{"id":2429631,"date":"2026-05-23T20:32:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T20:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2429631"},"modified":"2026-05-23T20:32:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T20:32:52","slug":"13-new-albums-to-stream-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/13-new-albums-to-stream-today\/","title":{"rendered":"13 new albums to stream today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div x=\"x\">\n<p>                                <!-- start the_content --><!-- mega mega --><!-- adCount: 0--><!-- paragraphcount: 16 4--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Paste is the place to kick off every New Music Friday. We follow our regular roundups of the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pastemagazine.com\/music\/best-new-songs\/best-new-songs-may-21-2026\" target=\"_blank\">best new songs<\/a> by highlighting the most compelling new records you need to hear. Find the best new albums of the week below.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Aja Monet: <em>The Color of Rain<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s the long weekend, the year is teetering on the edge of summer. You get handed the aux and you need a record to put on that\u2019s going to put everyone in the mood <em>and<\/em> make you look cool. Aja Monet has got you covered. Three years after her debut album and almost a decade after becoming the youngest Grand Slam Champion in the Nuyorican Poets\u2019 Cafe\u2019s history, the Brooklynite returns with <em>The Color of Rain<\/em>. On it, she doubles down on the formula from <em>When the Poems Do What They Do<\/em>, this time adding the backing of a live band that willingly follows her with remarkable imagination and musicality as she freewheels across sound and subject, making the world of surrealist blues fully her own. With inimitable precision, Monet paints deft images of her city, her community, and her reality. \u201cHollyweird\u201d fully encapsulates the nihilistic sensation of doomscrolling: a buzzy, angry synth underscores furious ululations and scathing lyrics (\u201cWhat\u2019s the insurance policy for chickens coming home to roost?\u201d Monet asks as a guitar and saxophone squall in agreement behind her). Though she is nominally a spoken-word artist, Monet adds great musical flair to <em>The Color of Rain<\/em>, demonstrating just how malleable the boundaries are between genres: at any time this album could be and is one of poetry, spoken word, jazz, hip-hop, blues, and soul. \u201cMelting Clocks,\u201d for instance, pokes effectively at the construction of time with a hypnotising bassline that speeds up and slows down intermittently, taking the rhythm section with it as it goes. And the excellent \u201cElsewhere\u201d is a plea to go outside to touch some grass that drips with cool and delicious harmonic moments. \u201cWe got all rhythm and no algorithm,\u201d Monet promises over an already addictive melodic line. We could all use a bit more of that. \u2014<em>Mariam Abdel-Razek<\/em> <strong>[drink sum wtr]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- admarker --> <ad\/><!-- inline --><\/p>\n<h2>Bill Orcutt &amp; Mabe Fratti: <em>Almost Waking<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153627\/IMG_0015-1.webp\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153627\/IMG_0015-1.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/><em>Almost Waking<\/em> is a suite of eight texturally rich tracks that unite two singular artists with shared compositional affinities. All of the songs stem from freeform guitar improvisations that Bill Orcutt sent to Mabe Fratti, who worked alongside H\u00e9ctor Tosta (AKA I. La Cat\u00f3lica), her Titanic bandmate and romantic partner, to embellish with cello and occasional vocals. Fratti and Tosta would listen back to Orcutt\u2019s submissions to excavate the \u201charmonic possibilities\u201d that lay within, as Fratti describes in press materials. She let those interpretations guide her melodies, and the results are remarkable. The album\u2019s opening diptych of the title track and \u201cEl inicio es cuesti\u00f3n de suerte\u201d lays the groundwork for the ensuing six pieces. On the former, Orcutt\u2019s prickly guitar announces itself immediately, and it\u2019s only a few seconds before Fratti joins him with legato bowing. The sharpness softens when Fratti briefly leaves the mix and Orcutt\u2019s six-string dots the space like stars. Before long, the pair shifts toward granular textures together, picking up in volume and intensity along the way. Though Fratti and Orcutt are never playing in the same room, it sounds like they\u2019re actively responding to each other, rising and falling in tandem, listening and adapting to the atmosphere they\u2019re creating in real time. Both artists are compelling enough on their own, but together, they manage to exhume new possibilities within their respective catalogs. \u2014<em>Grant Sharples<\/em> <strong>[Unheard of Hope]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- RevContent  \n\n<div id=\"revcontent-hidden\"> -->  <!