Between the Grammys happening and Record Store Day announcing its list of 2026 exclusive titles, it’s been an eventful week for music, and you can hear Dave and I talk about both of those things and more on today’s episode of BV Weekly. There are also a handful of good albums out this week, and we’ll get to those now.
I highlight seven new albums below, and Bill tackles more in Indie Basement, including Mandy, Indiana (which has a billy woods feature), Ulrika Spacek, Sarah Nixey (Black Box Recorder), and Daphni (aka Caribou). On top of those, this week’s honorable mentions include the 3-song debut EP from Hayley Williams’ new Power Snatch project, Puscifer, Silversun Pickups, Stress Spells, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Ella Mai, Dream Natwils, Joji , KMFDM, Poor Bambi, Music City, Puma Blue, Cory Wong, The Grownup Noise, Nick Jonas, The Church’s album of acoustic re-imaginings, the Bayway EP, the Dryjacket EP, and the Capsize EP.
Read on for my picks, and listen to the new episode of BV Weekly for more of this week’s new music and music news. What’s your favorite release of the week?
Ratboys – Singin’ to an Empty Chair (New West)
The indie-country trailblazers continue their steady rise with their most natural-sounding and best record yet.
The prevailing narrative surrounding Ratboys’ sixth album in a 15+ year career is that they’re embracing the slow burn, the steady rise, the gradual progression. A recent Pitchfork feature on Singin’ to an Empty Chair by Nina Corcoran is titled “Ratboys Are Playing the Long Game.” In an interview by Steven Hyden for UPROXX, singer/guitarist Julia Steiner embraced comparisons to bands like The National, R.E.M., and Spoon–bands who honed their craft over a long period of time and who all have beloved albums that came as far in their careers as Singin’ to an Empty Chair comes in Ratboys’. And I have a good feeling that Singin’ to an Empty Chair will in fact go down as a widely beloved Ratboys album, because the other prevailing narrative surrounding it–a narrative I very much agree with–is that it’s their best yet.
If you’re a longtime BrooklynVegan reader, you probably won’t find this take very shocking because if you read my reviews of their previous records, you may notice that I’ve found ways to call every new Ratboys album the best Ratboys album yet. But with Singin’ to an Empty Chair, it’s even more “the best Ratboys album yet” than any Ratboys album before it. The stars really aligned for Ratboys on 2023’s The Window; it was their first written collaboratively with their current four-piece lineup, first with the perfectly-matched producer Chris Walla, and it found them perfecting their mix of DIY indie rock and alt-country right around the same time that all eyes were suddenly on indie/country crossover. It gave the band a little extra momentum going into Singin’ to an Empty Chair, which was written and recorded with the same lineup and also produced by Chris Walla (but released on a new record label, New West, after years on Topshelf), and the result is the most natural-sounding Ratboys album yet.
They’ve already released four of its 11 songs as singles, and just about any of the other seven would’ve worked as singles too, including the climactic, eight-and-a-half minute “Just Want You to Know the Truth.” From start to finish, this is Ratboys doing what they do best, and making it sound like second nature. Ratboys’ version of “indie-country” existed before it was a trend, and Singin’ to an Empty Chair finds them sounding as fresh as any band in that realm does right now. It’s one of the best indie rock albums in recent memory, and it feels like the ultimate Ratboys album–no small feat for a band that already has so many contenders.
Singin’ to an Empty Chair by Ratboys
J. Cole – The Fall-Off (Dreamville/Interscope)
J. Cole’s long-teased double album is both a comeback attempt and possibly his final release. It features Erykah Badu, The Alchemist, Burna Boy, Future, Westside Gunn, and more.
After first teasing it back in 2018, J. Cole’s double album The Fall-Off is here. In the time since then, Cole released a handful of projects and, most notably, helped kickstart the Kendrick/Drake beef and then backed out of it (and apologized to Kendrick). He laid relatively low since then, and this album now feels built to be his comeback. It also might be his last. It’s broken up into two distinct halves, “Disc 29” and “Disc 39,” and in a post giving insight into the album, Cole said, “The Fall-Off, a double album made with intentions to be my last, brings the concept of my first project full circle. Disc 29 tells a story of me returning to my hometown at age 29. A decade after moving to New York, accomplishing what would have seemed impossible to most, I was at a crossroads with the 3 loves of my life; my woman, my craft, and my city. Disc 39 gives insight into my mindset during a similar trip home, this time as a 39 year old man. Older and a little closer to peace.” I wouldn’t be surprised if Cole does release more music after this, but it does indeed come off like the climactic ending of everything Cole began 19 years ago on The Come Up. The second disc in particular is Cole vying for the reflective, grown-ass man rap canon, searching for his own place alongside records like Nas’ Life Is Good and Jay-Z’s 4:44. As always, he comes off as an obsessive student of the rap game with ambition, grit, and a story that he’s determined to tell.
