New music Fridays: Bill Callahan, fka twigs

“Doomtown,” NOBRO 

It’s nice to put on a party punk song and scream away your problems for a few minutes, but those problems usually come back sometime after the last chord. Instead, “DOOMTOWN,” the explosive new single from Montreal outfit NOBRO, sits with its angst, inviting both the band and their listeners to do battle with their personal demons. “Like all of us wrestling with the stinging, senseless pain of existence, they have to feel their way out—and that’s exactly what they’re going to do,” a statement about the churning single reads. “DOOMTOWN” is the band’s first release since their 2023 album Set Your Pussy Free won a Juno Award (aka a Canadian Grammy), and it’s a hell of a return. [Emma Keates]

Finally Over It, Summer Walker

In 2019, Summer Walker was Over It; in 2021, she was Still Over It; in 2025, she is Finally Over It, which suggests she might not have been quite as over it in the first place as she wanted us to believe. With the third and final entry into the trilogy, Walker created a double album, split into a “For Better” half and a “For Worse” half. “For Better” is lush and notably indebted to the best of 1990s/early 2000s R&B; within the first few tracks, Walker flips samples from Beyoncé’s “Yes” and Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby.” In the “For Worse” section, Walker taps rappers like Sexyy Red, GloRilla, 21 Savage, and more for a section that’s a bit higher energy with tracks like “Baller,” but no less lush. [DG] 

High Up In The Trees, The Webstirs

There’s more to High Up In The Trees, the seventh album from Chicago indie rockers The Webstirs, than meets the eye. Twinkly bop “Roulette,” for example, is “actually based on a childhood friend who’s in prison for accidentally killing someone in a game of Russian roulette,” vocalist Preston Pisellini revealed in a statement. The album is also underscored by another tragic event: the death of Fountains Of Wayne frontman Adam Schlesinger, who died of COVID in 2020 and whose influence can be heard across “Roulette” and fellow lead single, “When It’s Gone.” “He was a brilliant songwriter,” Pisellini said, sharing that he “[wrote] a couple of tunes as an attempt to pay him some tribute.” What isn’t under the surface in this album, however, is its catchy hooks and satisfying, multi-part harmonies, honed over the band’s nearly three-decade career. [EK]

Eusexua Afterglow, fka twigs

It hasn’t even been a year since fka twigs’ last album, Eusexua, arrived, but the artist is keeping it moving. Despite what its title and timing might suggest, Eusexua Afterglow is not a deluxe edition of twigs’ previous album but a whole new one entirely. That being said, they are obviously closely related, with both focused on the kind of experiences you can only have during a night out. If the sun eventually comes up with Afterglow, it doesn’t mean the music needs to stop; as the artist said when she announced the album, she was interested in “extending that high into the afters.” [DG]