-- revisit --><!-- admarker --> <ad\/><!-- inline --><\/p>\n<h2>Bleachers: <em>everyone for ten minutes<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153619\/IMG_0012-2-1-scaled.jpg\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153619\/IMG_0012-2-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>Jack Antonoff\u2019s go-for-broke commitment to making more daring stylistic choices this time around is definitely admirable, especially in contrast to his group\u2019s last effort, 2024\u2019s safe and opaque <em>Bleachers<\/em>. Throughout <em>everyone for ten minutes<\/em>, he folds elements of country, soul, gospel, shoegaze, samples, and even the FaceTime dial tone into the instrumentation. He sounds much more eager to be vulnerable than before, a noticeable shift from the pleasant, crowd-pleasing broadness that characterized his previous work. His attempt to use a pertinent topic\u2014how technology disrupts the intimacy and communication in our relationships\u2014as a lens for the record serves as an intriguing thematic framework for its freewheeling production. And Antonoff bakes the tension between this creative alchemy and encroaching anxiety not just in the album\u2019s sound and theme, but in its aesthetic as well. The project opens with \u201csideways,\u201d a love anthem whose woozy stadium rock atmosphere functions as a compelling anchor for Antonoff\u2019s affections for his partner, Margaret Qualley. \u201cthe van\u201d crunches and loops the soul-pop of Blue Magic\u2019s \u201cJust Don\u2019t Want to Be Lonely\u201d into a disarmingly lovely gateway for Antonoff\u2019s memories of his first tours. \u201cyou and me forever\u201d incorporates a subtle interpolation of the noodling synth string from Q Lazzarus\u2019 \u201cGoodbye Horses,\u201d one that\u2019s well-suited for the song\u2019s starry-eyed ambiance. The funky closer \u201cupstairs at els\u201d loosely invokes the title of Yazoo\u2019s <em>Upstairs at Eric\u2019s<\/em>, as well as the new wave band\u2019s sparkling grooves. And though it doesn\u2019t use any samples, the penultimate track \u201ci\u2019m not joking\u201d is perhaps the closest the album comes to a truly inspired moment with the way it bittersweetly views the present and future. Antonoff croons about being grateful for his loved ones and wanting to hold onto them tightly, and the song\u2019s swelling organ and gentle harpsichord give that feeling a genuinely soulful quality. \u2014<em>Sam Rosenberg<\/em> <strong>[Dirty Hit]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- admarker --> <ad\/><!-- inline --><\/p>\n<h2>Car Seat Headrest: <em>Teens of Denial: Joe\u2019s Story<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153556\/a2673337303_16.jpg\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153556\/a2673337303_16.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/><em>Teens of Denial<\/em> was one of the most important albums to me as a teenager, and the fact that this week marked its tenth anniversary has me reeling. In honor of the album\u2019s decade-aversary, Will Toledo reissued the record as a new edition: <em>Joe\u2019s Story<\/em>. It\u2019s largely the same album, but with two new songs (\u201cOptimistic Son\u201d and \u201cJoe Drives Again\u201d), a greatly-changed \u201cThe Ballad of Costa Concordia\u201d (now called \u201cThe Ravenous House\u201d), and\u2014oddly enough\u2014no profanity. In an open letter Toledo shared alongside the announcement of <em>Joe\u2019s Story<\/em>, he wrote that the original <em>Teens of Denial<\/em> was created during a time in which he was \u201cstruggling with a lot of cynicism and misplaced aggression,\u201d and that this updated version \u201cfeels more like the album <em>Teens of Denial<\/em> was meant to be.\u201d He added, \u201cThis time, I could pull memories of that darkness, and use the distance and additional perspective of ten years of life to shed a fuller light on the experience. Joe is a character going through some of what I experienced, and some of his own problems. Telling his story, and not just my own impressions of life at the end of the teen years, brought a new level of compassion and wholeness to the album.\u201d While some of the project\u2019s intent <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pastemagazine.com\/music\/car-seat-headrest\/paste-q-and-a-car-seat-headrest-retcon-of-teens-of-denial\" target=\"_blank\">admittedly eludes me<\/a>, I will <em>happily<\/em> take any excuse to listen to <em>Teens of Denial<\/em> again in whatever capacity available. \u2014<em>Casey Epstein-Gross<\/em> <strong>[Matador]<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Ed O\u2019Brien: <em>Blue Morpho<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153629\/IMG_9950-scaled.webp\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153629\/IMG_9950-scaled.