If you’re looking for some great new music, here’s a sampling of notable releases from the past few months that you can stream on Hoopla thanks to your Livingston Library card.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis – Warriors
This musical adaptation of Walter Hill’s 1979 film The Warriors was composed by Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda and Obie award-winner Eisa Davis, and features performances by iconic artists like Lauryn Hill, Nas, and Busta Rhymes. The Guardian says that the album is “marshaled with the same brio Miranda showed in Hamilton…this mini-epic about the young, scrappy and hungry of Coney Island echoes that historical masterpiece’s bloody battles for territory and underlying dream of unity. Hamilton’s blend of combative rap, beatboxing, melodic sweep, and plangent balladry is here spiked with ska, metal, and salsa.”
Sabrina Carpenter – Short N’ Sweet
Variety proclaims that Sabrina Carpenter’s sixth studio album, which contains the smash hit “Espresso,” “not only establishes Carpenter as a multifaceted singer, but also multidimensional superstar.”
Milton Nascimento and Esperanza Spalding – Milton + Esperanza
In their five-star review of this collaboration between Brazilian jazz singer Milton Nascimento and American bassist / musician Esperanza Spalding, The Guardian raves: “Spalding cements her status as a collaborator capable of extracting mighty performances from her elders. Her imaginative musical settings showcase Nascimento’s mature range, producing a late-career masterpiece that highlights the beautiful changes wrought by age.”
Charli XCX – Brat and It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat
This remix album of Charli XCX’s Brat, 2024’s hottest pop album, features appearances by artists like Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Bon Iver, Lorde, and Julian Casablancas. New Musical Express writes that it’s “a home run for its creator, letting her finish the game on her own terms. She has perfected the art of remixing, keeping the songs moving by giving them a brand new lease of life rather than letting them exist statically in their original form.”
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Flight b741
The prolific and experimental Australian rock band’s latest album leans into Blues & Country sounds. Glider Magazine says, “The band sacrifices their love for challenging sonics for soaring harmonies that accent subtle nods to Western nostalgia while filling the room with grandiose arrangements, creating a tight and consistently entertaining tracklist that still finds ways to shock and amaze.”
Pitchfork declares that on the Virginian guitarist’s third album, her songs “remain as focused as ever, and she uses these other musicians with the same consideration with which she uses various techniques; nothing is simply spectacle. More than anything else in Williams’ catalog, Acadia is open to tangents, wild ideas, sudden realizations, and sustained moods.”
Gaga’s seventh studio album is a companion to the film Joker: Folie a Deux, where she plays Harley Quinn alongside Joaquin Phoenix as the title character. AllMusic’s review calls the album “a coveted no-skips effort, elevated by the fun, liberated approach that helps the listener escape reality and push the limits like the characters in the film.”
Joni Mitchell – Archives, Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980)
This boxed set of previously unreleased material by the legendary singer-songwriter includes demos, alternate takes, and live recordings. Mojo magazine describes the set as presenting “a fascinating real-time evolution…this collection shows a woman out to see as much as she can.”
—Joe, Adult Services & Acquisitions