the creativity and the exploration in that? You have to push yourself and try something new.”
For Those I Love, Carving the Stone
In writing the second For Those I Love album, Dublin producer and songwriter David Balfe ran the risk of re-traumatizing. As lyrically dense and heartrending as his award-winning debut, Carving the Stone focuses on working-class life, gathering observations and thoughts he had while walking around his home city. “I was just trying to work away on myself,” he said of the album’s title, which referenced a turn of phrase he often used when asked how the album was going. “There were the practicalities of the long recovery from the years that preceded the inspiration for the first album. I felt like I was just trying to
work away on myself while having an idea of what I was trying to uncover.”
Other albums out today:
The Black Keys, No Rain, No Flowers; No Joy, Bugland; Phil Elverum & Arrington de Dionyso, GIANT OPENING MOUTH ON THE GROUND; Machine Gun Kelly, Lost Americana; Anamanaguchi, Anyway; No Joy, Bugland; Gunna, The Last Wun; Roc Marciano & DJ Premier, The Coldest Profession; OSEES, Abomination Revealed at Last; J.I.D., God Does Like Ugly; Field Medic, Surrender Instead; Big Freedia, Pressing Onward; Sinsaenum, In Devastation; Mechatok, Wide Awake; blood pact scout, to live slowly, without fear of its consequences.
