6 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: the Microphones, Tkay Maidza, Duval Timothy, 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 and EPs from the Microphones, Tkay Maidza, Duval Timothy, Duma, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Aminé. 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.)
the Microphones: Microphones in 2020 [P.W. Elverum & Sun]
After making music as Mount Eerie more than a decade, Phil Elverum has returned to his Microphones moniker for a new album that consists of one 44-minute track. It’s the first Microphones record since 2003’s Mount Eerie. In a statement about the album, he explained, “The essence of this project has never really changed: me exploring autobiographically in sound and words with occasional loose participation from friends.”
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The Microphones: Microphones in 2020
Tkay Maidza: Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2 EP [4AD]
Australian rapper Tkay Maidza released her debut album TKAY in 2016 via Downtown/Interscope. She’s now shifted to 4AD for her Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2 EP. Kari Faux appears on the new EP’s “Don’t Call Again,” and JPEGMAFIA joins Maidza on “Awake.”
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Tkay Maidza: Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2 EP
Duval Timothy: Help [Carrying Colour]
Help is the latest album from Duval Timothy, a multi-disciplinary artist who splits his time between London and Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. After releasing his 2 Sim EP in 2018, Timothy turned his focus toward compositions exploring ideas about enslavement, legacies of ownership, color theories, and multimedia art. Twin Shadow plays guitar on several Help tracks, and the project also features production and percussion from Vegyn. Famed minimalist painter Ellsworth Kelly is sampled for the vocal part of the track “Look.”
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Duval Timothy: Help
Duma: Duma [Nyege Nyege Tapes]
Sam Karugu and Martin Khanja comprise Duma, a grindcore duo from Nairobi, Kenya. Karugu and Khanja recorded their debut, Duma, at Nyege Nyege Tapes’ studio in Kerala, Uganda last year. Check out Duma’s video for “Lionsblood.”
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Duma: Duma
Mary Chapin Carpenter: The Dirt and the Stars [Lambent Light/Thirty Tigers]
The Dirt and the Stars is the first album of new material from country singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter since 2016’s The Things That We Are Made Of. Leading up to the album, she released a three-part podcast where she and the poet Sarah Kay discussed the record, its themes, and its place in her career. She also previewed the record with the title track, “American Stooge,” and “Secret Keepers.”
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Mary Chapin Carpenter: The Dirt and the Stars
Limbo, the sophomore album from Portland rapper Aminé, features Vince Staples, slowthai, Injury Reserve, J.I.D, Young Thug, Charlie Wilson, and Summer Walker. The LP follows Aminé’s 2017 debut Good for You and his 2018 release ONEPOINTFIVE, which he called an “EPLPMixtapeAlbum.”
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Aminé: Limbo
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