10 New Albums to Stream Now: Rolling Stone Editors’ Picks
Neil Young, Hitchhiker
This “buried-treasure mother lode” from Neil Young’s archives, writes David Browne, is “a journey through the past, but far darker.” Young recorded the album’s 10 tracks in a single session on August 10, 1976, and the acoustic tracks include the failed-relationship chronicle “Give Me Strength” as well as a handful of songs that feel “like pointed rejoinders to the whitewashed history offered up during America’s 200th birthday.”
Read Our Review: Neil Young’s Unearthed 1976 Recording ‘Hitchhiker’ Is a Lost Treasure
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Gregg Allman, Southern Blood
“The final album by Gregg Allman,” writes Jon Dolan, “is a moving farewell statement à la twilight masterworks by Leonard Cohen and David Bowie. … Yet while Southern Blood is rich with intimations of mortality, it’s easygoing too, with a laid-back generosity that recalls Allman’s kindest Seventies work – see his warm take on Lowell George’s Southern-rock salvo ‘Willin’.”
Read Our Feature: Inside Gregg Allman’s Musical Farewell
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Thomas Rhett, Life Changes
Pop-country hit machine Thomas Rhett Akins Jr. owes plenty to his dad, Nineties pop-country heartthrob turned 21st-century hit-writer Rhett Akins, who has a winning cameo here on “Drink a Little Beer.” But the prodigal son is his own man on his third LP, name-checking Coldplay and Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road” when he’s not whispering come-ons over club beats (“Leave Right Now”), delivering curveball R&B-tinged heartbreak (“Marry Me”) and smartly co-branding with Maren Morris on “Craving You” – two likable, similarly minded newbies swinging for the fences in a post-Taylor Swift country world. Will Hermes
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The National, Sleep Well Beast
The seventh album from the New York “indie-rock achievers” is “is a disarmingly potent album, not just emotionally but politically as well,” writes Will Hermes.
Read Our Review: The National’s Best LP Yet Haunted by Mordant Beauty, Rattled Paranoia
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Tori Amos, Native Invader
“In these times of deep-rooted national trauma, then, a new album from [Tori Amos] might be exactly what we need,” writes Simon Vozick-Levinson of the singer and composer’s 15th album, which “confronts the harsh vibes of the Trump era” on “one of the most purposeful full-length statements in her quarter-century career.”
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Angelo Badalamenti and others, Twin Peaks (Limited Event Series Original Soundtrack)
A collection of the atmospheric music that shrouded Twin Peaks: The Return in even more mystery; Angelo Badalamenti’s compositions, like his legendary opening-credits music and heartbreaking “Laura’s Theme,” make up the bulk of the album, but other tracks like the David Lynch/Dean Hurley fever dream “Slow 30’s Room” and the frantic “Headless Chicken” by the Lynch/Badalamenti jazz project Thought Gang sustain the series’ off-kilter mood.
Read Our Feature: Why ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ Was the Most Groundbreaking TV Series Ever
Read Our 2014 Interview: Dream Team: The Semi-Mysterious Story Behind the Music of ‘Twin Peaks’
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Living Colour, Shade
“For their sixth album, veteran art-metal crew Living Colour stretch across time and genre for another serving of righteous rage,” writes Christopher R. Weingarten. “Shade folds blues music into their singular crunch, with tracks like ‘Freedom of Expression (F.O.X.)’ and ‘Who’s That’ (with trombone by ex-Dirty Dozen Brass Bander Big Sam Williams) sounding like an alternate 1967 where Otis Redding sang for Cream.”
Read Our Feature: Living Colour Talk Reconnecting With the Blues on First Album in Eight Years
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Sparks, Hippopotamus
Forty-five years into their career, the Mael brothers – Ron on keyboards and programming, Russell on vocals – remain as delightfully oddball as ever, with songs like the hip-shaking “Edith Piaf Said It Better Than Me” and the sweeping “What the Hell Is It This Time?” combining finicky production with surrealistic lyrics and playfully grand choruses.
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Alvvays, Antisocialites
“Alvvays gave us the greatest indie-rock wedding proposal ever with their 2014 classic ‘Archie, Marry Me,’ and Antisocialites is similarly full of fuzzy-guitar beauty and shoegazing romanticism,” writes Jon Dolan.
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Zola Jesus, Okovi
The fifth album by composer and performer Zola Jesus is a brutally up-close look at grief and sadness, its heavy emotions given even more intensity by her stunning, strong voice (she was trained as an opera singer before diving into the post-punk waters) and wall-to-wall instrumentation that includes harsh electronics and overwhelming strings. “Siphon,” written as a plea to a friend who attempted suicide, blooms into a hymn, with the singer intoning over and over, “won’t let you bleed out, can’t let you bleed out” in a voice that knots hope and despair; “Exhumed” pairs her legato vocalizations with hyperspeed beats in a way that resembles a too-fast heartbeat. Maura Johnston
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