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>Many of these thirty-eight minutes build on the quieter, gentler feel of <em>Earth<\/em>\u2019s deep cuts\u2014but here, the results feel more like full-fledged worlds than promising teases. The first three songs all open with twinkly acoustic fingerpicking, but they rarely end in that same place. On \u201cIncantations,\u201d where Ed O\u2019Brien sings about outrunning \u201cghosts of long ago,\u201d the piece slow-builds with ESKA\u2019s soaring vocal harmonies and the tasteful percussion of Crispin \u201cSpry\u201d Robinson. You think it\u2019s all going to drift away peacefully, but then O\u2019Brien introduces his first U-turn: A firecracker snare ushers in a trance-like kraut-rock\/post-rock groove, and a convulsing electric guitar electrifies the black-sky vibe with lightning. Equally cinematic is the title track, which drifts by on the autumnal breeze of K\u00f5rvits\u2019 strings\u2014it could have slotted perfectly on <em>A Moon Shaped Pool<\/em>, with zero dip in quality. But the record never settles rigidly into this magic-hour ambiance. \u201cTeachers\u201d feels like a funkier, proggier extension of <em>Earth<\/em> centerpiece \u201cBrasil,\u201d pulling from trip-hop and alt-dance as our maestro exercises some more demons (\u201cMidway through life, I just lost my way\u201d). In that signature O\u2019Brien way, it\u2019s hard to even describe what\u2019s happening sonically in the back half, as some kind of instrumental solo (A talk box smothered in phaser? Bergstrom\u2019s vocals run through effects pedals?) launches the groove into deep orbit. \u2014<em>Ryan Reed<\/em> <strong>[Transgressive]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- admarker --> <ad\/><!-- inline --><\/p>\n<h2>Hyd: <em>Hold Onto Me Infinity<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153543\/a0763834643_10-scaled.jpg\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153543\/a0763834643_10-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>Hardly a day goes by that I (and every other music critic I know) don\u2019t mourn the loss of SOPHIE. Her presence lives on, though, in Hyd\u2019s second record. Hayden Dunham was SOPHIE\u2019s partner and collaborator, and they ensured that the fingerprints of the late avant-pop icon were all over <em>Hold Onto Me Infinity<\/em>, a twelve-track roundup of existential bangers that answer the long-wondered question \u201cCan we grieve our loved ones while at the club?\u201d with a resounding yes. The album boasts two leaked SOPHIE demos from years ago, \u201cMakeover\u201d and \u201cMake Me Believe,\u201d but the inclusion of these older, SOPHIE-originating tracks fits right into Hold Onto Me Infinity\u2019s addictive synth-and-drums formula, never feeling out of place. \u201cAngel\u201d (about Hayden\u2019s memory of meeting SOPHIE\u2019s father) and \u201cFreak\u201d (the chorus of which goes \u201cthis girl\u2019s a freak \/ she\u2019s just like me\u201d) are a one-two-punch of pitch-perfect art-pop right off the bat\u2014but Hyd\u2019s not afraid to slow it down, either. \u201cNever Is Over\u201d and \u201cLooking Up I See A Cloud\u201d live somewhere in the chest instead of on the dance floor, the former resting on muffled glitches and mournful strings while the latter sits couched in a heartrending soundscape of clouds and gauze. It\u2019s been a downright phenomenal year for alt-pop so far, and clearly, Hyd\u2019s here to continue the trend. \u2014<em>Casey Epstein-Gross<\/em> <strong>[Cascine]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- admarker --> <ad\/><!-- inline --><\/p>\n<h2>JPEGMAFIA: <em>Experimental Rap<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153606\/ab67616d0000b27373fe8f78133608dee4f3a5bd.jpeg\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153606\/ab67616d0000b27373fe8f78133608dee4f3a5bd.