IRON BOY
IRON BOY Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2025 Black Sherif
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Close Circle
Close Circle Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2025 Pronto Revealing a sharper, stronger edge, the MC shapes an idiom for true fans.
Sentient
Sentient Album ∙ Rock ∙ 2025 Santana The guitar god revisits past gems, solo and collaborative.
Dreams on Toast
Dreams on Toast Album ∙ Rock & Roll ∙ 2025 The Darkness Bedazzling riffs, genius rhymes, and a whole lot of rock ’n’ roll fun.
BlownBoy RU
BlownBoy RU Album ∙ African Dancehall ∙ 2025 Ruger A portrait of a rising singer-songwriter’s transformation into a coveted star, and elegantly depicted by the album artwork, Blown Boy Ru houses the fun, trials, romance, and triumph associated with exponential growth. Ruger (born Michael Adebayo Olayinka) makes a fiery statement on chest-thumping opener “REIntroduction” before “Muah (Soulmates)” contains the lines, “Are you happy with your man or you want to switch lanes?/Baby don’t you ever let your man block you from your soulmate,” a reference to his cheeky concert antics. To that sensuality, add bravado (“Give Away”), revelry (“Jay Jay”), and vulnerability (“Toro”) as this sure-footed sophomore album fleshes Ruger’s Afro-dancehall out with explorations of amapiano, trap, R&B, and Brazilian funk. These soundscapes are largely fashioned by Kukbeatz and depict expansion—of both Ruger’s persona and into the varied worlds of Zlatan, Kranium, Haile, Valiant, and Tiwa Savag...
By Any Means
By Any Means Album ∙ Worldwide ∙ 2025 Sukha Persistence and determination underpin the Toronto rapper’s first album.
Glory
Glory Album ∙ Alternative ∙ 2025 Perfume Genius The remarkable thing about Mike Hadreas’ music is how he manages to fit such big feelings into such small, confined spaces. Like 2020’s Set My Heart on Fire Immediately , 2025’s Glory (also produced by the ever-subtle but ever-engaging Blake Mills) channels the kind of gothic Americana that might soundtrack a David Lynch diner or the atmospheric opening credits of a show about hot werewolves: a little campy, a little dark, a lot of passions deeply felt. The bold moments here are easy to grasp (“It’s a Mirror,” “Me & Angel”), but it’s the quieter ones that make you sit up and listen (“Capezio,” “In a Row”). Once he found beauty in letting go, now he finds it in restraint.
OMW2 REXDALE
OMW2 REXDALE Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2025 NAV The Toronto rapper’s fifth album is finally here .
RUSHMERE
RUSHMERE Album ∙ Alternative Folk ∙ 2025 Mumford & Sons For their first album in seven years, and first as a trio, the British folk-rockers Mumford & Sons went back to their roots. RUSHMERE , their fifth album, is named after the pub in southwest London where Marcus Mumford, Ted Dwane, and Ben Lovett first got to know each other as friends and eventual creative collaborators. They were humble days, coming years before tracks like “Little Lion Man” helped define a strand of optimistic folk pop that dominated the early 2010s and influenced 2020s stadium-fillers like Noah Kahan and Zach Bryan. RUSHMERE pulls back from the pomp and splendor of folk-rock stardom and gets back to basics: furiously played guitars and rousing vocal harmonies, with Marcus Mumford’s sincere, resolute burr leading the way. Produced by Nashville straight-shooter Dave Cobb, who’s known for his unfussy, song-forward approach to the studio, RUSHMERE places the powerful songwritin...
LOS FLAVORZ
LOS FLAVORZ Album ∙ Urbano latino ∙ 2025 Dei V Dei V made the most of his 2024, collaborating with everyone from Feid and Omar Courtz to Anuel AA and Ozuna in addition to dropping his proper full-length debut. Following a standout appearance on Bad Bunny’s 2025 album DeBí TiRAR MáS FOToS , the Puerto Rican rising star returns with an EP-length effort to satisfy his expanding fanbase. Befitting its title, LOS FLAVORZ provides a sampler of styles that the agile artist outperforms over. From the tech-house thump of “Sirena” to the shimmering dancehall reggae of “Toa” with De La Rose, he crosses genres while keeping the project remarkably cohesive. The dance floor-centric “Quiere” presents no fewer than three different rhythmic change-ups in its roughly two-and-a-half-minute runtime. The aforementioned Courtz keeps up his side of their growing joint catalog on the Ty$-esque “Amber,” while an emerging Clarent makes a meaningful impression on the similarly popping “Lollipop....
