9 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: 2hollis, Armand Hammer, and More

Skip to main contentNewsletterNewsReviewsBest New MusicFeaturesListsColumnsVideoAlso stream new releases from Ecco2k and U2With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new albums from 2hollis, Ecco2k, Armand Hammer, and U2. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.)2hollis: Pirouette [Interscope]Underground-to-mainstream export 2hollis has successfully translated the ragged energy of post-rage into a bona fide pop career. Pirouette meets his skyrocketing profile head-on, going bigger in every possible department. It’s longer, the files are more complicated, the lore is headier, and the sonic profile itself is vast: Emo, pop rock, twee revival, ambient, and choral music all slot into a larger umbrella of pop-EDM. Tying it all together is charismatic Hollis, who matures on sultry, tactile tracks like “Skin” (“Only once I’m under your skin will I feel close enough to you”) and “Sex” (need I elaborate?). Though the album is largely self-produced, Mk.gee notches a writing and production credit on “Human After All.”Listen on Apple MusicListen on SpotifyListen on TidalListen on Amazon MusicBuy at Rough TradeArmand Hammer: Snakes and Ladders [Backwoodz]Armand Hammer, the duo of Elucid and Backwoodz founder billy woods, make their music sound like it is being recited just a foot away from you. That quality is omnipresent on Mercy follow-up Snakes and Ladders. Suffused with political, economic, and technological dread, the album overflows with intimate yarns and moreish imperfections—pianos with no keys, swamps, amd county calls, but also effervescent laughter and Tropical Punch. The production plants you right in the center of it all, within miniature universes where cars rush by, blunted minor chords slink, and haunted melodies loop and reverse.Listen on Apple MusicListen on SpotifyListen on TidalListen on Amazon MusicListen/Buy at BandcampBuy at Rough TradeEcco2k: Echo [9th]Despite being an essential Drain Gang member since the 2010s, Ecco2k had only released one solo album, 2019’s E, until now. Carefully crafted over six years, Echo takes the Swedish musician’s world-building to astonishing heights, refining the cloud rap he helped pioneer while escaping its nebulous borders. “Industrial Synth”’s slashes of electric guitar evoke the perkiness of pop rock, “Swimming in Fountains” teems with gurgling, cybernetic IDM synths, and the gliding trip-hop of “Cuban Heel” sounds like an Erika de Casier deep cut. The lyrics tell of molten hot interiors, arrows through the heart, and loveless animals. Echo makes the case for letting the music brew on that hard drive a bit longer. Read more in Kieran Press-Reynolds’ new profile Ecco2k’s Long, Long Coming of Age.Listen on Apple MusicListen on SpotifyListen on TidalListen on Amazon MusicListen/Buy at BandcampKrill: Secret Language [Exploding in Sound]Before Krill established their weirdo spin on indie rock in Boston in the early 2010s, the trio grew up in the greater Chicago area before relocating for college. Three albums, one breakup, and a handful of moves later, Krill are back to drumming up new music in the comfort of their hometown. Secret Language, their first full-length in 11 years, takes all the tangled thoughts and pensive observations that are Krill’s bread and butter, and fits them to new musings about parenthood, hobbies, and responsibilities in the modern world. It’s heavy stuff if you let it be, but as always, Krill extend an inviting hand to show you around.Listen on Apple MusicListen on SpotifyListen on TidalListen on Amazon MusicListen/Buy at BandcampBuy at Rough TradeU2: Carnaval de Luz [Island]A decade has passed since we last got an album of originals from U2, and they’ve clearly had time on their minds. The impetus for Carnaval de Luz arose after drummer Larry Mullen Jr. injured his neck, bringing into focus the four-person rock ecosystem the band has sustained since the late 1970s. After sessions with Brian Eno and Jacknife Lee materialized into the EPs Days of Ash and Easter Lily, Carnaval De Luz closed the loop on their creative return. It comes complete with a duet featuring the final verse Dolly Parton ever recorded.Listen on Apple MusicListen on SpotifyListen on TidalListen on Amazon MusicListen/Buy at BandcampBuy at Rough TradeFucked Up: Year of the Rooster [Tankcrimes]Fucked Up’s second album of the year—well, third, depending on your semantic approach to double albums—doubles as the continuation of their Zodiac Cycle and triples as the final installment of their Grass Can Move Stones trilogy. Fans of franchises, concept albums, neoclassical storytelling, and epic hardcore riven with tangents and tributaries will find plenty to tangle with here. Damien Abraham and his veteran accomplices, including Zodiac series regular Tuka Mohammed, ride into a battle of the earworms with guests including Thurston Moore, Black Flag’s Keith Morris, and the Dolly Mixture’s Debsey Wykes.Listen on Apple MusicListen on TidalListen on Amazon MusicListen/Buy at BandcampSnoh Aalegra: Legendary Love [Stem]The romance that gives Snoh Aalegra’s new album its title is more than just legend. The Iranian Swedish singer tracked the LP over the course of a two-and-a-half year partnership that she says “brought me back to the era of music I fell in love with growing up.” That means warm, silky production inspired by 1980s and ’90s R&B, with assists from Nile Rodgers and Raphael Saadiq. Legendary, indeed.Listen on Apple MusicListen on SpotifyListen on TidalListen on Amazon MusicBuy at Rough TradeAesop Rock and Blockhead: Trouble Mountain [Rhymesayers]When the rapper Aesop Rock and producer Blockhead were growing up, you couldn’t turn on a TV in the tristate area without being inundated with commercials for pristine ski trips to the Poconos. Neither skied nor had equipment, but the promise of a proper ski lodge party always rang as both enticing and empty: like, “must be nice.” Trouble Mountain, the duo’s first joint album since 2021, takes that fantasy and runs away with it, reimagining the Poconos retreat they saw on primetime as a place where, as Aesop says, “You might meet your future spouse or you might have to fight some local ski gangs.” ’Tis the season!Listen on Apple MusicListen on SpotifyListen on TidalListen on Amazon MusicListen/Buy at BandcampBuy at Rough TradeAnna Butterss / John Raymond / Ben Lumsdaine: Beginningless [Northern Spy]All roads lead to Indiana University for the trio of Anna Butterss, Ben Lumsdaine, and John Raymond. Butterss is a chameleonic stylist who plays as nicely off their jazz contemporaries (and SML bandmates) as alternative rockers like Phoebe Bridgers and Neko Case. More than a decade after their campus improvisation series Call and Response, the trio revived its interweaving chemistries for this studio session, as spontaneous as it is grounded.Listen on Apple MusicListen on SpotifyListen on TidalListen on Amazon MusicListen/Buy at BandcampBuy at Rough Trade