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 and mixtapes from Low, Kacey Musgraves, Matthew E. White, Amyl and the Sniffers, Tony Seltzer, Sarah Davachi, AZ, and Lawrence English. 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.)
Low: Hey What [Sub Pop]
Low’s new Hey What arrives almost exactly three years after the long-running Minnesota outfit’s previous album Double Negative. Now operating as a duo, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker returned to work with producer BJ Burton for Hey What. They rolled out a string of singles—“Disappearing,” “More,” and “Days Like These”—with new music videos over the summer. Read Pitchfork’s interview with Sparhawk, “Low Still Don’t Sound Like Anyone Else.”
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Kacey Musgraves: Star-Crossed [Interscope/UMG Nashville]
Kacey Musgraves charted the bubbly highs of intense love with 2018’s Golden Hour, but Star-Crossed spells out the dark clouds and lingering aches that accompany a divorce. Musgraves has described the record as “a modern-day tragedy in three acts,” covering 15 tracks and drawing from new experiences with psilocybin mushrooms. She released the title track and “Justified” ahead of the record’s arrival. The album also has a film counterpart on Paramount+ that features Princess Nokia, Eugene Levy, and more.
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Matthew E. White: K Bay [Domino]
K Bay is the third full-length solo record from Matthew E. White, arriving more than five years after White’s Fresh Blood. Following collaborative albums with Lonnie Holley and Flo Morrissey, the singer-songwriter, bandleader, and producer digs into busy arrangements heavily influenced by soul, funk, and dub music. The record takes its title from White’s home studio in Richmond, Virginia.
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Amyl and the Sniffers: Comfort to Me [ATO/Rough Trade]
Amyl & the Sniffers assembled much of their new LP while living together in Melbourne, Australia during the pandemic last year. Comfort to Me is the outfit’s second record, following their 2019 self-titled debut. “It’s me shadow-boxing on stage, covered in sweat, instead of sitting quietly in the corner,” bandleader Amy Taylor said of the album in July.
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Tony Seltzer: Hey Tony [self-released]
New York producer Tony Seltzer has worked with Mike, Princess Nokia, Wiki, Lil Tjay, and many others. His new mixtape, Hey Tony, showcases Eartheater, Lil Ugly Mane, Key!, Hawa, WifiGawd, and more. Check out the new music video for Seltzer and Mavi’s “WYD.”
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Sarah Davachi: Antiphonals [Late Music]
After releasing an essay collection, the full-length Cantus, Descant, and more in 2020, composer and multi-instrumentalist Sarah Davachi is back again with the new Antiphonals. She recorded the eight-song project herself across 2020 in Los Angeles, threading together piano, pipe organ, harpsichord, electric organ, and a many-timbred Mellotron.
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AZ: Doe or Die II [Quiet Money]
A quarter-century and seven studio records after his debut album Doe or Die, celebrated Brooklyn rapper AZ is back with the sequel. The follow-up to 2009’s Legendary features Idris Elba, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Dave East, and T-Pain.
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Lawrence English: Observation of Breath [Hallow Ground]
Composer and Room40 label head Lawrence English turned to Charlemagne Palestine’s concept of “maximal minimalism” for his new album of organ compositions. He completed most of the project at the Old Museum in his home city of Brisbane, Australia. The four-part album concludes with its 20-minute title piece.
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