Dare I say we are officially back into it when it comes to robust schedules of new album releases. Warped pop songs emerge from collaborative improvisation on The Weather Station’s seventh LP, Humanhood. Teaming up for the third time with producer Ben de Vries, David Gray’s Dear Life is ambitious in scope and reflective in composition. Fresh off her Broadway debut in Hadestown, Yola returns with My Way; the EP points to a bold new direction for the British singer. Featuring soprano Anna Prohaska and narration by Meryl Streep, Rufus Wainwright’s Dream Requiem receives an official release following the opera’s world premiere in Paris last summer.

The first British artist signed to Phoebe Bridgers’s Saddest Factory label, jasmine.4.t make their full-length debut with You Are the Morning, which was produced by Bridgers and her boygenius bandmates. Malian combo Songhoy Blues refine their desert guitar style on their fourth LP, Héritage, moving toward a more acoustic-based style. Colombian singer/producer Ela Minus pulls back from the late-night disco of her 2020 debut on the ethereal DÍA.

Listen for spotlights on new records like these (and more) every week on the XPN Morning Show and Indie Rock Hit Parade.

PRESS PLAY on these new releases

The Weather StationHumanhood
CHECK OUT: “Neon Signs” “Body Moves”

David GrayDear Life
CHECK OUT: “Plus & Minus” “After the Harvest”

YolaMy Way EP
CHECK OUT: “Future Enemies” “Symphony”

Rufus WainwrightDream Requiem
CHECK OUT: “Sequentia V. Confutatis” “Offertorium”

jasmine.4.tYou Are the Morning
CHECK OUT: “Elephant” “You Are the Morning”

Songhoy BluesHéritage
CHECK OUT: “Issa” “Toukambela”

Ela MinusDÍ​A
CHECK OUT: “BROKEN” “UPWARDS”

The PRESS PLAY-list

FURTHER LISTENING

DeliveryForce Majeure, Flora HibberdSwirl, Huxliiodds and ends, but mostly ends, KeleThe Singing Winds Pt. 3, Mac MillerBalloonerism, Rebecca BlackSalvation, Son LuxRisk of Make Believe EP, Sophie JamiesonI still want to share, Steve HackettLive Magic at Trading Boundaries, Television PersonalitiesTune In, Turn On, Drop Out: Radio Sessions 1980-1993, ZORABELLAdonna