I’d been keeping uptodateish with new music even despite my advancing years and out of touchness but finally giving in to Spotify has made the situation worse I reckon.
It’s made for me playlists throw up the odd gem I’ve never encountered but very often it is some ancient band or established indie darlings that I’ve never investigated. The release radar is similarly sporadic and often fills up with tracks that are live recordings, re-releases or one off singles from bands that it already knows I like.
So who are the new bands that are doing it for you at the moment? Say that have so far only released one album or two.
This isn’t exactly answering your question, but if you don’t already, I highly recommend following the weekly new releases threads on here. So much amazing stuff gets posted there that I would never have found via my own browsing.
Even this week in the August new release lull, there are still 10 or so interesting-sounding albums I’m trying to find time to check out.
Places like for the rabbits, goldflakepaint or secret meeting are good for recommendations. FTR are brilliant for emerging bands. GFP is the best and Secret meeting is good for my taste in music.
Resident’s mail out is good too. And worth seeing if a label or website you like has a Spotify account. They often have playlists full of new stuff. Double double whammy have this one…
Gets update weekly on a Monday. Or seeing what labels are putting out via Instagram or something
There’s probably more tbf. Places like paste music on Spotify do monthly playlists of best songs and albums, plus their best of the year playlists are good.
If you have twitter, small albums is well worth a follow. Got so much good stuff off that account in the past. Nice to have them back (although I’m off twitter)
I find the best way to get new recommendations on Spotify is the Discover Weekly playlist which is specifically stuff you’ve not listened to on that platform (either releases by artists you like that you’ve not streamed, or artists you’ve not streamed similar to stuff you like).
The Release Radar is exclusively new releases by/featuring artists you’ve already listened to so not going to give you any totally new discoveries. The other personalised playlists like your six daily playlists are heavily weighted to populate with tracks you listen to already.
There are some good genre-specific playlists which update weekly with new releases that might be low key at an overall level. Worth checking out Spotify published playlists for genres you’re into - here’s a few I’ve found pretty worthwhile:
Katy Kirby - Cool, Dry Place (FFO, lomelda, sun june, Gillian Welch, Phoebe bridgers)
Johanna Samuels - Excelsior! (FFO Julie Byrne)
Bachelor - Doomin’ Sun (FFO Kurt Vile, Jay Om Palehound)
I was in a rut a few years back but started listening to a couple of (very genre specific) podcasts which led to me being completely overwhelmed (in a good way) by new music. That podcast led me to Twitter accounts, which led me to newsletters. Spotify playlists don’t really work for me for some reason - much prefer a single album recommendation.
can’t stop rinsing things like Ashnikko, Marina, Olivia Rodrigo, Lana etc
basically the sort of thing my teenage self would scoff at
Some of my av albums this year are:
Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend
Cheekface - Emphatically No. (second album)
Ashnikko - Demidevil (debut)
Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee
Arlo Parks - Collapsed in Sunbeams
Torress - Thirstier
Drug Store Romeos - The world within our bedrooms
Marina - Ancient dreams in a modern land
Don’t think I’ve discovered any debut albums this year - a couple of new to me artists but not any debuts.
Probably been mentioned already but the genre threads on here like the ambient/drone one are amazing.
Also it can be good to have a little break from the new or just music generally. A few years back I realised that in an attempt to broaden my horizons I was spending all my time listening to music I didn’t actually enjoy very much. sometimes it’s good to step back a little.
A few that have stood out for me this year - not debuts but were new to me:
Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview of…
Museum of Love - Life of Mammals
Tashaki Miyaki - Castaway
Leeanne Betasamosake Simpson - Theory of Ice
As I say, not debuts but albums that are maybe getting slightly less attention than the likes of Dry Cleaning, Squid, Black Midi etc (all of which are great albums).
Scanning through my favourite albums of the year there aren’t a lot of debut albums (quite a lot that I thought might have been and have just discovered some back catalogues to investigate as a result). Here are the ones I could find:
Like other on this thread, I’ve discovered lots of artists this year, but pretty much all have previous releases. The only one I could find with a debut album is Janet Simpson, but this is just her solo debut (she’s been in groups before).
It’s really good Americana and RIYL Lucinda Williams, Cowboy Junkies, Jenny Lewis etc.
