8 New Albums You Should Listen To: Ratboys, Mandy, Indiana, J. Cole, and More

Choosing what to listen to initially can be challenging because there is so much excellent music being released all the time. This is a weekly summary of the major new releases that are accessible on streaming services. New albums from Ratboys, J. Cole, Mandy, Indiana, and other artists are included in this week’s selection.

Ratboys: Singin’ to an Empty Chair [New West]

The Chicago band Ratboys has been playing alt-country indie rock for almost 16 years, but they have never sounded better or more authentic than they do on Singin’ to an Empty Chair. Their sixth album, which was recorded in a remote cabin in Wisconsin that they all shared for a spell and was produced by former Death Cab guitarist Chris Walla, is a test of chemistry, trust, and just letting it fly. “Some [bands] are fractured and tormented and ultimately unsustainable, and the discord fuels the work until it doesn’t,” Walla said to Nina Corcoran for a recent profile on Pitchfork. Some are fortunate, content, and simply glad to be there. Because they work, ratboys do their jobs.

Mandy, Indiana: Urgh [Sacred Bones]

Mandy, Indiana’s debut album, I’ve Seen a Way, combined post-punk, industrial, and bloghouse elements with gospel for a civilization on the edge of collapse. Their music reaches even farther extremes on their follow-up, URGH. While percussion gallops, electric guitar croaks like crushed steel, and crazy synth arpeggios fan out like neon strobes, Valentine Caulfield yowls and raps as she spits out the lyrics in her native French. Every startling note on the album, which was recorded while Caulfield and drummer Alex Macdougall recovered from several surgeries, contains brutality.

Joshua Chuquimia Crampton: Anata [Puro Fantasía]

Joshua Chuquimia Crampton, one half of Los Thuthanaka, returns with a solo follow-up to his 2024 album Estrella per Estrella less than a year after the band’s groundbreaking, self-titled debut. Anata blends heavenly soundscapes with powerful riffing that thrashes right through them, blowing threads of harmony into a concussive tempest, in contrast to Los Thuthanaka, who created a state of chaotic mesmerism. Chuquimia Crampton claims that the title alludes to an annual Andean Mother Earth festival that takes place prior to the rainy season. He uses a production method that is similar to filming “a ceremony or a natural phenomenon with a phone camera” to suggest this idea.

Beverly Glenn-Copeland: Laughter in Summer [Transgressive]

When Beverly Glenn-Copeland announced his dementia diagnosis in 2024, he said in a joint statement with his wife Elizabeth, “We want to challenge the mainstream image of this illness, which focuses on loss. We are actively asking the universe to show us where the life is here.” More than a year later, the pair’s new collaboration Laughter in Summer charts that course, acting as a mutual love letter and a firm embrace of the future. (A new arrangement of Glenn-Copeland’s 2007 track “Children’s Anthem” is dedicated to the couple’s granddaughter.) Recorded with engineer Howard Bilerman and a Canadian choir, it’s improvisatory and theatrical while remaining grounded in Glenn-Copeland’s rich, singular tenor. The title draws inspiration from a phrase Beverly sang to Elizabeth while at work on a still-unreleased project, Songs Without Words: “Laughter in summer, how I remember.”

Daphni: Butterfly [Jiaolong]

Is it possible for an artist to work together? He makes a compelling argument for it on Butterfly, Dan Snaith’s first Daphni album since 2022. One song from the Canadian producer’s latest record under his dance identity, “Waiting So Long,” “features” vocals credited to Snaith’s previous project, Caribou. Snaith claims in publicity materials that the unlikely pairing reflects the synchronicity of his current artistic output, and Butterfly discovers that he is in sync with his inner selection. As the tracklist fades away, Butterfly flutters into funkier, stranger territory after opening with an immaculate blitz of house and post-EDM punctuated by jazz and dub interludes. However, it never loses the peak-time, free-associative energy that the Daphni name implies.

Asher White: Jessica Pratt [Joyful Noise]

Asher White’s latest album is a complete reworking of the singer-songwriter’s self-titled debut, a long Jessica Pratt cover. According to White, what started out as a “procrastination tactic” evolved into a celebration of Pratt’s brilliant songwriting on the LP (“like if Elliott Smith wrote a full album of ‘Say Yes’s”) and its harmonic suggestion and nuances. Pratt herself concurs, stating in press materials that “White’s curiously inventive renditions took me by surprise.” “A wide range in terms of production and style.” Not merely a tribute, but a record unto itself.

J. Cole: The Fall-Off [Interscope]

Whether or not J. Cole’s long-teased seventh album is actually his swan song, The Fall-Off certainly marks some sort of culmination. Ahead of the two-disc release, hip-hop’s self-proclaimed “middle child” has wound down his Dreamville festival and Kendrick Lamar beef—though a few strays find their way in here—and even squeezed in some surprise-mixtape joyrides that could be perceived as last hurrahs. In a typically verbose note he shared with the music video for “Disc 2 Track 2,” Cole explained that The Fall-Off is a downgrade in name alone; nearly two decades after dropping breakout tape The Come-Up, he intends to go out on a high. “For the past ten years, this album has been hand crafted with one intention: a personal challenge to myself to create my best work,” he wrote. “To do on my last what I was unable to do on my first.”

Ella Mai: Do You Still Love Me? [Interscope]

Since the “Boo’d Up” days, Ella Mai has courted romantics who were born in the wrong generation. The UK singer flourishes in the lush, carefree realm between throwback pop and R&B from the 1990s, where good love is straightforward, sweet, and starry-eyed. Do You Still Love Me, her most recent album? retains this perspective with more poise, partly because of executive production by Kendrick ad-lib Mustard, who is everyone’s favorite. Do You Still Love Me? is warm and deliberate in both music and content, wise without being overly weary of the world. She vows to remain faithful to a partner who is significantly less wealthy than she is on the track “100,” even if things never exactly balance out. Isn’t love patient?