7 Albums Out Today to Listen to: The Weeknd, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, MIKE, and More

In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on January 31, 2025:

The Weeknd, Hurry Up Tomorrow

Listen / Buy
TIDAL
Spotify
Apple Music

The Weeknd is back with a new album called Hurry Up Tomorrow. It concludes a trilogy that began with 2020’s After Hours and 2022’s Dawn FM, and Abel Tesfaye has also suggested it might be his final Weeknd album. Largely self-produced, the 22-track LP features contributions from Giorgio Moroder, Oneohtrix Point Never, Max Martin, Pharrell Williams, Mike Dean, and others, as well as guest spots from Lana Del Rey, Florence + the Machine and Travis Scott (on the same song!), Justice, Anitta, Playboi Carti, and Future. It was preceded by the singles ‘Timeless’ and ‘São Paulo’. “This album feels almost like an opera to me,” Tesfaye told Variety, “this gothic, operatic finale to the trilogy.” It’s definitely cinematic, which makes sense, given that there’s an accompanying feature film due out in May. But it’s also 22 tracks, so better take your time with it.

Bonnie “Price” Billy, The Purple Bird

Listen / Buy
TIDAL
Spotify
Apple Music
Physical

Bonnie “Prince” Billy has delivered his own kind of country album with his latest effort, The Purple Bird. The follow-up to last year’s Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You was recorded in Nashville with producer David “Ferg” Ferguson and features songwriting contributions from John Anderson, Ronnie Bowman, Pat McLaughlin, Tommy Prine, and Roger Cook, among others. Will Oldham met Ferg during the sessions for Johnny Cash’s 2000 album American III. “He’s a giant of a man, an epic musical force, a dear friend,” Oldham said in press materials. “Our work together on this record was the result of years of sharing hard times and great joys, songs and stories, of making music together and apart. There’s a lot of trust in this record on Ferg’s part and on mine, and the trust was hard- and well-earned. When I listen to the record, oftentimes I can’t help but laugh in wonder that life allowed me to participate in such a thing.”

MIKE, Showbiz!

Listen / Buy
Bandcamp
Spotify
Apple Music
Physical

NYC rapper MIKE’s latest album, Showbiz!, has landed via his own 10k label. Following Pinball, his 2024 full-length collaboration with producer Tony Seltzer, MIKE handled most of the production on the album, recording it at his home over the course of a year. Refracted through his hazy yet focused delivery, much of the album revolves around the idea of home itself, especially as MIKE reflects on the restlessness of life on the road. “The prize isn’t much, but the price is abundant,” he raps on ‘Artist of the Century’, a definition of success that’s as potent as it is open to interpretation.

Geologist & D.S., A Shaw Deal

Listen / Buy
Bandcamp
Spotify
Apple Music
Physical

A Shaw Deal is the debut album by the new project of Animal Collective’s Brian “Geologist” Weitz and White Magic and Highlife musician Doug Shaw. During the pandemic, Geologist took solace in watching clips of Shaw, his longtime friend, playing guitar on Instagram, and he started collating them together. He took the audio and ran it through his modular system, tweaking and looping it to create a new record, which he decided to gift to Shaw for his birthday. “I didn’t set out to make a Geologist record, or even a record anyone but Doug would hear,” Weitz shared. “I didn’t add any new sounds beyond what existed, and just fed the raw materials through myself as a possible channel. That way, I could say, ‘Happy birthday. You made a record, you just didn’t know it.’”

Joe McPhee, I’m Just Say’n

Listen / Buy
TIDAL
Spotify
Apple Music

85-year-old saxophonist, trumpeter, and poet Joe McPhee has issued his new album, I’m Just Say’n, via Smalltown Supersound. Produced with longtime collaborator, saxophonist, and flautist Mats Gustaffson, it’s a uniquely playful and haunting record that utilizes McPhee’s improvised practice to words, which he treats as instruments. On the opening track ‘Short Pieces’, McPhee mediates on free jazz titans David Murray, Don Cherry, Eric Dolphy, and close collaborator Peter Brötzmann.

Rosa Bordallo, Isidro

Listen / Buy
Bandcamp
Spotify
Apple Music

Rosa Bordallo has dropped her sophomore album, Isidro, via Bad Auntie Records. An ethereal collection of psych-inflected rock, pop, and folk, the follow-up to 2019’s Reef Walker was recorded with Ben Etter, whose work with Deerhunter and Hazel English impressed the New York-based musician and Chamorro singer-songwriter. “I wrote these songs in 2021 and 2022, in the shadow of the pandemic and New York City’s recovery,” Boradllo explained. “I was grieving personal tragedies as well as the collective loss. It was the realization that my ancestors survived their own catastrophic near-demise that gave me perspective. I’m a survivor. We all are.”

Canty, Dim Binge

Listen / Buy
Bandcamp
Spotify
Apple Music

Out now via Full Time Hobby, Dim Binge is the latest mixtape by East London musician Canty. The multidisciplinary artist fleshed out a patchwork of ideas while working out of a friend’s flat, describing the process as “a binge cocktail of self-care, psilocybin and self-recording.” Reflecting on their earliest memories, or what they call “a few before-and-after moments,” they sought to identify the universal in the autobiographical. “This mixtape has been a learning process – what works for me, what I like,” Canty explained. “A way to make sure that music isn’t the problem, it’s the solution.”

Other albums out today:

L.S. Dunes, Violet; Freckle, Freckle; numün, opening; Lil Durk, Deep Thoughts; Damon Locks, List of Demands; FearDorian, Leaving Home; Lilly Hiatt, Forever; EST Gee, I Ain’t Feeling You; Tyga, Not Safe for Work; Eddie Chacon, Lay Low; Maribou State, Hallucinating Love; Ebo Taylor, Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Ebo Taylor JID022; moe., Circle of Giants; Lawrence English, Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds; Fadi Tabbal, I Recognize You From My Sketches; Ocean Moon, Ways to the Deep Meadow.