Notable Music Releases This Week (May 15)

After last week’s stacked load of new albums , this is a lighter week for new music but I’ve got a few good ones that I highlight below. It wasn’t a slow week in the music world though; Phoebe Bridgers began making her long-awaited return, Charli XCX stoked the flames of “Rock Music” discourse, and three new side projects with some familiar faces from the emo/post-hardcore world all popped up at once. Dave and I talk about all of that and more on this week’s episode of BV Weekly .

We highlight eight albums below, and Bill discusses five more in Indie Basement , including Kelley Stoltz, Kevin Morby and Touch Girl Apple Blossom. In addition to those, this week’s honorable mentions include the surprise Salem album , Rostam, Held. (Coheed & Cambria, The Sleeping), The All-American Rejects, 49 Winchester, Rhododendron, Peter Frampton, Nara’s Room, SUSS, New Idea Society (Stephen Brodsky & Mike Law), Mr. Bruce, Mad Honey, Lord Sko, Jeff Parker ETA IVtet, Active Child, Primitive Ring, Shaggy, Shakey Graves, Khun Narin, Maluma, Orphan Donor, Discovery Zone, Towa Bird, Yu Su, Eluvium, Lucki, Arturo Sandoval, Pro-Pain, Tank and the Bangas, Jack Johnson, the Beach Boys Pet Sounds 60th anniversary releases, the Jethro Tull box set, the Incendiary rarities compilation, the third live Immanuel Wilkins Quartet album, the Smerz EP, the MC Serch EP, the The Field EP, the Stingray EP, and the Porches mixtape.

Read on for my picks, and listen to the new episode of BV Weekly for more of this week’s new music and music news. What’s your favorite album of the week?

Spencer Krug – Same Fangs (Pronounced Kroog / Secretly) A solo piano record is just the latest of the Wolf Parade singer, songwriter and keyboardist’s prolific output.

Wolf Parade recently went viral with their Apologies to the Queen Mary track “I’ll Believe in Anything” appearing in HBO series Heated Rivalry , and then Wolf Parade’s Spencer Krug followed that with a solo piano version of the song. If you like that, you’ll probably like his new album, which is also a solo piano record and really shows off his incredible songwriting. It’s also just the latest of his prolific output over various monikers and projects, including Sunset Rubdown, Moonface, and his own name. He’s one of his generation’s most prolific and consistently great songwriters, and Same Fangs has his unique charm on full display.

Genesis Owusu – Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge (Ourness) Chaotic music for chaotic times from the genre-blurring Ghanaian-Australian artist.

Ghanaian-Australian artist Genesis Owusu picks right up where his first two albums left off on LP3, Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge , which is yet another great example of the way he fuses post-punk, hip hop, pop, funk, and various other styles of music together. The common ground he finds between all the genres he incorporates is the high energy, and after three albums in five years, that energy has not been toned down one bit. Redstar Wu is also an overtly political record; it’s chaotic music for chaotic times.

Dua Saleh – Of Earth & Wires (Ghostly International)

Justin Vernon and aja monet join the Sudanese-American artist on her sophomore album.

Sudanese-American artist Dua Saleh’s sophomore album is inspired, in Dua’s words, by “the demise of Earth,” over a blend of electric art pop, R&B, Sudanese folk music, and more. It’s one of two albums out today with guest vocals by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, who’s on three of its songs (more on the other album soon), and aja monet appears as well. “If my world were to disappear, I would bring it back to life with aspects of home,” Dua says. “For me, this means bringing in elements of sound that feel like home.”

Alan Braufman – Anthem for Peace (Valley of Search) The free jazz legend’s comeback-era music has been just as gripping as 1975’s ‘Valley of Search.’

NYC free jazz legend Alan Braufman’s fire continues to burn ever since starting his long-awaited comeback at the beginning of this decade. Anthem For Peace is his third new album since coming back, and it was made with Luke Stewart of Irreversible Entanglements on bass and Nabil Ayers producing, alongside Alan’s frequent collaborators Patricia Brennan on vibraphone and Chad Taylor on drums/percussion. His comeback-era music has been just as gripping as 1975’s storied Valley of Search and Anthem For Peace is no exception.