The album has production from The Alchemist (on “Bunce Road Blues”), T-Minus (on several songs), Boi-1da (on “Bombs in the Ville / Hit the Gas”), and others, and (currently uncredited) guest vocals from Erykah Badu (on “The Villest,” which borrows the beat from Mobb Deep’s “The Realest” and interpolates OutKast’s “Elevators [Me & You]”), Burna Boy (on “Only You”), Future (on “Run A Train” and “Bunce Road Blues”), Tems (on “Bunce Road Blues”), and Westside Gunn (on “Poor Thang”).
Him Horrison – Starting Not To Hurt (self-released)
MSPAINT vocalist Deedee goes for something more dreamy and tender on their debut solo album as Him Horrison.
Even before MSPAINT formed, the band’s one-of-a-kind vocalist Deedee was releasing solo material under the name Him Horrison, and now Deedee’s revisiting the moniker for the proper debut Him Horrison album, Starting Not To Hurt. Deedee spends all of their time in MSPAINT shouting their head off over a moshable synth-punk backdrop, but Starting Not To Hurt is something much more dreamy and tender. It’s a collage of psychedelic pop, folk, and shoegaze that’s closer to Panda Bear or Deerhunter or Beach House than to MSPAINT, and Deedee’s got a gorgeous singing voice. It’s Deedee at their most personal and sentimental, showing off a songwriting range that’s even wider than what we’ve heard in MSPAINT.
Starting Not to Hurt by Him Horrison
Joshua Chuquimia Crampton – Anata (self-released)
There’s more where last year’s Los Thuthanaka album came from on the new Joshua Chuquimia Crampton solo LP.
The most talked-about electronic record of last year was the self-titled debut album by Los Thuthanaka, the sibling duo of Joshua Chuquimia and Elysia Crampton, and less than a year later Joshua Chuquimia Crampton releases his own new album that’s cut from a similar cloth, Anata. Like the Los Thuthanaka album, Anata mixes traditional Andean music with modern psychedelia–the name is named after and dedicated to Anata, “the Andean ceremony where we celebrate the Pachamama (Mother Earth) before the rainy season, giving thanks for harvest with offerings & the principle of reciprocity (Ayni) between humans/nature”–and Joshua’s hypnotic guitar parts are impossible to not get sucked into.
Anata by Joshua Chuquimia Crampton
Tha God Fahim – Tha Dark Shogunn Saga, Vol. 3 (Nature Sounds)
The boom bap revivalist is on a roll right now, and he continues his insanely prolific run with the long-awaited third volume of ‘Tha Dark Shogunn Saga.’
Atlanta rapper Tha God Fahim is on a roll right now. In the midst of releasing a zillion projects with Montreal producer Nicholas Craven (some of which was compiled on last month’s Ultimate Dump Gawd 2), he’s now released the long-awaited third volume of Tha Dark Shogunn Saga. The project flies by, with 11 songs that are all around two minutes each, and Fahim is just as much in top form here as he is on the Dump Gawd tracks. He’s a boom bap revivalist who can hook you into every word as much as the OGs he’s channelling.
Dirt Buyer – Dirt Buyer III (Bayonet)
The Brooklyn indie rocker’s third album is his most hi-fi and lyrically dark yet.
Joe Sutkowski is back with his third Dirt Buyer album, Dirt Buyer III, and as the singles hinted, it finds the Brooklyn indie rock musician turning his sound into something louder, bolder, and more hi-fi than ever before. The songs pop out at you more, offering up a cathartic release from the dark, personal themes that make up this record. “These songs are from the most difficult time of my life,” says Joe, referring to the alcohol and relationship struggles that he was dealing with while writing this record. “I did so much work on myself, and now I can talk about it all because I’m still here.”
Mayhem – Liturgy of Death (Century Media)
Over 30 years after their pioneering debut album, Mayhem are still one of the most reliable forces in black metal.
To quote our friend Colin Dempsey: Mayhem’s third album with Teloch as lead songwriter, and seventh overall, bridges Daemon‘s classic black metal and Esoteric Warfare‘s experimentalism. It’s sharp, dynamic, and far more inspired than any album that celebrates a band’s 40th anniversary should be. It also asserts that, if you want to make high-fidelity and technical black metal that doesn’t sound like a goblin chewing wet noodles, you should be ripping off Mayhem.
Liturgy of Death (24-bit HD audio) by Mayhem
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Read Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including Mandy, Indiana; Ulrika Spacek; Daphni; and Sarah Nixey.
Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases and Indie Basement archives.
Looking for a podcast to listen to? Check out the latest episodes of our weekly music news podcast BV Weekly and the BV interviews podcast.
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