9 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Ariana Grande, the Durutti Column, and More

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 albums from Ariana Grande, the Durutti Column, and more. 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.)

Somewhere in the pink-and-green whirlwind of the Wicked rollout, it started to look like Ariana Grande was ready to hang up pop stardom for a while. But in the midst of a North American tour, a movie rollout, and a starring role in an imminent West End musical, the multihyphenate supreme is back with a new album. Her first record since 2024’s Eternal Sunshine appears to have a mournful tip: the regret-tinged lead single “Hate That I Made You Love Me” arrived with a music video where Justin Long attempted to bury Ari alive, only to realize he was digging his own grave the whole time. In a press statement, she elaborated on what the title means to her: “something that is full of life and growing through the cracks of something cold and hard and challenging.” Who can relate?

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If you enjoyed the last Harry Styles record, here is a logical next step: the long-awaited return of DIY composer and experimental songwriter Vini Reilly, touted by Styles himself as an unlikely influence on Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. The group’s first album in 16 years reunites Reilly, who survived two strokes in 2010, with longtime percussionist Bruce Mitchell and player-producer Keir Stewart. The trio launched the record with a bona fide entry into the Column canon: “Liars” layers guitar refractions and sighing keys over portentous drums as Reilly mutters a monologue buried so deep in the mix it seems to be fading from the song’s own memory. “I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry,” he murmurs towards the end. Thank you, thank you, thank you, say the rest of us.

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The thesis of Arca’s first LP in five years arrives in its first five seconds, via a stuttering, robotic voice: “Diva as technology.” The Venezuelan producer has spent the past decade throwing club nights at the intersection of human and machine, and imbuing even her strangest transmissions with a pop sensibility. Initially envisioned as a mixtape, XXXXX largely leaves that sound behind for stranger pastures, dipping into dark IDM and glitch with aplomb. In a statement, she called the making of the 16-track record “a process of losing control, collaborating with the unconscious to step out of my comfort zone, and not let inertia determine where the music goes.”

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Trashcan Sinatras remain one of the most beloved cult indie-rock bands in Scotland, the country with perhaps more of those, per capita, than any other. Produced by Delgados drummer Paul Savage, the band’s first album in a decade—notwithstanding the 2022 stopgap EP Lay of the Land and the reissue of the great I’ve Seen Everything—is full of agile, witty, sweet-spot anthems and earworms that, on anthemic brooders like “The Associated Funk,” occasionally rise to a rapture. None other than Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside joins them on “Hold on to Today.”

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Davido celebrates 15 years at the top of the game with Oriadé, its title a portmanteau of the Yoruba words “ori” (head, destiny) and “adé” (crown). Guests including Leon Thomas and Aya Nakamura come along for a party that peaks in the amapiano fusion of the mesmerizing single “Gimme Dat Ting,” which meanders into the underworld via a darkly shapeshifting JJay beat and vocals from the Nigerian-raised, Houston singer NO11.

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Incubation periods on hit songs tend to vary. Take summer 2025, when Moliy’s 2024 track “Shake It to the Max” re-emerged as one of the year’s viral breakouts thanks to a TikTok dance challenge and a dancehall remix with Shenseea and Skillibeng. Now, she’s back to prove that a) good things take time and b) she’s no one-hit wonder, with the album Baddies <3 Moliy. The new LP expands the Ghanaian American artist’s scope, highlighting her affinity for music hailing from across the Caribbean diaspora including bouyon and dancehall. Tyla, Dominican artist Yailin la Más Viral, Ghanaian rap star Sarkodie, and Moliy’s own sister, Melissa, are among the features here.

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Shannon Lay’s first new album in five years is a testament to honing your craft, even on the off days. On Past The Veil, the Los Angeles singer, guitarist, and composer nurtures the sparse instrumentation of her last album with rich jazz accompaniments and reverberating trip-hop beats, cooking up an elixir for late-summer lounging. These arrangements may seem laidback, but her lyrics complicate the very concept of relaxation. “What if we called it success to sit around in the shade for days?” she wonders on disco closer “I Need More Water.” The work stands out behind every composition here—she’s earned her laytime, no pun intended.

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When Shearwater singer Jonathan Meiburg isn’t making music with his Texas band, you can find him researching the life forms of the ocean floor in Antarctica. It may sound like quite the balancing act, but Meiburg’s scientific work fits neatly into their expansive, meditative new album. Laden with Meiburg’s field recordings, The New World traverses new sonic and administrative territory—this is their first self-released album, the result of four years of exploration. “I think most of us, me included, don’t understand where we really are. Not viscerally,” he said in a press statement. “And when I feel hopeless or useless, contemplating the living world–the one outside the internet–is the only thing that helps. It’s so much stranger and more beautiful than you think.”

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The Mancunian producer Leo has an ear for rhythm that links the many genres he works with–dembow, techno, dubstep, industrial, ambient—in one deep pocket. The trained drummer’s new album, Cicada Burnt, brings a particular physicality to that nebulous umbrella “bass music,” keeping even the most astute listeners on their toes. This new iteration of his sound is also his debut for the Los Angeles imprint Peak Oil. Whether it’s within a song or between records, the most consistent thing about Leo is his capacity for change. Whatever terrain he traverses, his footsteps are heavy, leaving their mark in every groove.

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