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 Jessica Pratt, Mdou Moctar, Kamasi Washington, Jawnino, Ibibio Sound Machine, Evilgiane & Slimesito, Kacy Hill, Hana Vu, Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes, and Jadasea. 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.)
Jessica Pratt: Here in the Pitch [Mexican Summer]
Here in the Pitch is Jessica Pratt’s first album in half a decade. Pratt previewed her follow-up to 2019’s Quiet Signs with “Life Is,” “World on a String,” and closing track “The Last Year,” all of which are informed by psychedelic 1960s pop. The title, per a press release, refers to “pitch darkness,” as well as bitumen, the black viscous substance that forms deep below the surface of the earth, suggesting a dose of darkness lurking beneath the album’s woozy sheen. Pratt will perform a live set at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago in July.
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Mdou Moctar: Funeral for Justice [Matador]
Funeral for Justice is the follow-up to Mdou Moctar’s 2021 album, Afrique Victime. Speaking with Andy Cush for Pitchfork earlier this year, lead singer and guitarist Mdou Moctar discussed the urgency of the band’s sound and messaging. “When we want to send the message about politics, we need something very heavy, strong, fast, and crazy—you feel like it’s an emergency,” the Tuareg artist said. “It’s the same as when you hear the ambulance. The guitar has to do the same crazy sound.”
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Kamasi Washington: Fearless Movement [Young]
Los Angeles jazz artist Kamasi Washington’s latest album, Fearless Movement, is a collaboration-heavy affair, with contributions from André 3000, George Clinton, Thundercat, Terrace Martin, and more. The follow-up to 2018’s Heaven and Earth features the singles “Prologue,” “Dream State,” and “Get Lit.” Washington has called the LP his “dance album,” though not in a literal sense: “Dance is movement and expression, and in a way it’s the same thing as music—expressing your spirit through your body. That’s what this album is pushing.”
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Jawnino: 40 [True Panther]
Grime MC Jawnino has released his debut mixtape, 40, a 15-track project studded with features. Contributors include Jesse James Solomon (“265”), Cold (“Wind”), and beloved New York rapper MIKE (“Short Stories”). Each of the mixtape’s songs takes inspiration from Jawnino’s daily life in London—the “stories and experiences that have shaped my reality,” as the artist put it in press materials.
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Ibibio Sound Machine: Pull the Rope [Merge]
Pull the Rope is the fifth album from Ibibio Sound Machine, the project led by vocalist Eno Williams and producer Max Grunhard. Their signature blend of house, post-punk, West African funk, and disco can be heard on singles “Got to Be Who U Are,” “Mama Say,” and “Pull the Rope.” The new LP follows the group’s 2022 album, Electricity.
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Evilgiane & Slimesito: Evilsime [Surf Gang]
Evilgiane kicked off 2024 with #Heavensgate (Vol. 1), and the Surf Gang producer is already back with a collaborative mixtape with the Clayton County, Georgia, rapper Slimesito. The artists previewed Evilslime with “Designer Drugz,” and the 11-track project features only one guest artist, Atlanta’s K$upreme.
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Kacy Hill: Bug [Nettwerk]
Bug is the fourth studio album from singer-songwriter Kacy Hill, following her 2021 release Simple, Sweet, and Smiling. The new record was cut over a two-year period with co-producers like Bartees Strange, Sega Bodega, and Jim-E Stack, as well as guest artists Nourished by Time and Donna Missal. Ahead of Bug, Hill shared a handful of singles that glide between R&B, country, pop, and Americana.
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Hana Vu: Romanticism [Ghostly International]
Los Angeles–based singer and songwriter Hana Vu is back with Romanticism, the moody, guitar-driven follow-up to 2021’s Public Storage. Co-produced by Vu and Jackson Phillips, the record features the singles “Care” and “Hammer.” Vu also shared “22,” a song about being “paralyzed by grief and memories and by being 22,” as the artist explained.
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Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes: The Doober [Leaving]
For their third collaborative full-length, The Doober, Sam Gendel played a C-melody saxophone and Sam Wilkes a Fender Precision bass. The new album follows 2018’s Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar and 2021’s Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar More Songs, as well as a smattering of Gendel projects like The Room, Audiobook, Cookup, Blueblue, and more.
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Jadasea: Too Many Tears [10k]
South London rapper Jadasea self-produced most of his new album, Too Many Tears, his featureless follow-up to last year’s Pressure Sensitive and The Corner: Vol. 1. Jadasea dropped lead single “Not Much 2 Say” last month, along with a video directed, edited, and produced by Standby. The song hints at the LP’s elegant convergence of hip-hop, jazz, and deftly layered samples.
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