When midnight falls, so too should a flurry of new releases. Bits and pieces become clear throughout the week and, unless you’re an artist of the Beyoncé/Frank Ocean/Petite Meller ilk, albums are usually easy to track down, but sometimes artists hold everything back for American audiences. Fortunately, The Edge is nocturnal, scavenging for the very best new releases (and some weird thing with the most startling key change you’ll hear this year) so you don’t have to.
If there’s anything we’ve missed or you’d like to see your upcoming release featured on this page, let us know by emailing us at [email protected]!
Bastille – Wild World
By far the most straightforward of this week’s crop of the new, Bastille’s second LP picks up where Bad Blood left off with injections of the cinematic and melodramatic throughout. Check out James Barker’s full review to find out exactly why he reckons it’s “a masterclass in how any band should do album number two and a certain contender for album of the year so far,” and then tackle it yourself – but good luck getting past the contagious ‘Good Grief‘ right up top.
Lady Gaga – ‘Perfect Illusion’
Gaga, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Mark Ronson, and BloodPop did a thing that, for her, is typically ominous with the flamboyant vocals that have been largely absent from our charts since 2013’s Artpop. Like a perfectly rational being, Popjustice‘s Peter Robinson thinks you shouldn’t listen to it. If you’re joining his party, spare a thought for us fools who heard 16 seconds of it on her Twitter account or may have ended up listening to a premiere on American radio at 4am because…reasons entirely justified by what happens just before the two minute mark.
M.I.A. – AIM
Here are the opening lyrics from the five singles so far taken from M.I.A.’s fifth and final LP.
“You say you love the coco / They say they love their boko / Some say fuck all / But I’m here to take all.”
“Freedom, ‘I’dom, ‘Me’dom / Where’s your ‘We’dom? / This world needs a brand new ‘Re’dom / We’dom – the key / We’dom the key’dom to life / Let’s be ‘dem / We’dom smart phones / Don’t be dumb.”
“No focus lost, I concentrate / And now you got it wrong / People love position / So I stay way up on a level / Like my name is Neymar and you know I’m not normal.”
“I’m a parrot / I’m robin this joint / Not a lyre bird / Sure ain’t a vulture / Don’t swallow that cause I make the culture / I’m not a lyre bird, I’m not a lyre bird / Staying, staying rich like an ostrich.”
“I’m a swagger man / Rolling in my swagger van / From the People’s Republic Of Swagistan.”
She’s back, bitches.
Throttle feat. LunchMoney Lewis & Aston Merrygold – ‘Money Maker’
Here’s a trivia answer that you may well need for any music-based quiz night of mine that will inevitably be founded: young Australian “dirty disco” producer Throttle is the only person to have ever officially remixed Earth, Wind & Fire’s ‘September’ – and he did a damn good job at it. ‘Waiting,’ his January collaboration with Oliver Heldens, kicked his reputation up yet further, and now he’s at the point where he can attract that ‘Bills‘ chap and the flat-capped quarter of JLS for his four-month-on booty-centric vocal edits.
Petite Meller – Lil Empire
Petite Meller is one of the most ridiculous people in pop today. Just look at this single cover. Thankfully, like all good music folks, she’s gone and released an album (her debut, in fact) without any prior warning. Most of Lil Empire is probably that same ‘Baby Love’/’Barbaric’/’Lil Love’/’Milk Bath’/’The Flute’-moulded frantic frolicking in a field (with Pnau coming along for a bit of fun on that middle track), thereby making it almost certainly incredible.
Post Malone feat. Justin Bieber – ‘Deja Vu’
Are you even a rapper if your album’s pre-determined release day slips by without a new project appearing? Self-proclaimed ‘White Iverson’ Post Malone was supposedly due to release Stoney two weeks ago – i.e. on Travis Scott’s initial Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight day – but nothing really happened. Now, he jumps back into view a week after Scott’s eventual launch with a Bieber-y single of his own.
Selected Other Releases
Albums
Drugdealer – The End Of Comedy
Grouplove – Big Mess
Jack White – Jack White Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016
July Talk – Touch
KT Tunstall – KIN
Local Natives – Sunlit Youth
Mat Zo – MAD EP
Meat Loaf – Braver Than We Are
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Skeleton Tree
Of Mice & Men – Cold World
Twin Atlantic – GLA
SAFIA – Internal
Sunflower Bean – From The Basement EP
The Beatles – Live At The Hollywood Bowl
What So Not – Divide & Conquer EP
Wilco – Schmilco
Singles
B.U.S.T.E.D – ‘Coming Home’
Dusky feat. Solomon Grey – ‘Long Wait’
Elohim – ‘Hallucinating’
Gorgon City feat. Elderbrook – ‘Smile’
Jack Garratt feat. Little Simz – ‘Far Cry’
James Arthur – ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’
Knife Party & Tom Morello – ‘Battle Sirens’
LeAnn Rimes – ‘How To Kiss A Boy’
Mac Miller feat. Ariana Grande – ‘My Favourite Part’
Mahalia – ’17’
Miike Snow – ‘My Trigger’
Nimmo – ‘Kamikaze’
Norah Jones – ‘Flipside’
Oliver – ‘Electrify’
OneRepublic – ‘Future Looks Good’
Peter Gabriel – ‘The Veil’
Pixies – ‘Tenement Song’
Regina Spektor – ‘Black And White’
Röyksopp feat. Susanne Sundfør – ‘Never Ever’
Sia feat. Kendrick Lamar – ‘The Greatest’
The Fray – ‘Singing Low’
The Heavy – ‘WTF?’
Tink vs. My Digital Enemy – ‘Clocks’
Tove Lo feat. Wiz Khalifa – ‘Influence’
Tyga feat. Desiigner – ‘Gucci Snakes’
VÉRITÉ – ‘Somebody Else’
White Lies – ‘Come On’
Wilkinson feat. Karen Harding – ‘Sweet Lies’
