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Where do you go to find the new albums released this week?

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Serious question. Three years ago I would have said ‘Guardian review Fridays plus the Spotify New Releases’ section. Now….the Guardian is down to 2/3 albums a week, and the major Spotify redesign seems to have made it virtually impossible to find an objective list (ie not ‘for you’) list of new releases. I am sure there are excellent folk/jazz/classical genre sites, but I am after an overview of them all from Taylor Swift and Doves to Go Kart Mozart and Sons of kemet. And that album by an artist I’ve never heard before that has five stars that someone says I must listen to.

So where do you go for listing, rating and slating? Weekly ideally, but monthly also possible.

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Comments

  2. I get (probably too many, truth be told) New Release/Staff Pick emails from Piccadilly, Assai and Juno and there’s usually something interesting in one/all of them.

    And a quick scan of the reviews in Mojo/Uncut.

    I don’t really need any encouragement, I buy too many records as it is.

  9. Spotify has ceased to work on my Windows PC. Nothing will get it to work since it last updated itself.
    The latest Android update seems to have halved my phone’s battery life and slowed it right down.
    Why oh why, oh why etc…

  11. Not sure I can help you with New this week, BUT…..

    When discovering new stuff, I find You Tube invaluable. The programme monitors what I’ve been listening to and comes up with fine suggestions. It’s getting better all the time,

    These suggestions occur on the right hand column on the age.

    This week’s best? Yin Yin from the Netherlands and their album; The Rabbit that hunted Tigers.

    Neo psychedelic instrumentals with a strong Asian flavour. Smilar to Khruangbin, but with a bit more bounce. Or perhaps Dengue Fever?

    Yin Yin are excellent and well worth your attention.

    I also keep an eye on who is being invited to do an NPR Tiny Desk session.

    Some new names and some old faves doing delightful, unplugged sessions.

    Currently the Tiny Desk is working from home

    Courtney Marie Andrews

    Other radio and TV stations have sessions by visiting bands,

    I’ve enjoyed a lot of stuff on KEXP in Seatle.

    Great variety and presenters who are are passionate and knowledgeable about music.

    Agnes Obel playing at Paste Magazine, NY

  12. Things just pop up on youtube, twitter, facebook and Spotify. Just now I’m seeing Bowie Width of a Circle, Lana’s got 3 new songs from a new album, King Gizzard has a 2021 release. St Vincent has a new album and new image, she’s performing on US chatshows, SNL, Weller’s doing TV stuff for his Fatpop and so on. Easy to check out. It’s all on youtube. Who cares what Mojo thinks?

    • I care what Mojo thinks.
      Also Uncut, superdeluxeedition.com
      Metacritic tells you what new releases are due over next few weeks and further afield.
      Resident music send me a daily list which is very good.
      Like @fentonsteve I really dont need much encouragement to buy more than I already do but I am sure I will find more ways in the future.

  13. I think this is part of a general dislike of recommendations – is there a worse phrase than ‘for you’. Don’t you tell me what I want! Tell me what there is.
    I don’t want my list. I want the list.

  14. The recent change to Spotify *is* very frustrating. I found a lot of stuff through the ‘new releases’ tab of the ‘browse’ section, supplemented by the new releases you might like list and the release radar.

    I’m sure that somebody does something like this playlist (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4xGrJfcMaNYv4oQF80Xd2R?si=a437941ea2034bfc) but more comprehensive. I just have to find it.

    Radio 6 used to publish a Spotify playlist of their playlist each week and stopped doing it, at which point somebody else created their own version of it which is useful. It is like Jurassic Park… “nature will find a way” – there is obviously a need or demand for this sort of thing so somebody will do it. Won’t they?

    • I find the Release Radar playlist very handy and it’s served up several tracks in the past from people unknown to me that I’ve even ended up seeing live. There’s a similar one that ‘No Depression’ curates on Spotify that (I think) gets updated monthly.

  15. I used to always use Amazon UK – they used to have a great page where you could lit new releases by release date so could easily see what was due out both this week and the next few weeks. Alas, this seemed to disappear a few years ago. You can still see new releases but its sorted by their various algorithms and so not necessarily comprehensive.

    Nowadays its a combination of superdeluxededition (they publish an “Out This Week” on a Monday although its focused on boxset reissues rather then new albums), here, Amazon and then a scan through Fridays Times and Guardian (although as you mention they are pretty lean thee days).

  16. I check Piccadilly Records every week as they’re my local shop – you can sign up to their newsletter with their staff picks if you don’t want to wade through everything. I check Boomkat.com for the more “out-there” stuff as they’re local too but online only. Norman Records do a brilliant newsletter which is well worth signing up to, not least for their very deadpan Yorkshire worldview on the weeks new releases.
    None of these will help you with the cutting edge of mainstream Pop though they’re just responding to the stuff that’s released on Vinyl or CD so no idea where you might get the more poptastic stuff from.

  17. This thread is fascinating, thanks for asking the question.

    I use many of the above. What’s changed on Spotify – I haven’t particularly noticed? I sometimes look through my release radar and there is still a general New Releases page isn’t there? Although, admittedly it seems very random it certainly doesn’t look like it’s tailored specifically for me.

    I subscribe to the newsletter of the Drift record shop in Totnes. It’s a bit cooler than thou but it and their website are put together with care and occasionally throw up something that piques my interest.

    And I really do have this place to thank for so many discoveries over the years.

    • If there is a specific New Releases page it only has a few entries – mix of singles, eps and albums. the ‘Popular New Releases’ is exactly that, good for Billie Eilish and Stormzy, not so good to alert you that Mogwai and Cloud Nothings both have released new albums recently.

  20. Another thumbs-up for Norman Records’ weekly newsletter. I also subscribe to Burning Shed, who are good for proggy stuff. Then there are one or two record labels such as Ghostbox and Erased Tapes. Mainly, though, I listen to Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone every week, and Steve Davis’s bi-monthly “Interesting Alternative”, which between them throw up a lot of stuff that fits my tastes.

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