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 projects from Nettspend, Smino, Lauren Mayberry, Shabaka, Lucy (Cooper B. Handy), Advance Base, Kassie Krut, Fennesz, and Siete7x. 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.)
Nettspend: Bad Ass F*cking Kid [Interscope]
At just 17, Nettspend has already gotten deep under the skin of fans and haters alike. The Virginia rapper’s debut mixtape, Bad Ass F*cking Kid, sets his narcotized mumbles and ad-libs to dizzy production from Kenny Beats, EvilGiane, OK, Reklus1ve, and Carter Bryson, among others. Notably absent is “F*ck Swag,” the latest of his many viral singles, which preceded the project with a Cole Bennett–directed music video.
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Smino: Maybe in Nirvana [Zero Fatigue]
Smino returns with Maybe in Nirvana, a nine-track project written in tribute to his late grandmother and cousin. As with Nettspend’s record, Kenny Beats contributes production, with additional input from Monte Booker, Thundercat, Bun B, Ravyn Lanae, and Reggie, among others. “This project is me exploring my own nirvana—my peace, my chaos, and everything in between,” the St. Louis singer, rapper, and songwriter said in press materials. “Every song is a piece of me that ties into the bigger picture. I wanted to make something that feels limitless, like it could live outside of time.”
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Lauren Mayberry: Vicious Creature [Island]
Just over a year after striking out from Chvrches with her debut solo single and tour, Lauren Mayberry has released the Greg Kurstin–produced Vicious Creature. Operating under her own name, Mayberry swerves from the Glaswegian band’s trademark toward a sound that is by turns more abrasive and more melancholy, albeit with synth-pop joy to spare on songs like lead single “Crocodile Tears.”
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Shabaka: Possession EP [Impulse!]
After releasing his debut solo album, Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, last year, the former Sons of Kemet and Comet Is Coming bandleader Shabaka is back with a new solo EP. The woodwind maestro brought in billy woods for the single “Timepieces,” and woods’ Armand Hammer bandmate, Elucid, also returns after featuring on Shabaka’s debut. Other returnees include Carlos Niño and Brandee Younger, with Esperanza Spalding, Nduduzo Makhathini, and Jason Moran among the other guests.
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Lucy (Cooper B. Handy): Cooper B. Handy’s Album, Vol. 9 [self-released]
Cooper B. Handy is better known as Lucy: an alt-pop teen prodigy turned prolific cult songwriter who veers between genres and aesthetics, recently collaborating with both Surf Gang producer EvilGiane and darkwave duo Boy Harsher. Lucy’s new record, Cooper B. Handy’s Album, Vol. 9, is accordingly diffuse, swirling together the sonics of underground rap, jazz-infused alt-rock, and psychedelic grunge into an alluring genre no-man’s-land. Take a peek inside with “2nd Wind” and its hallucinatory, horse-filled video.
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Advance Base: Horrible Occurrences [Run for Cover]
Owen Ashworth returns with his first new album as Advance Base in six years. Horrible Occurrences, the follow-up to 2018’s Animal Companionship, reintroduces how his singular songwriting strikes a chord over minimalist arrangements on keys. This time, he imagines the fictional town of Richmond and all of the lore its residents carry. With heart-wrenching stories that bring to life every parent’s worst fear (“The Tooth Fairy”) and a skateboarder’s attempt to nail the perfect trick despite physical tradeoffs (“Brian’s Golden Hour”), Advance Base’s vivid and empathetic character studies earn comparisons to rich storytellers like David Berman, Joanna Newsom, and Bill Callahan.
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Kassie Krut: Kassie Krut EP [Fire Talk]
In the wake of Palm’s end comes Kassie Krut, the new trio featuring Eve Alpert and Kasra Kurt, from the defunct Philadelphia math-rock band, as well as Nicks and Grazes producer Matt Anderegg. Their self-titled debut EP revives their scatterbrained approach to hooks, but subs in electronic instrumentation in lieu of the usual guitars. As singles “Reckless,” “Racing Man,” and “Blood” suggested, Kassie Krut is a bold and jittery introduction to a new project that carries the same creativity for which Alpert and Kurt are known.
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Fennesz: Mosaic [Touch]
Mosaic is Christian Fennesz’s solo follow-up to the monumental 2019 album Agora, coming two years after his Ozmotic collaboration Senzatempo. The Austrian ambient mastermind drew inspiration from 1980s West African pop and fragments of hard-rock guitar for the record’s assortment of mesmerizing compositions.
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Siete7x: Stucc in the Hole [Empire]
Fresh off his appearance on Kendrick Lamar’s GNX, Siete7x delivers a new mixtape in Stucc in the Hole. The Compton rapper invites guests Lefty Gunplay, Wallie the Sensei, Bino Rideaux, RJMrLA, Kalan.FrFr, and more for the 15-track affair.
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