Remember Your North Star by Yaya Bey
Yaya Bey is one of R&B’s most exciting storytellers and her new album, Remember Your North Star captures this emotional rollercoaster with a fusion of soul, jazz, reggae, afrobeat and hip-hop that feeds the soul. Her knack for storytelling is best displayed in the album’s lead single, “keisha”. It’s an anthemic embodiment of fed-up women everywhere who have given their all in a relationship, yet their physical body nor spiritual mind could never be enough. Bey’s ability to tap into the emotionally kaleidoscopic nature of women, specifically Black women, is the essence of the entire album. With themes of misogynoir, unpacking generational trauma, carefree romance, parental relationships, women empowerment, and self-love, Remember Your North Star proves that the road to healing isn’t a linear one – there are many lessons to gather along the journey. The raw, unfiltered approach threads ‘Remember Your North Star’. “big daddy ya” finds the artist tapping into her inner rapper, channeling the too-cool and confident factor that artists like Megan Thee Stallion and City Girls are well-known for. “reprise” captures women’s exhaustion everywhere, with its lyrical tug-of-war of bettering oneself while trying to cut yourself off from toxic relationships. There’s also “alright” (co-produced by Aja Grant), a soothing, jazz-inspired ditty that showcases Bey’s love for the genre’s icons like Billie Holiday, while the carefree “pour up” highlights the artist’s friendship with DJ Nativesun (the song’s producer) and will immediately rush hips to the dancefloor. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
Source: Ninja Tune
Sometimes, Forever by Soccer Mommy
Sometimes, Forever, the immersive and compulsively replayable new Soccer Mommy full-length, cements Sophie Allison’s status as one of the most gifted songwriters making rock music right now. The album finds Sophie broadening the borders of her aesthetic without abandoning the unsparing lyricism and addictive melodies that made earlier songs so easy to obsess over. To support her vision Sophie enlisted producer Daniel Lopatin, whose recent credits include the Uncut Gems movie score and The Weeknd’s Dawn FM. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
Source: Loma Vista Recordings
Drill Music in Zion by Lupe Fiasco
Twisting and contorting the English language to fit the meter and his every whim, Lupe Fiasco uses his superb lyrical skill to process the changing world in which he lives on new album Drill Music In Zion. Armed with Soundtrakk's soulful sounds, Lupe creates a focused statement that reflects on the past and paves a way forward, preaching strength through mindfulness and self-sustaining community. His first new album since 2018's Drogas Wave, Drill Music in Zion marks the start of another chapter in Lupe's illustrious career. The proud Chicago native has already had a busy 2022, marked with sold-out shows, new music, and much more. Lupe recently closed out his "Food & Liquor Tour," a series of performances in which he plays his debut album in full. He paid tribute to his hometown in the reflective, self-produced "100 Chicagos," and dug into the archives to share "Hustlaz," a previously-unreleased song originally recorded before the release of the now-classic debut album Food & Liquor. Beyond music, Lupe continues to focus on the community organizations he founded, including We Are M.U.R.A.L, The Neighborhood Start-Up Fund, Society of Spoken Art, and his cross-cultural content venture, Studio SV. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
Source: 1st and 15th
Ramon by Caleb Nichols
Like a musical multivitamin, Caleb Nichols’ music weaves together the experience of a micro-mushroom-dosed pizza for your gay date night with the magnesium/iron combo of queer comedy and tragedy. A childhood Beatles fascination grows well next to the sounds of the golden state, weaving vivid guitar into operatic commentary veiled in a true California partly-cloudy forecast. In their newest album, Ramon,” Nichols queers a canonical musical figure, using theatrical lyrics to paint vignettes of white rabbit adventures and very real social pressures all within a DIY ethos. "You learn early on that no one is going to do it for you, or that what you are wanting to see or hear doesn’t exist, so you need to do it yourself with your friends." Each track is a three to four-minute romp inside a specific emotion, playing out theatrical puzzle pieces that build on each other’s sounds. There’s so much to be said about the perfectly fuzzed strings and how they fit seamlessly into powerfully catchy lyrics, versatile and relevant percussion, etc. There’s also so much to say about how fun it is to just listen to it happen. Their work touches on sounds that might feel homey to those of us who have been listening to the likes of Kill Rock Stars’ Elliott Smith, bounces distinctly off of the 1960’s technicolor daisy of the British Invasion and matures into Nichols’ specific artistry. It’s intricate, cathartic work made by and for the people who need it. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
Source: Kill Rock Stars
The Devil Has Texas by Plato III
The specter of Abilene, Texas haunts the entirety of Plato III’s Polyvinyl debut, The Devil Has Texas. “Wherever on the map I be, my soul stay stuck in Abilene,” belts Plato III, alongside the strained voice of American Football's Mike Kinsella – Plato III's newfound label mate, who leads the album's opening with a cover of Daniel Johnston's "Spirit World Rising." It's an unhinged ode that tumbleweeds into a realm of crabgrass browning under desolate skies, pitbulls slobbering behind rusted fences, and doomed trailer park pipe dreams. Welcome to West Texas. Plato III fuses nimble bars with outlaw anthem guitars to guide us down the dusty streets and empty plains of his hometown. “Summertime I was barefooted on the asphalt, Southwest, and Catclaw, running into buildings, Where I’m from the only way of making millions is a scratch-off,” he spits on the fire-breathed single “Give ‘Em Hell.” Southwest and Catclaw is the intersection where Plato III used to roam shirtless as a kid, a bean burrito in his hand when he could afford it, while his mother pulled double-shifts at Skinny’s, a regional convenience store. “Crenshaw Boulevard is famous because rappers from LA mentioned it,” Plato III says. “I had streets too, and they meant a lot to us.” The result is an album that bumps just as hard riding in the bed of a rusty pickup as it does cruising down Sunset Blvd. in a Benz. “It's Alright, It's Okay” is a dreamy pop track that reimagines emo from the perspective of a systematically oppressed Black man. The album’s features come from local artists Merk, MoneyM!ll$, Blasé, 333-WISH, and Mickey Matta. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
Source: Polyvinyl Records
Farm to Table by Bartees Strange
Bartees Strange releases his 4AD debut album Farm To Table with the single “Co-Signs” – a braggadocious indie-trap banger name-checking collaborators including Bon Iver, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. Opening by way of club-ready bass and 808s and Heartbreaks autotune, the hip hop flavor rapidly ascends to a euphoric, epic indie rock crescendo – showing off Bartees’ wide musical appeal. Where his 2020 debut record Live Forever introduced the experiences and places that shaped Bartees (Flagey Brussels, Mustang Oklahoma), Farm to Table zeros in on the people – specifically his family – and those closest to him on his journey so far. With his career firmly on the ascent, Farm to Table examines Bartees’ constantly shapeshifting relationship with life post-Live Forever. It also speaks to a deeper lore that says, don’t forget where you came from, and this album is why. Always remembering where he came from, across 10 songs Bartees is celebrating the past, moving towards the future, and fully appreciating the present. To stream the album visit, Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, or purchase on Bandcamp.
Source: 4AD
