New Music Friday!

Another New Music Friday kicks off with another release I felt compelled to share my thoughts on. Man, this January has been pretty great!

Edinburgh, Scotland singer-songwriter Brooke Combe has dropped her debut LP, Dancing At The Edge Of The World. At 11 tracks, 32 minutes, this debut doesn't overstay its welcome at all - there's no filler here whatsoever. Combe's vocals are soulful, rich, and powerful, and her fantastic voice is backed by some lush orchestrations and head-bobbing beats. I found this album to be pretty catchy. You really couldn't ask for a better debut. She is resonating with one word, three syllables: PO TEN TIAL.



 
jt4527 said:
I made a start and then forgot:

New Releases, Re-releases and Whatever Elses List, 31st January 2025
  • Lawrence English — Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds (Electronic / Ambient / Drone)
  • Manic Street Preachers — Critical Thinking (Indie Rock / Alternative Rock)
and it turns out MSP is weeks away and I should have checked.
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Here's another, slightly less grumpy attempt at doing a list this week :)

New Releases, Re-releases and Whatever Elses List, 31st January 2025
  • Crust — Cell (Modern Classical / Ambient)
  • Lawrence English — Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds (Electronic / Ambient / Drone)
  • Geins’t Naït — Archives 3/3 (Industrial / Wave / Electro, Electronic)
  • Arve Henriksen & Robert Jürjendal — Haihara (Jazz / Fusion, Electronic)
  • JD J — JD J mixtape (Industrial / Wave / Electro, Dark Ambient / Drone / Metal)
  • NOTO — ∞ Infinity (Endless Loop Color Edition) (Modern Classical / Ambient)
  • Untitled Noise — Decay Music no 8 - I Hate All the Words (Dark Ambient / Drone / Metal)
  • Various Artists — Klassinen Suomalainen Punk Kasetti (Finnish Punk Rock 1978-1980) (Indie / Alternative)
 
musicjunkiegreg said:
So did anyone listen to anything worth checking out today?
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You pretty much summed up Brooke Combe.

The new Cymande album is far better than it has any right to be coming out 50 years after their 3 classic albums. Definitely doesn't reach the heights they did in the early 70s, but there are a few great songs on their new outing, and none that I found the be outright stinkers.
 
I'm so much further behind than I usually am by this point on a Friday because I passed out reading a book before new music even dropped at 9 o'clock Pacific last night, and the 3-year-old's daycare was closed today and they just don't care about New Music Friday the way I do, so I had to play firefighter and birthday cake baker instead of working through my list.
 
Another RBF. Another debut album. Another standout new music Friday (1.31.25) release to discuss.

Yup, the album art was the initial draw on this one. And it represents the music, themes, and band name on this one quite well. This band in question is Finnish 🇫🇮 band Void of Hope and their first LP, the 6-track, 42-minute Proof of Exitence. The band is made up of members from Ondfødt and Moonlight Sorcery and their style is... come on, they're Finnish, so obviously black metal, lol... but it's of an atmospheric and somewhat depressive variety. As I've said in previous black metal discussions, my taste in the genre is pretty picky and specifc: I'm not into the old school, raw, elitist black metal. Proof of Existence is atmospheric, it's melodic, it's got riffs, it's got the tremolo guitar work, it's got blast beats from the kit. It's even got some beautiful piano work to boot. Thematiclly, the album seems to be centered on mental health, and the vocals are much in line with that theme. Aside from the occasional spoken word bits, the vocals are harsh, raspy, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss-like tortured screams, but I really like them. This is surely not for everyone. And if you're not into those vocals or the heavier styles much, at least skip to the closing track, Decaying Years, a beautiful post-rock/post-metal-esque instrumental. If you are into the tortured screams and atmospheric black metal styles, then look no further: this might be the best metal album of the year so far.

 
January 2025 was the best January for new releases in recent or distant memory. I checked out 44 newly released albums in the first month and here's a 4x4 of my favorite releases (listed in alphabetical order by the artist). A handful of these definitely have AOTY list potential. I've included one track from each album in a Spotify playlist below.

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Ambrose Akinmusire - Honey From A Winter Stone (Avant-Garde Jazz)
Beneath a Steel Sky - Cleave (Post-Rock, Post-Metal)
Benjamin Booker - Lower (Blues Rock, Garage Rock, Soul)
Brooke Combe - Dancing At The Edge Of The World (Singer-Songwriter, R&B/Soul)

Century - Sign of the Storm (Heavy Metal)
Ethel Cain - Perverts <EP> (Ambient, Drone, Noise)
Harakiri For The Sky - Scorched Earth (Atmospheric Black Metal, Post-Metal, Blackgaze)
Lambrini Girls - Who Let The Dogs Out (Riot Grrrl, Garage Punk)

Lou-Adriane Cassidy - Journal d'un Loup-Garou (Indie Pop/Rock, Chamber Pop)
Ludovico Einaudi - The Summer Portraits (Modern Classical, Neoclassical New Age)
Mutagenic Host - The Diseased Machine (Death Metal)
Sarcator - Where The Void Begins (Blackened Thrash)

Sophie Jamieson - I Still Want To Share (Folk, Singer-Songwriter)
The Obsidian Resurrection - As Darkness Falls (Death Metal)
The Weather Station - Humanhood (Folk, Singer-Songwriter)
Void Of Hope - Proof Of Existence (Atmospheric Black Metal, Doom Metal)

 
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musicjunkiegreg said:
January 2025 was the best January for new releases in recent or distant memory. I checked out 44 newly released albums in the first month and here's a 4x4 of my favorite releases (listed in alphabetical order by the artist). A handful of these definitely have AOTY list potential. I've included one track from each album in a Spotify playlist below.

View attachment 225787
Ambrose Akinmusire - Honey From A Winter Stone (Avant-Garde Jazz)
Beneath a Steel Sky - Cleave (Post-Rock, Post-Metal)
Benjamin Booker - Lower (Blues Rock, Garage Rock, Soul)
Brooke Combe - Dancing At The Edge Of The World (Singer-Songwriter, R&B/Soul)

Century - Sign of the Storm (Heavy Metal)
Ethel Cain - Perverts <EP> (Ambient, Drone, Noise)
Harakiri For The Sky - Scorched Earth (Atmospheric Black Metal, Post-Metal, Blackgaze)
Lambrini Girls - Who Let The Dogs Out (Riot Grrrl, Garage Punk)

Lou-Adriane Cassidy - Journal d'un Loup-Garou (Indie Pop/Rock, Chamber Pop)
Ludovico Einaudi - The Summer Portraits (Modern Classical, Neoclassical New Age)
Mutagenic Host - The Diseased Machine (Death Metal)
Sarcator - Where The Void Begins (Blackened Thrash)

Sophie Jamieson - I Still Want To Share (Folk, Singer-Songwriter)
The Obsidian Resurrection - As Darkness Falls (Death Metal)
The Weather Station - Humanhood (Folk, Singer-Songwriter)
Void Of Hope - Proof Of Existence (Atmospheric Black Metal, Doom Metal)

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Just realized I posted this in the New Music Friday thread instead of the Best New Music Of 2025 thread..
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