It’s Friday and, boy, are we ready to put this week behind us. Luckily, distraction abounds, with a bunch of highly anticipated new albums hitting streaming services today.

Indie cult hero Alex G makes his major label debut on RCA Records. Jim Legxacy, one of British music’s most creative mischief makers, released his first full-length record for the tastemaking XL Recordings label. Paramore dummer Zac Farro steps up to the microphone for his solo debut. Lord Huron — the atmospheric rock band behind one of Spotify’s most streamed songs of all time — unveils its new album. And the duo of Rachika Nayar and Nina Keith released one of our favorite under-the-radar albums of the year under the moniker Disiniblud (and gave us one of the year’s best press photos in the process 👇).

Keep scrolling to see our long list of albums out July 18 and listen to our New Music Friday episode, featuring guest Chelsea O of Buffalo/Toronto Public Media, beginning at 3 a.m. ET wherever you get your podcasts.

The Starting Five

Disiniblud (pronounced “diz-knee-blood”).

Allegra Messina/Domino

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Allegra Messina/Domino

Our hosts share the backstories and best songs from the following albums:

💿 Alex G, Headlights (Stream)

• Recommended If You Like: Animal Collective, Mac DeMarco

💿 Jim Legxacy, Black British Music (2025) (Stream)

• RIYL: A$AP Rocky, Fred again..

💿 Zac Farro (of Paramore), Operator (Stream)

💿 Lord Huron, The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 (Stream)

• RIYL: The Lumineers, Hozier

💿 Disiniblud (Rachika Nayar and Nina Keith), s/t (Stream)

• RIYL: Julianna Barwick, Sigur Rós

New Music Friday is a feature of NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast. Hear the discussion on the NPR App, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Lightning Round

Two Shell.

Metty Unuabona/Young

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Metty Unuabona/Young

Five more albums we wish we had time to discuss on the podcast:

💿 Cam, All Things Light

💿 Forth Wanderers, The Longer This Goes On

💿 Jess Ribeiro, Mixtape

💿 Billie Marten, Dog Eared

💿 Two Shell, Iicons

Listen to each album’s best songs on our New Music Friday playlists on Spotify and Apple, or wherever you stream music.

The Long List

Jessie Murph.

Columbia

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Columbia

For those who want to dig even deeper, here are the week’s new albums sorted by genre:

Pop

• Jessie Murph, Sex Hysteria
• Alex Warren, You’ll Be Alright, Kid
• Fletcher, Would You Still Love Me If You Really Knew Me?
• Avalon, permanent californian EP
• Elijah Waters, Violence!
• Jackson Wang, Magicman 2
• John K, SALT + LIGHT

Country/Folk/Americana

• Jade Bird, Who Wants to Talk About Love
• Dylan Gossett, Westward
• Doke, Fowler and Veale, Deadwood Guitar Sessions: Volume One
• Trisha Yearwood, The Mirror
• Koko Taylor, Crown Jewels
• Dominique Adams, To Keep
• Alex Williams, Space Brain
• Niko Moon, AMERICAN PALM
• The Maes, Abreast

Electronic/Out There

• Slikback, Attrition
• rRoxymore, Juggling Dualities
• Håvard Volden, Small Lives
• KILN, Lemon Borealis
• DJ Haram, Beside Myself
• Jamie Lidell, Places of Unknowing
• Vines, I’ll be here
• Above & Beyond, Bigger Than All Of Us
• Ement, Choice Paralysis
• Hannah Holland, Last Exit on Bethnal
• Khaled Kurbeh, Likulli Fadāin Eqāéh
• Sofie Birch & Antonina Nowacka, Hiraeth
• Terence Fixmer, Magnetic North EP
• V/A, Tectonic Sound

Global

• Hamid Al-Saadi, Maqam Al-Iraq
• J Balvin, Mixteip
• Myke Towers, Island Boyz
• Wolfgang Pérez, Só Ouço

Jazz

• Nat Birchall, Liberated Sounds

Classical

• Niklas Paschburg, Mexican Alps
• Signum Quartett, A Dark Flaring: Works for String Quartet from South Africa

R&B/Soul

• Sly & The Family Stone, The First Family: Live at Winchester Cathedral 1967
• Kanii, #BLUE
• Nectar Woode, it’s like I never left EP

Rap/Hip-Hop

• Raekwon, The Emperor’s New Clothes
• Benny The Butcher, Summertime Butch 2
• $ilkmoney, WHO WATERS THE WILTING GIVING TREE ONCE THE LEAVES DRY UP AND FRUITS NO LONGER BEAR?
• Che, Rest in Bass
• GELO, League of My Own
• hard life, onion
• Joyner Lucas, ADHD 2
• Loe Shimmy, Rockstar Junkie
• Young Deji, When Are You Coming Back To Houston

Rock/Alt/Indie

• Laura Jane Grace, Adventure Club
• Madeline Kenney, Kiss from the Balcony
• Natalie Bergman, My Home Is Not In This World
• Cleo Reed, C***ry
• Kitty Craft, Bits + Bobs from the Flower Patch Vol. II
• Coral Grief, Air Between Us
• Don’t Worry, Idealism
• Borderline, Crysalis
• Bush, I Beat Loneliness
• Dead Tooth, s/t
• Dream, Ivory, When You Come Back I Have So Much To Tell You
• Message To Bears, Tired Eyes, Waking Hearts
• One More Satellite, s/t
• Panic Shack, s/t
• Rio Romeo, Good Grief!
• We Are Scientists, Qualifying Miles

Credits