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>There\u2019s something eyebrow-raising about JPEGMAFIA having production credits on recent works by Ye and BTS and then releasing an album of his own titled <em>Experimental Rap<\/em>. But knowing Peggy, that\u2019s just how he likes it. The rapper\u2019s self-produced sixth studio album, announced just three weeks ago, is a relentless, twenty-five-song tour de force through the rapper\u2019s recent beefs: with critics, with Earl Sweatshirt, with an ever-swelling army of internet naysayers. The rapper\u2019s flow is ceaseless, underlaid by his signature jagged, swelling production. On \u201cSince I Met Ye,\u201d slicing electric guitars smash against a glitchy, bass-boosted beat as Peggy seethes, \u201cSince I met Ye, I\u2019m dead to you n****s, that\u2019s why I wear jet black,\u201d in reference to his controversial additions to <em>VULTURES<\/em>. On \u201cMask On,\u201d a high-energy flow reminiscent of <em>Camp<\/em>-era Childish Gambino, Peggy exhorts us to participate in a high-stakes robbery. Over a dissonant, noise-rock-inspired beat, his flow marches forward: \u201cAsh blunts, on the White House sofa, no sir, we do not punt,\u201d he spits as the beat breathes heavy. Interspersed with gospel sermons and synthy, atmospheric instrumentals, the back half of <em>Experimental Rap<\/em> is where Peggy comes into his own. On \u201cNo Strippers In Heaven,\u201d he whispers over an atmospheric choral arrangement, a finger-picked acoustic, and, finally, a drum-forward beat that makes wonderful use of the negative space around him. Never bashful, he brags, \u201cAlternate rapper work ethic like Prince and with numbers like William and bitches like Vince.\u201d For an album titled <em>Experimental Rap<\/em>, Peggy\u2019s flow is pretty consistent across this fifty-two minute ride, but his production is continually unexpected and often totally delightful. \u2014<em>Miranda Wollen<\/em> <strong>[AWAL]<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Lowertown: <em>Ugly Duckling Union<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153616\/IMG_0011-1.webp\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153616\/IMG_0011-1.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/><em>Ugly Duckling Union<\/em> is ostensibly about Olivia Osby and Avsha Weinberg\u2019s relationship, their forced separation, hunt for individualism, and eventual reunion. Even so, the pair went so far as to create a fictional word for the album, framing it as the story of a duckling protagonist, Dale, who leaves home, finds a new community, and embarks on a mission to take down a tyrannical media company that profits from isolating citizens. Whether or not Dale\u2019s story was intended as a way of depersonalizing <em>Ugly Duckling Union<\/em>, the narrative resulted in its own real-life ecosystem, complete with comic strips, handbooks, plushies, Minecraft servers, and Discord channels. Dale\u2019s story speaks to the commodification of the internet and the dissolution of many of the internet spaces that were so integral to Lowertown\u2019s existence. Even when filtered through fantasy and abstraction, <em>Ugly Duckling Union<\/em> still feels pointed and personal. Lowertown presents a more nuanced and even seasoned look at melancholy, giving the album an emotional complexity that allows them to strike a balance between lighthearted, almost crass lyricism and over-the-top instrumentation, while also offering deep-rooted ruminations on self-confidence and the darkest dimensions of codependency. \u2014<em>Cassidy Sollazzo<\/em> <strong>[Summer Shade]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- admarker --> <ad\/><!-- inline --><\/p>\n<h2>Ted Lucas: <em>Images of Life<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153614\/ImagesOfLife_3000x3000_1-scaled.webp\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153614\/ImagesOfLife_3000x3000_1-scaled.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>Ted Lucas gets his deserved retrospective in the form of <em>Images of Life<\/em>, a three-LP album of unreleased recordings. Despite its length, Images of Life only skims the surface of Lucas\u2019 output, but it\u2019s compiled elegantly, starting by chronicling his early days with various groups formed in the psychedelic haze of the 1960s\u2014The Spike Drivers, The Misty Wizards, and The Horny Toads\u2014each of whom, despite being excellently named, did not last longer than a few years apiece. The latter two parts of <em>Images of Life<\/em> trace Lucas\u2019 spiralling arc away from the trappings of the music industry. What these recordings reveal to us with piercing clarity is a musician who is making music not because he thinks it will make him money or gain him fame\u2014in fact, he is painfully aware that it will do neither of these things\u2014but because he can\u2019t <em>not<\/em> make music. He is an artist who has too much inside of him to be contained, who cannot stop evolving himself and his sound.