With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new albums from Janelle Monáe, King Krule, Amaarae, Feeble Little Horse, Christine and the Queens, Jess Williamson, Jenny Lewis, Dudu Tassa & Jonny Greenwood, Youth Lagoon, and Aja Monet. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.)
Janelle Monáe: The Age of Pleasure [Wondaland Arts Society/Atlantic]
Janelle Monáe announced a newly liberated era for herself with The Age of Pleasure, her fourth LP and the follow-up to 2018’s Dirty Computer. “I definitely have had an opportunity to evolve and grow and to tap into the things that bring me pleasure, the things that perhaps I should rethink and rework,” Monáe recently told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. The album includes the February single “Float” and the more recently released “Lipstick Lover.” Guests on the LP include Amaarae, Grace Jones, and Doechii.
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Buy at Rough Trade
King Krule: Space Heavy [Matador]
King Krule spent the years between 2020 and 2022 in London and Liverpool penning his new album, Space Heavy. Recorded with producer Dilip Harris, saxophonist Ignacio Salvadores, drummer George Bass, bassist James Wilson, and guitarist Jack Towell, it’s the official follow-up to 2020’s Man Alive! King Krule has said the album was inspired by the idea of “the space between.”
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Listen/Buy at Bandcamp
Buy at Rough Trade
Amaarae: Fountain Baby [Interscope]
Nearly three years since Amaarae’s breakthrough The Angel You Don’t Know, the genre-bending singer returns with Fountain Baby. “I think this is the album that I’ve always dreamed about making, probably since the day I started making music,” she told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. The 14-track album includes the singles “Co-Star” and “Reckless & Sweet,” as well as guests like vocalist Adanna Duru.
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Feeble Little Horse: Girl With Fish [Saddle Creek]
Vocalist Lydia Slocum, guitarist Ryan Walchonski, drummer Jake Kelley, and guitarist and producer Sebastian Kinsler, make up the Pittsburgh rock quartet Feeble Little Horse. Last year, they released their first album, Hayday, and, now, they’re onto their follow-up, Girl With Fish. Read Pitchfork’s review of the single “Tin Man,” along with the Rising interview “Meet Feeble Little Horse, the Young Noise-Pop Band Repping Pittsburgh DIY.”
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Listen/Buy at Bandcamp
Buy at Rough Trade
Christine and the Queens: Paranoïa, Angels, True Love [Because Music]
Christine and the Queens was inspired by the Who’s Tommy when making his new album, Paranoïa, Angels, True Love. “The concept album, the all-encompassing gesture, the prog rock operatic form,” he told the Evening Standard. “So, it became a rock opera about angels!” The new album also serves as “the second part of an operatic gesture that also encompassed 2022’s Redcar les adorables étoiles (prologue),” Chris has said.
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Listen/Buy at Bandcamp
Buy at Rough Trade
Jess Williamson: Time Ain’t Accidental [Mexican Summer]
After taking a detour from her solo work by joining with Katie Crutchfield for last year’s I Walked With You a Ways, Jess Williamson returns with Time Ain’t Accidental. The Texas-reared singer-songwriter recorded the successor to 2020’s Sorceress in North Carolina, developing her songs about finding new love and letting other ones go with twangy arrangements and light, synthetic beats. Williamson previewed the album with “Hunter,” “Chasing Spirits,” and its title track.
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Listen/Buy at Bandcamp
Buy at Rough Trade
Jenny Lewis: Joy’all [Blue Note/Capitol]
Jenny Lewis started unrolling Joy’all with “Puppy and a Truck,” which became a live highlight as she opened for Harry Styles on tour in 2021. The Nashville singer-songwriter drew inspiration from her adopted hometown for her fifth solo album, and she worked with celebrated country producer Dave Cobb on the record. Many of the record’s songs came out of a week-long songwriting workshop led by Beck, “Puppy and a Truck” among them.
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Buy at Rough Trade
Dudu Tassa & Jonny Greenwood: Jarak Qaribak [World Circuit]
In 2009 Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood performed on Dudu Tassa’s album Basof Mitraglim Le’Hakol. Then, in 2017, the Israeli artist opened for Radiohead on tour. Now, in 2023, Dudu Tassa and Jonny Greenwood have reconnected for their joint album, Jarak Qaribak. The new album was mixed by Radiohead collaborator Nigel Goodrich and has guest contributions from singers hailing from across the Middle East.
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Buy at Rough Trade
Youth Lagoon: Heaven Is a Junkyard [Fat Possum]
For a few years, Trevor Powers was just Trevor Powers. The name Youth Lagoon was revived for Heaven Is a Junkyard following a health scare that caused Powers to lose his voice for months. Featuring the singles “Prizefighter” and “Idaho Alien,” Powers describes the new album as “stories of brothers leaving for war, drunk fathers learning to hug, mothers falling in love, neighbors stealing mail, cowboys doing drugs, friends skipping school, me crying in the bathtub, dogs catching rabbits, and children playing in tall grass.”
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Listen/Buy at Bandcamp
Buy at Rough Trade
Aja Monet: When the Poems Do What They Do [Drink Sum Wtr]
Poetry and jazzy live instrumentation meet on Aja Monet’s When the Poems Do What They Do. Raised in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood, she learned the power of poetry at programs throughout the city, as well as at Sarah Lawrence College. Across the album, Monet pays homage to her New York roots and the Black poets who came before her.
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Listen/Buy at Bandcamp
Buy at Rough Trade