This New Music Friday comes right in the middle of a stretch where multiple top-tier albums seem to arrive each week. So far, 2025 has been a newsworthy year for music. There’s many strong releases out now. Read on to see a full list of top picks from this week. First, here’s an in-depth look at two records that have fans buzzing.
The Best of New Music Friday:
Perfume Genius – Glory
Is there another American-born singer so invested in nailing vocal performances on rock songs the way Perfume Genius is? Seeing as he had to tap New Zealand’s unbelievably talented Aldous Harding to accompany him on his latest album Glory, the answer is “hardly.”
Perfume Genius, whose real name is Mike Hadreas, is a product of the baroque-pop musical style that knows no boundaries. The most notable people of this sort (other than Hadreas and Harding) are Welsh singer Cate Le Bon, English producer John Parrish and Parquet Courts’ ex-pat singer A. Savage. Perfume Genius is an anomaly. There are few examples of modern well-known artists portraying obscurity in instrumentation and sorrow in lyricism than he.
At first blush, Glory is almost a discouraging listen. Its soft, slightly psychedelic folk pop is deceptively thorny and dense. Take the strummingly-rugged tune “It’s a Mirror.” You have to learn how to listen to it, like how high schoolers decipher Shakespearean English. Once you discover how to enjoy Glory, it’s one of 2025s best overall albums.
Lucy Dacus – Forever Is a Feeling
There is something about Lucy Dacus’ aura that is undeniably Lucy. There’s a mysteriousness in performing at haunted museums, a sleek coolness to being one third of the boys in boygenius and something even cooler about being in a queer relationship with one of those boys. But there’s something else so subtly pleasant about her voice, instrumental giftedness and lyrical relatability that makes Dacus feel different than other rockstars. Whatever it is, it’s encapsulated within the new album Forever Is a Feeling.
Dacus’ fourth solo studio album is a love record. “Even on opposite sides of the room // I am orbiting you,” as she sings on “Come Out,” is just one of many memorable metaphors touted. But there are plenty of straightforward bits. On “Ankles,” Dacus is about as honest as a person can be: “Bite me on the shoulder, pull my hair // And let me touch you where I want to”; “Pull me by the ankles to the edge of the bed // And take me like you do in your dreams,” she begs a lover.
Dacus takes on theatrics now, too. The opening track to Forever Is a Feeling is an orchestral prelude that switches into “Big Deal,” a track she debuted at one of Julien Baker’s sets in London late last year. String instruments have found themselves at home as a complimentary piece on rock albums this decade, as seen with Arctic Monkeys and The Last Dinner Party.
This record is in many ways different from prior Dacus offerings, but it manages to dig her lore even deeper. An artist’s stylistic changes often stem from the idea they should push themselves forward, and it feels that Dacus is embracing a new era with sensitivity, but never shyness. She’s somehow more open than ever before. Listen closely and it’s there in Forever Is a Feeling.
New Music Friday Top Picks:
Alison Krauss & Union Station – Arcadia [Down the Road]
Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead [Republic]
Boldy James & Antt Beatz – Hommage [Empire]
Cactus Lee – Cactus Lee [Western Vinyl]
Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power [Roadrunner]
Destroyer – Dan’s Boogie [Merge]
DJ Python – I Was Put on This Earth EP [XL]
Great Grandpa – Patience, Moonbeam [Run for Cover]
Spellling – Portrait of My Heart [Sacred Bones]
Which of these tracks from New Music Friday will you add to your favorite playlists today? Any we missed? Let us know in the comments or on Instagram!
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