Somos Leyenda
Somos Leyenda Album ∙ Música Mexicana ∙ 2025 Grupo Maximo Grado “In 2012, when world-ending theories were circulating, I got so stuck that I said to myself, ‘If this happens, I don’t want to be anywhere else but home with my children and wife,’” Christian Félix—leader, composer, and vocalist of Grupo Maximo Grado—tells Apple Music. “And if it doesn’t end, then brace yourselves, because I’m going to give my all.” Thirteen years later, the bet that the Baja Californian made with his future—leaving other people’s projects to focus on his own—seems to have paid off. Grupo Maximo Grado has established itself as the very definition of contemporary corrido, with a special composition style that’s key to the development of the genre. Félix celebrates that mystical anniversary by recording new duets with the cream of the crop from corrido’s last decade. Together they reinterpret Grupo Maximo Grado’s most iconic songs, the ones that soundtracked nights of partying while also laying a found...
RENT'S DUE
RENT'S DUE Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2025 Nemzzz Despite a breakthrough mixtape in 2024’s DO NOT DISTURB under his belt, Nemzzz still has to sweat the little things on its follow-up, 2025’s RENT’S DUE . Central Cee and Kyle Richh of 41 both come through for guest verses, but Nemzzz, who’s originally from Manchester, manages to approach the project with a humility that’s infectious: He’s playing big shows and moving tons of units, but he’s still got plenty more to prove. With his signature, UK drill-inspired flow, Nemzzz takes us deep into his psyche. Over stomping percussion, rubbery 808s, and a retro horn melody on “COLD,” he raps, “Apart from bro, when I ain’t have bread, me, I didn’t hear from no one.” He sums it up nicely during the next verse when he adds, “Mumsy didn’t expect this life for me when I was an infant.” On RENT’S DUE , Nemzzz makes it clear he’s still growing into his status as a superstar, but he’s getting a bit more comfortable with each chart-top...
Based on a True Story
Based on a True Story Album ∙ Hip-Hop/Rap ∙ 2025 Will Smith Will Smith has heard the chatter. So much of it, in fact, that the armchair punditry he apes on his Based on a True Story opener, “Int. Barbershop - Day,” sounds like it could be a field recording from any number of Black American gathering spaces. “Who the fuck Will Smith think he is?/And that boy damn crazy how he raising them kids,” goes a particularly cartoony quip. But that’s the beauty of Smith’s creative practice. Whether as star of television’s groundbreaking The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , hunky lead of rom-coms like Hitch , and even action flicks like the Bad Boys franchise, Smith has never had a problem poking fun at himself. But keep playing…and he’ll get serious quick. Which is exactly what happens on Based on a True Story , Smith’s first body of work following 2022’s infamous Chris Rock/Oscars altercation and his first full-length album since 2005’s Lost and Found . On...
Recordando Ariel Camacho (Live)
Recordando Ariel Camacho (Live) Album ∙ Latin ∙ 2025 Natanael Cano Ariel Camacho’s impact on música mexicana simply cannot be overstated. Overtly cited or otherwise evident in today’s corridos scene, the Sinaloa singer-songwriter lives on through a musical legacy a decade after his tragic, untimely passing. Honoring those invaluable contributions, contemporary superstar Natanael Cano devotes this entire live album to the late artist’s memory and craft. Devotees of the departed’s work with Los Plebes del Rancho will recognize and assuredly admire the tumbados pioneer’s selections here, which include fan favorites such as “Hablemos” and “El Rey De Corazones.” The bulk of these fairly faithful covers originate with 2014’s influential and celebrated El Karma , including its gripping title track as well as the defiant “El Toro Encartado.” After running through catalog highlights like the lovelorn “Por No Perderte Te Perdí,” an undeniably reverent Cano closes his set with “Te Met...
PAID IN MEMORIES
PAID IN MEMORIES Album ∙ R&B/Soul ∙ 2025 Jessie Reyez The cover of Jessie Reyez’s third album features a questionnaire she answered as an eighth grader, and in a section titled favorite hobbies, she writes, “Rapping/singing/dancing.” In a sense, PAID IN MEMORIES makes good on those interests. She recruits hip-hop icons like Lil Wayne and Big Sean, alongside peers such as Lil Yachty, to help formulate some of these rap-leaning ideas. Despite the prevalence of these moments, though, she still offers up plenty of alt-pop songs for fans of her first two efforts: 2020’s BEFORE LOVE CAME TO KILLS US and 2022’s YESSIE . “PSILOCYBIN & DAISIES” flips the guitar riff from The Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” and turns it into a hard-charging pop cut. Elsewhere, she displays her versatility with the downtempo neo-soul of “TORONTO SHORDIE” and the reggaetón-inspired groove of “PALO SANTO,” creating an album that pays tribute to all her passions. ...