Among this week's new releases, the most interesting thing isn't which one sounds best—it's how differently these artists are making their way back to us. On one end, there's Ariana Grande with a schedule so packed it's nearly overflowing. On the other, there's Vini Reilly, who took sixteen years seriously.
Grande's new album "Petal" was born somewhere between a North American tour, "Wicked" press duties, and an upcoming West End musical—her follow-up to 2024's "Eternal Sunshine." In the music video for lead single "Hate That I Made You Love Me," Justin Long tries to bury her alive, only to discover in the end that he's been digging his own grave. In the press release, she explains the album title: "something that still grows with life in the cold, hard, difficult cracks." Given her schedule these past few years, that line lands with a particular irony.
By contrast, The Durutti Column's "Renascent" marks composer Vini Reilly's return after sixteen years, following two strokes he suffered in 2010—this time reuniting with longtime percussionist Bruce Mitchell and producer Keir Stewart. Harry Styles has publicly named Reilly as an unexpected influence on his album "Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally." On opener "Liars," refracted guitar tones and sighing keys sit over heavy drums, with Reilly's murmured vocals buried deep in the mix—almost as if he's fading out of the song's own memory, repeating "sorry, sorry, sorry" over and over.
Arca's "XXXXX" likewise arrives after a five-year gap, opening with a stuttering, mechanical vocal within the first five seconds: "Diva as technology." The Venezuelan producer originally conceived this sixteen-track record as a mixtape, but it ended up somewhere far stranger, steeped in dark IDM and glitch. She describes the process as "losing control, collaborating with the subconscious, and not letting habit decide where the music should go."
Shannon Lay's "Past the Veil" is her first album in five years, layering rich jazz instrumentation and lingering trip-hop beats over the sparser arrangements of her last record—perfect for a late-summer evening. But the lyrics aren't really about relaxing—on closer "I Need More Water," she asks: "What if we called sitting in the shadows all day a kind of success?" Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg, who spends his time studying deep-sea creatures in Antarctica, spent four years on "The New World," the band's first self-released album, packed with field recordings. "I think most people, myself included, don't really understand where we are," he says. "Thinking about that living world is the only thing that actually helps."
The rest each arrive from their own path: Trashcan Sinatras' "Ever the Optimist" is their first proper album in a decade, produced by Delgados drummer Paul Savage, with Scritti Politti's Green Gartside guesting on "Hold on to Today"; Davido marks fifteen years since his debut with "Oriadé," a title combining the Yoruba words "ori" (head, destiny) and "adé" (crown), with single "Gimme Dat Ting" sinking into amapiano and dark JJay beats; Moliy, riding a resurgence off "Shake It to the Max" thanks to a TikTok challenge and a dancehall remix with Shenseea and Skillibeng, brings "Baddies <3 Moliy》回來，把版圖擴張進 bouyon 與 dancehall，找來 Tyla、Yailin la Más Viral、Sarkodie 與親姊姊 Melissa 助陣；曼徹斯特製作人 Leo 則帶著《Cicada Burnt》登陸洛杉磯廠牌 Peak Oil，這位受過鼓手訓練的音樂人把 dembow、techno、dubstep、industrial 通通收進同一種沉重的節奏感裡。
All nine albums are now available on streaming platforms, with some physical releases available via Bandcamp or Rough Trade.
