5 albums you need to hear this week

In the age of streaming, it’s never been easier to listen to new music — but with over 60,000 new songs added to Spotify every day, it’s also never been harder to know what to put on. Every week, the team at Rolling Stone UK will run down some of the best new releases that have been added to streaming services.

This week, we’ve highlighted records by Korn, (M)haol, Young Fathers and The Waeve.

Korn – Requiem Mass

Korn’s 14th studio album, Requiem, is one that suggests religious imagery by its title, which explains why they decided the Hollywood United Methodist Church in Los Angeles was a fitting backdrop for their record launch show last February; there, in front of an unusually intimate audience, they live-streamed a gig that saw them deliver tender acoustic tracks and a decidedly non-tender electric set. The latter is now immortalised on this live EP, Requiem Mass, which contains a punishing take on ‘Worst Is on Its Way’, a brooding ‘Hopeless and Beaten’, and, given the surrounds, a fittingly-titled ‘Lost in the Grandeur’, as well as Requiem lead single ‘Start the Healing’ and an epic rendition of ‘Let the Dark Do the Rest’.

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp | TIDAL | Amazon Music

Raye – My 21st Century Blues

Good things come to those who wait. The debut full-length from Tooting’s Rachel Keen feels like it’s been a long time in the making, not least to the artist herself, who has already experienced a lifetime’s worth of industry turbulence after a four-album deal she signed with Polydor at the age of 17 turned out to be a ball-and-chain she was only able to break free from at the start of last year. Now, she finally independently releases her first record proper, and moves beyond the shackles of her dance-pop rise to deliver an odyssey in soul, blues and R&B that offers no-holds-barred lyrical takes on, amongst other things, British politics and her battle with addiction.

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music

The Waeve – The Waeve

Graham Coxon has a busy summer in prospect with his other band, but first, he’s venturing into new territory on this first collaborative full-length with Rose Elinor Dougall as The Waeve. Here, he takes the opportunity, not afforded to him by blur, to explore experimental territory; expect plenty of saxophone and some lute from Coxon, as he and Dougall weave their way through rock, jazz and punk, the latter’s dreamy vocals the only constant. The folk that they initially bonded over is in evidence throughout, but what their unlikely union has actually produced is what is surely one of the year’s more thoughtful alt-pop records.

Listen on: Spotify| Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music

Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy

Four albums in, Young Fathers remain one of the country’s most unique musical voices. In the swaggering ‘I See’, the band experiments with art- pop to indulge their love of the surreal, while ‘Shoot Me Down’ sees classic trip-hop paired against powerful soul vocals. Striking and strange, but always accessible. Fans will lap it up.

Listen on: Spotify| Apple Music | TIDAL | Amazon Music

M(h)aol – Attachment Styles

On their debut album, Dublin four-piece M(h)aol prove to be powerful agents in delivering songs with a fighting chance of disrupting the worse parts of the status quo. Gender-based violence, gender inequality are all present and correct here, all underpinned by a chameleonic soundscape that proves them impossible to pigeonhole. A powerful and distinctive debut effort.

Listen on: Spotify| Apple Music | TIDAL |Bandcamp| Amazon Music