7 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, Megan Thee Stallion, and More

Also stream new releases from Tomu DJ, Danger Mouse & Black Thought, Kiwi Jr., Young Nudy, and Elaine Howley
Panda Bear  Sonic Boom
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, photo by Ian Witchell

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 mixtapes from Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, Megan Thee Stallion, Tomu DJ, Danger Mouse & Black Thought, Kiwi Jr., Young Nudy, and Elaine Howley. 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.)

Panda Bear & Sonic Boom: Reset [Domino]

Noah Lennox (aka Animal Collective’s Panda Bear) joins forces with Peter Kember (aka Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom) for Reset, where the two artists focus on their love for 1960s pop obscurities. Though the pair have collaborated on their respective solo projects, Reset is their first album as co-creators. Read Daniel Felthensal’s review of Reset, an album he describes as “simple, ecstatic, as elegant as a math formula.”

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Megan Thee Stallion: Traumazine [1501 Certified Entertainment/300 Entertainment]

Traumazine is Megan Thee Stallion’s studio follow-up to 2020’s Good News, and she’s described the project as being exceptionally vulnerable. She announced the album shortly ahead of its arrival, just shy of a year after last year’s odds-and-ends collection Something for Thee Hotties. Traumazine includes the singles “Plan B” and her Future collaboration “Pressurelicious.” Megan’s Dua Lipa duet “Sweetest Pie” is on the album, too, and the LP has other guest appearances from Rico Nasty, Key Glock, Latto, Jhené Aiko, and more.

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Tomu DJ: Half Moon Bay [Franchise]

Bay Area producer Tomu DJ is inspired by the late footwork icon DJ Rashad, and her new album features Teklife’s DJ Manny. According to the label’s album announcement, Half Moon Bay is meant to convey this message: “The weight of existence is best shouldered slowly and steadily.”

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Danger Mouse & Black Thought: Cheat Codes [BMG]

Danger Mouse and Black Thought’s long-gestating collaborative album is finally here. Cheat Codes includes the singles “Strangers” featuring Run the Jewels and A$AP Rocky (which has a new music video out today), “No Gold Teeth,” “Aquamarine” (with Michael Kiwanuka), and “Because,” which features contributions from Joey Bada$$, Russ, and Dylan Cartlidge. The album also features Raekwon, Conway the Machine, and the late MF Doom.

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Kiwi Jr.: Chopper [Sub Pop]

Toronto quartet Kiwi Jr. have released their third album in four years. The follow-up to 2021’s Cooler Returns and their 2020 debut Football Money was produced by Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner. It features the singles “The Sound of Music,” “The Extra Sees the Film,” and “Unspeakable Things.”

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Young Nudy: EA Monster [PDE/RCA]

EA Monster follows Young Nudy’s pair of 2021 releases Dr. Ev4l and Rich Shooter. The East Atlanta rapper’s new mixtape has contributions from producers including Pi’erre Bourne, Mojo Krazy, Coupe, Rio Leyva, Nash, and Whatitdoflip. The one featured artist on EA Monster is BabyDrill, who appeared on the single “Duntsane.”

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Elaine Howley: The Distance Between Heart and Mouth [Touch Sensitive]

A former member of Crevice, Howlbux, and the Altered Hours, the Irish singer and songwriter Elaine Howley channels the experimental pop of Broadcast, Tirzah, and Leslie Winer on her debut solo album. The product of an audio diary kept on a 4-track cassette machine, The Distance Between Heart and Mouth evokes Howley’s childhood hobby of home-recording Longwave 252 transmissions. The album concerns “themes of silencing and communication,” she added in a press release. “My voice and a lot of my feelings were buried and I wanted to push that out.”

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