<\/p>\n<p>Part two, <em>Rainy Days (1970-1974)<\/em>, will be sonically familiar to anyone who knows Lucas, overlapping as it does with the recordings that made it onto the only album he released during his lifetime. It features moments of singular, hypnotising beauty\u2014the title track fuzzes delicately into your ears as Lucas laments his lost love; \u201cAnastasia,\u201d a quiet, slow waltz in which Lucas doubles his vocals to create the haunting illusion of multiple men singing in unison, diverges only occasionally into harmony before coming back together. It is the third part, <em>Impossible Love<\/em>, that is most full of revelation. The latter half of the Seventies saw Lucas return to his garage roots, and the results are evident precursors to yacht rock. Stand-out \u201cSlow Motion Ocean (Of Love)\u201d rocks broodingly, oozing through its minor-key guitar solos with a lick of Lucas\u2019 psychedelic roots. Taken together, these three albums are a fitting testimonial to his sprawling genius. \u2014<em>Mariam Abdel-Razek<\/em> <strong>[Third Man]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- admarker --> <ad\/><!-- inline --><\/p>\n<h2>The Deslondes: <em>Don\u2019t Let It Die Vol. 1<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153528\/600x600bf-60-2026-05-22T122012.009.jpg\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153528\/600x600bf-60-2026-05-22T122012.009.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>The Deslondes\u2019 new LP, <em>Don\u2019t Let It Die Vol. 1<\/em>, is a collection of old and borrowed songs. Dan Cutler, Howe Pearson, John James Tourville, Riley Downing, and Sam Doores have already built a great catalog of their own, so why not try out that of others? The music of Clifton Chenier, Swamp Dogg, Johnny Cash, and Shelby Lynne found a second life in the band\u2019s NOLA studio. <em>Don\u2019t Let It Die<\/em> is, in many ways, a gesture of affection. \u201cWe have so many friends who are songwriters, and we just love their music so much,\u201d Tourville says. \u201cRiley and Dan are always kicking around awesome, inspiring old songs for us to do, but for this album, we really wanted to play some friends\u2019 songs, too.\u201d The songwriting from Kate Cavazos (\u201cI\u2019m Gone\u201d), Pat Reedy (\u201cLong Drives and Lonesome Mornings\u201d), Hurricane Smith (\u201cDon\u2019t Let It Die\u201d), and Leonie Evans (\u201cMoving\u201d) sounds right at home here in <em>Don\u2019t Let It Die<\/em>\u2019s bluesy hideaway. Ever the terrific live act, the Deslondes harness all of that into a terrific\u2014and I mean <em>terrific<\/em>\u2014follow-up to 2024\u2019s <em>Roll It Out<\/em>. The Kernal\u2019s \u201cTry Me\u201d will inevitably endure as one of the band\u2019s greatest efforts. The Deslondes make music for the soul. How else could anyone describe it? \u2014<em>Matt Mitchell<\/em> <strong>[New West]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- admarker --> <ad\/><!-- inline --><\/p>\n<h2>The Laughing Chimes: <em>Behind Your Blue Fields<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153549\/a1874628783_10-scaled.jpg\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153549\/a1874628783_10-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>When the Laughing Chimes released their sophomore album <em>Whispers In The Speech Machine<\/em> last year, they went in a gothier direction, cutting a few of the lighter, twinklier ideas they\u2019d brainstormed. Luckily for us, the band has now compiled a number of those demos on <em>Behind Your Blue Fields<\/em>, a down-home, intimate look into the band\u2019s creative process and the aesthetics they had to set aside along the way. The project is sweeter and more nostalgic than <em>Whispers<\/em>. In \u201cBehind Your Blue Fields,\u201d which also appears in four- and eight-track demo form, a melancholic melody bursts into a jangly, elegiac dreamscape replete with flutes and floaty guitar lines. \u201cHide behind your blue fields \/ We could sit and talk through the hours and hours,\u201d vocalist Evan Seurkamp hums with a lovely earnestness. \u201cZephyr\u201d is a pastoral lesson in whimsical harmony and magical realism; over a simple, grounded guitar beat, Seurkamp sings, \u201cTurn to me, electric breeze \/ Guide me west on paper wings but do not speed.\u201d It\u2019s got shades of vintage R.E.M. to it, straightforward and self-possessed without losing its childlike sense of wonder. Seurkamp\u2019s style adds to the Americana vibe of the compilation, emerging open and expansive without ever seeming naive. And his lyrics, while abstract, have a clear emotional valence: \u201cSomewhere there\u2019s a door the crowded space upstairs \/ Where what I show is true, faces just for you, forever wanting more because it\u2019s three until it\u2019s four.\u201d It\u2019s a pretty little record, and one that shows the vastness of the Laughing Chimes\u2019 potential \u2014<em>Miranda Wollen<\/em> <strong>[Slumberland]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- admarker --> <ad\/><!