New Music Friday: Rosalía, Danny Brown, Mavis Staples & The Mountain Goats among this weekend's big releases
Here’s your preview of some of this weekend’s biggest releases coming out on New Music Friday
- Rosalía, Mavis Staples and Danny Brown are among the big names set to release new albums on New Music Friday.
- The Mountain Goats fans can also rejoice with John Darnielle’s latest sonic odyssey set to come out this weekend.
- Here are our picks for the weekend ahead, and some of the other releases you can expect creeping up on your Spotify playlists overnight.
New Music Friday comes around for another week, as the big charge towards Christmas continues with the annual Christmas Number 1 race also upon us - though currently, no signs of who might be releasing something for the contest, though the music in the new John Lewis advert surely must be a contender, right?
But before musicians adorn themselves in tinsel and start reworking lyrics to be more “apt” for the festive period, we still do have several forthcoming releases that aren’t seasonal related, so enjoy them while you can.
This week sees releases from a living legend, folk-rock favourites, hip-hop superstars and a huge release from one of the leading voices of the flamenco-reggaeton scene - here’s our picks for the weekend ahead.
The Weekend Drop: This week’s biggest album releases - November 7
Rosalía — Lux
Rosalía's fourth studio album, Lux (Latin for "light"), is her most ambitious and radical artistic shift yet. Moving away from the flamenco-reggaeton fusion of Motomami, this record is being hailed as a pop opera and a journey into contemporary classicism.
The album is structured into four movements, exploring themes of feminine mystique, spirituality, and transcendence. Each song's lyrics are reportedly inspired by the life and stories of a different female saint, with the singer exploring her own Catholic background.
Rosalía sings in 13 different languages across the record, including Spanish, Latin, Sicilian, Ukrainian, Arabic, and more. The project features a stunning global roster of guests, including Björk, Portuguese fado icon Carminho, and flamenco star Estrella Morente.
The sheer scale of the production, including a boys' choir (Escolania de Montserrat), makes this a massive release.
Danny Brown — Stardust
Stardust marks a pivotal and deeply personal chapter for the veteran Detroit rapper. It is his first album written entirely in sobriety, resulting in a record that is both clear-eyed and creatively unhinged. Brown frames the album around a semi-autobiographical character named Dusty Star, a 90s pop star struggling with recovery.
The album’s sound is a departure, curated by Brown to feature a cast of young, highly experimental producers and artists from the hyperpop and digicore scenes, including the next wave of avant-garde artists such as Jane Remover, underscores, Frost Children, and Femtanyl.
Brown openly discussed his desire for this album to channel joy and gratitude, proving that his innovative energy could be maintained without the chaos that fuelled his earlier work.
White Lies — Night Light
The London trio's seventh album, Night Light, sees the band distil their signature sound into one of their most cohesive and confident works. Inspired by the energy of 1970s live TV performances, the band approached the album by mastering the songs live in a room first, and then recording them that way—a reversal of the typical studio process. This gives the record an immediate, raw, and pulse-driven feel.
The record doubles down on their core strengths: deep, baritone vocals, soaring choruses, and cinematic synths and features muscular post-punk rhythms mixed with electronic textures, delivering an expansive yet deeply human soundscape that solidifies their place in the synth-rock landscape.
The Mountain Goats — Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan
John Darnielle and The Mountain Goats deliver what is described as their most conceptually detailed and musically elaborate project to date - which is saying something if you’re a long-time fan of Darnielle.
The album is a full-on musical that tells the story of a catastrophic shipwreck, focusing on the three survivors—an unnamed narrator, Captain Peter Balkan, and Adam—as they struggle with diminishing resources and apocalyptic visions on a desert island. The music expands significantly from their indie-folk roots, featuring a rich tapestry of orchestral elements including harp, woodwinds, strings, and complex synths.
The album's major talking point is the surprise appearance of musical theatre star and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, who contributes backing vocals on multiple tracks, lending credence to the "musical" ambition of the project.
Mavis Staples — Sad And Beautiful World
At 86, the legendary vocalist Mavis Staples returns with her 14th solo album, a collection that bridges the decades of her immense career. Produced by Brad Cook, the album is a deeply spiritual and reflective work, combining classic soul with elements of country and folk.
The tracklist includes reinventions of timeless songs, notably Curtis Mayfield's ‘We Got To Have Peace’ and a soul-stirring cover of ‘Godspeed,’ originally by Frank Ocean. Staples' rendition of the Frank Ocean track, along with a cover of Gillian Welch's ‘Hard Times,’ showcases her unique ability to infuse contemporary and classic material with powerful, lifelong testimony.
The album is a powerful statement on the state of the world, capturing the tension between sorrow and hope, delivered by one of the last living voices of the American Civil Rights and Gospel movements.
What other albums are set to be released this weekend?
If our suggestions haven’t piqued your interest, then the following albums are also set to be released on November 7:
- Armand Hammer & The Alchemist — Mercy
- Del Water Gap — Chasing The Chimera
- Finger Eleven — Last Night On Earth
- Hatchie — Liquorice
- Insecure Men — A Man For All Seasons
- Midlake — A Bridge To Far
- Portugal. The Man — SHISH
- Sorry — COSPLAY
- Stella Donnelly — Love And Fortune
- Steve Gunn — Daylight Daylight
- The Dears — Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful!
- Westerman — A Jackal's Wedding
- Whitney — Small Talk
All information is correct as of writing and sourced from Metacritic.
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