Captain Jazz – The Product (self-released)

Another fiery batch of screamo songs from emo’s loudest piss-takers that transcends the album’s elaborate joke of a rollout.

Emo pranksters Captain Jazz turned heads back in late 2023 with a band name and album artwork that showed they clearly weren’t afraid to take the piss out of two of emo’s most legendary bands, and their album had a batch of fiery screamo songs that were as worth talking about as the band’s sense of humor. But last week they said that they signed to a label called IPH, changed their name to Cash Jazzy, and had an album called Old Memories out May 15. They also released a single called “I Love You Like Pizza!” that had more of a melodic Midwest-style emo vibe. Were Captain Jazz “going for it” and thus needing to change the band name? It all kind of seemed like a joke given the band’s track record, and now that May 15 is here, I think it’s safe to say that it was. (Though you really never know with this band.) Old Memories didn’t come out; instead, they released The Product under the name Captain Jazz. Like the first album, it’s another hefty dose of fiery screamo songs (and a little melodic emo), and the music continues to transcend all the hijinks.

Drake – Iceman, Maid of Honour & Habibti (OVO/Republic/UMG)

Drake’s first proper solo albums since his highly-publicized feud with Kendrick Lamar

After a long tease for his new album Iceman , Drake released not just that album but three new albums in one day: Iceman, Habibti , and Maid of Honour . Most notably, these are Drake’s first proper solo albums since his highly-publicized feud with Kendrick Lamar peaked with Kendrick’s world-dominating Drake diss track “Not Like Us” (though they also follow Drake’s 2025 collaborative album with PARTYNEXDOOR, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U ), and multiple lyrics are already being interpreted as shots at Kendrick and references to their beef. He also reveals on “Make Them Cry” that his father was diagnosed with cancer. Guests across the three albums include Sexyy Red, Central Cee, Popcaan, Ovrkast, Future, 21 Savage, Molly Santana, PARTYNEXTDOOR, and others.

leroy – status update music (self-released)

A chaotic collection of Dariacore, hyperpop, rave, trap and beyond from Jane Remover.

Jane Remover had a busy 2025, releasing full-length albums as Venturing and under their usual moniker, followed by an EP in December. They seem to be keeping up the pace in 2026: they just surprise-released a new album under their “Dariacore” alias leroy, status update music . It spans a little over an hour of dense, glitchy, heavily distorted, mashup-based chaos, with all kinds of freakish manipulations of very recognizable hooks that span countless genres, from Britney Spears to Knocked Loose to Megan Thee Stallion (and recognizable song names like “XO Tour Llif3” and “Love.Angel.Music.Baby” that don’t seem to correlate with the hooks being sampled but maybe are buried in there somewhere). They describe it as “my life as I lived it from may 2025 to may 2026,” and it’s both compulsively listenable and danceable.

Kevin Morby – Little Wide Open (Dead Oceans) The onetime member of The Babies and Woods calls his guest-filled eighth solo album the “most personal and vulnerable album I’ve ever made.”

I also really like the new Kevin Morby album, which Bill wrote a proper review for in Indie Basement . It’s got some of his biggest-sounding production yet (courtesy of Aaron Dessner) and it features Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon (who’s quite the busy guest vocalist this week), Lucinda Williams, Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath, and MUNA’s Katie Gavin.

Read Indie Basement for more new album reviews, including Telehealth and the The Gnomes EP.

Looking for more recent releases? Browse the Notable Releases and Indie Basement archives.

Looking for a podcast to listen to? Check out the latest episodes of our weekly music news podcast BV Weekly and the BV interviews podcast .

Pick up the BrooklynVegan x Alexisonfire special edition 80-page magazine, which tells the career-spanning story of Alexisonfire and comes on its own or paired with our new exclusive AOF box set and/or individual reissues, in the BV shop . Also pick up the new Glassjaw box set & book , created in part with BrooklynVegan, and browse the BrooklynVegan shop for more exclusive vinyl.

_Originally reported by [Brooklyn Vegan](https://www.brooklynvegan.com/spencer-krug-genesis-owusu-dua-saleh-reviews/)._