-- inline --><\/p>\n<h2>Thomas Dollbaum: <em>Birds of Paradise<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153538\/a0455522383_16-1.jpg\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153538\/a0455522383_16-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/><em>Birds of Paradise<\/em>, like <em>Drive All Night<\/em> and <em>Wellswood<\/em> before it, is never completely correct. Van Zandt and Molina are obvious lodestars, but Thomas Dollbaum rarely sounds like them, his voice reaching a twang that could be from a hundred places at once. \u201cDozen Roses\u201d returns to his Tampa childhood memories: \u201cWhen you were a kid the whole world felt like a lonesome ocean, closing in with every wave that seems to come your way. I look now and it\u2019s just tide pulled out of motion, a couple walks and then a dozen roses on their way.\u201d With accompaniment from Nick Corson, MJ Lenderman, and Josh Halper, Dollbaum\u2019s best songs remember the light and timber. He and his bandmates interlock for five soaring minutes, tailing ghosts and preserving a noisy groove even when Lenderman\u2019s lead lines pull the song sideways. King\u2019s Landing\u201d is especially magical about that, with its anecdotes about <em>COPS<\/em> reruns and building homes out of \u201cwater and snakes.\u201d \u201cPulverize\u201d is based on a girl Dollbaum once tried to drive to the coast with before their \u201choopty to the promised land\u201d stalled out halfway there. \u201cDozen Roses\u201d runs on numbered days, as Dollbaum tells us there\u2019s not enough of them. <em>Birds of Paradise<\/em> lives somewhere between a fib, a confession, and a <em>god dang<\/em>. Months ago, a white-label test pressing of the record landed on my doorstep and it\u2019s lived on the office turntable ever since, my room filling up with pictures of sugar cane, I-95, and flatwood splinters. \u2014<em>Matt Mitchell<\/em> <strong>[Dear Life]<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Veeze: <em>Y\u2019all Won<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left lazyload\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153600\/ab67616d0000b273cb43c4a1212ac1e221478ec3.jpeg\" data-eio-rwidth=\"640\" data-eio-rheight=\"640\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/img.pastemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/22153600\/ab67616d0000b273cb43c4a1212ac1e221478ec3.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>There\u2019s something rather funny about <em>Y\u2019all Won<\/em>, Veeze\u2019s first full-length since his 2023 studio debut <em>Ganger<\/em>. It\u2019s hard not to feel that the sardonic title is directed right at fans, saying, \u201cJesus Christ, I\u2019ll release a tape already, goddamn.\u201d Or maybe it\u2019s aimed at leakers, Veeze admitting \u201cdefeat\u201d by surprise-dropping eleven new tracks before those, too, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Kurrco\/status\/2028025823526101435\" target=\"_blank\">illegally make their way onto the interwebs<\/a> (although I\u2019m sure some already had). The rapidly growing Detroit rapper has long since perfected the art of affected nonchalance, his raspy, lazy drawl as much a part of each song\u2019s skeleton as the trap beats pulsing beneath. And that unbothered flow only augments the cocky charisma that propels the record\u2014Veeze raps about his greatness with such a flippant, unbothered ease that you can\u2019t help but buy into it. \u201cWrong Place, Wrong Time\u201d is an ode to the Detroit scene, both sonically and lyrically; \u201cIDK\u201d shittalks cheap and aura-less peers; \u201cOld Shit\u201d brushes off the past without so much as a glance. Veeze\u2019s rise has, in part, been due to recent collaborations with big names like Lil Yachty, Lil Baby, and LUCKI, so this entirely featureless tape might be exactly what he needed to prove he doesn\u2019t need anyone else in the room. \u2014<em>Casey Epstein-Gross<\/em> <strong>[Navy Wavy]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- inlinecontent_2 --> <!-- end the_content -->                                <\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.pastemagazine.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paste is the place to kick off every New Music Friday. We follow our regular roundups of the best new songs by highlighting the most compelling new records you need to hear. Find the best new albums of the week below. Aja Monet: The Color of Rain It\u2019s the long weekend, the year is teetering [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2429632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2429631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/13-new-albums-to-stream-today.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2429631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2429633,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429631\/revisions\/2429633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2429632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2429631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2429631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2429631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}