Happiness Anytime
Leon Bridges
Album · 12 songs · 38 min
His fifth album, and the release this column had been building toward.
Friday, September 253 picks
Leon Bridges’ Happiness Anytime arrives today, the soul album this weekly ritual has been pointing at for weeks.
Hope Is A Heavy Thing
Joy Oladokun
Album · 12 songs · 39 min
Warm, melodic singer-songwriter.
Canyon Falls Trailer Band
Ian Noe
Album · 16 songs · 58 min
Storytelling singer-songwriter, on the Sept 25 slate.
Friday, September 185 picks
Echo & the Bunnymen’s first new songs in over a decade head a big Friday slate.
Apples For Isaac
Echo & the Bunnymen
Album · 11 songs · 37 min
Their first album of newly written songs in over a decade.
Melodie
Slow Pulp
Album · 11 songs · 33 min
Warm, fuzzed-out Chicago indie rock.
Pylon
beabadoobee
Album · 14 songs · 41 min
Her fourth album: fuzz-pop with real hooks.
Ride Lonesome
Beck
Album · 12 songs · 48 min
Album #14, and reviewers are treating it as a return to form.
The Old Beloved Path
Jake Xerxes Fussell
Album · 9 songs · 33 min
The folk scholar’s folk singer: ancient tunes, warm delivery.
Friday, September 116 picks
Jhené Aiko returns after 6 years, Pokey LaFarge serves retro Americana, and The Tubs deliver jangle-folk brilliance.
Westside Whimsy
Jhené Aiko
Album · 20 songs · 56 min
Her first album in six years, with a Kendrick Lamar verse on “So Good.”
Rent Money
Pokey LaFarge
Album · 11 songs · 36 min
Retro-Americana grooves on his own label.
Hard Life
The Tubs
Album · 12 songs · 42 min
The Tubs’ third album, which MOJO gave five stars.
Anatomy Of A Brief Romance
Bloc Party
Album · 14 songs · 49 min
The Irish Times calls it “infectious, emotive and hook-laden.”
Here Because of Hope
Ezra Collective
Album · 17 songs · 63 min
The Mercury Prize winners trace Black music from West Africa to London.
Not Bad for New Jersey
Brian Fallon
Album · 11 songs · 38 min
The Gaslight Anthem frontman’s solo record, with Brandon Flowers.
Friday, September 42 picks
Medium Build’s alt-country breakthrough and Paris Paloma’s folk-pop second act.
King of Having Fun
Medium Build
Album · 14 songs · 40 min
Warm, personal storytelling with real grit and emotional rawness.
The Fatal Flaw
Paris Paloma
Album · 12 songs · 48 min
Folk-pop, indie rock and baroque pop, sometimes within a single song.
Friday, August 285 picks
Alabama Shakes return after 11 years, Badu x Alchemist, and Billy Strings all drop new albums today.
I Must Be Dreaming
Alabama Shakes
Album · 11 songs · 48 min
Psychedelic soul and blues-rock: Alabama Shakes’ first album in 11 years.
Before The World Blows
Erykah Badu & The Alchemist
Album · 16 songs · 63 min
Erykah Badu’s first full-length since 2010, produced entirely by The Alchemist.
So Much For Goodbyes
Billy Strings
Album · 16 songs · 75 min
Produced by T Bone Burnett and dedicated to his late mother.
Wowed Out
Jim James
Album · 10 songs · 37 min
The My Morning Jacket frontman’s first solo album in 8 years.
Sanctuary Park
The Jayhawks
Album · 11 songs · 41 min
The Jayhawks’ 12th album, reunited with producer Bob Ezrin.
Friday, August 143 picks
Bridgers’ Lost Weekend, Hovvdy’s Big World, and Carly Simon’s Comes in Waves all drop today.
Lost Weekend
Phoebe Bridgers
Album · 16 songs · 53 min
Phoebe Bridgers’ first solo album in six years.
Big World
Hovvdy
Album · 12 songs · 36 min
The Fire Note calls it “warm indie rock” where Hovvdy trusts “instinct over perfection.”
Comes In Waves
Carly Simon
Album · 12 songs · 43 min
Carly Simon’s first new original songs in 18 years.
This page grows every Friday: each run adds what it found. Every album here was checked on Sep 30: the same album, song for song, on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. The notes are the agent’s own reasons for each pick.