Stream every standout album released this Friday with The FADER’s weekly roundup.
Every Friday, The FADER’s writers dive into the most exciting new projects released that week. Today, read our thoughts on JADE’s That’s Showbiz Baby!, Joviale’s Mount Crystal, George Riley’s More Is More, and others.
JADE: That’s Showbiz Baby!
Across the wildly unpredictable album, [JADE] wrestles with the concept of being addicted to stardom while also feeling sick of the machinations, wrapped up in songs that Frankenstein soul, disco, hyperpop, and the Clubland Classics-era trance music beloved on the dancefloors of her youth. It’s a solo album in the truest sense: It establishes one quarter of a group rarely seen apart as a true individual. — David Renshaw. Read our profile here.
Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music
Joviale: Mount Crystal
Late summer 2025 has been a renaissance for golden-age R&B retrofitted for the future, giving us towering records from the likes of Dijon and Nourished By Time. Joviale’s new album Mount Crystal has more studio polish than these projects, due in part to their clean vocal tone and in part, perhaps, to co-production from Los Angeles yacht-rock revivalsit John Carroll Kirby. But despite their casual technical perfection, the North London artist still gives their songs a lived-in feel. Take mid-album standout “Foul Play,” a diss track to an ex in which they interweave jazzy, double-tracked vocals with sneeringly rapped bars before the whole thing dissolves into a clip of a fight that starts because the aforementioned ex won’t stop looking at his phone while he’s talking to them. It’s petty and vulnerable, and sets us up a transfixing three-track run (the spacey, synth-led “Let Me Down”; the psych-funk groove “Moonshine”; and the intoxicatingly lush “Both Ways”) that feel all the more dynamic due to the disruption. Here and on the rest of Mount Crystal, Joviale dusts us with sugary pop, knotty jazz, and slippery neo-soul, keeping us on our toes while swaddling us in soft blankets of sound. — Raphael Helfand
Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp
George Riley: More Is More
Over the past few years George Riley has established herself as a go-to vocalist for producers looking to bridge the gap between the underground and an imagined pop mainstream. Her timeless and addictive vocals, reminiscent of her clear influence/forebear Kelela, have been heard on tracks by Hudson Mohawke, Jacques Greene, and Sherelle, among others. More Is More is not just an apt title for a project by an artist used to the guest spot, though. These 11 songs speak to a moment where hyperconsumption threatens to tip over into a generation numbness, asking questions about what people want versus what they’re being sold. “I don’t need trinkets, Don’t need gestures, Don’t need to show love to my avatar” she sings on “Unconditional,” a throwback R&B song that slips DJ scratches between impressive vocal runs. Drum & bass banger “More,” meanwhile, clatters into view with lyrics (“Poppin’ champagne, sun shining and I don’t have no kids”) that feel like both a celebration of freedom and a form of self-flagellation. Riley proffers love as the solution to her problems across multiple More Is More tracks but in a world where ambition, hedonism, and financial gain are in abundance, Riley is in no rush to tie herself down. It’s a good thing, watching her find her own way through is a pleasure of its own. — DR
Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music
mark william lewis: Mark William Lewis
mark william lewis’s songs often paint him as someone that feels things a little more keenly than the rest. On “Tomorrow Is Perfect,” a highlight of his excellent and self-titled new album, he is the figure reminding others of “the way the sky burned” above a house “made of teeth and sand.” “Still Above,” meanwhile, pulls a more realistic image of London, a city he casts in concrete as home to cold winds, blinding phone lights, and “a shame I can’t escape.” His deep voice holds the weight of these weighty observations while layers of stacked guitars are accented with the melancholic trill of a lonely harmonica. — DR. Read our full interview here
Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music
Snuggle: Goodbyehouse
Another Friday, another pop album from Copenhagen that sounds light years ahead of everything else. Ironically, for their debut album Goodbyehorse , Snuggle have assembled a collection of songs defined by the past’s burdens. “I was never good at change” sings Andrea Thuesen Johansen on “Water in the pond.” On that song and the rest of the project, Snuggle arrange melodies in strange and welcoming thresholds, gently beckoning us through. Take the tantalizingly spacious sexiness of “Marigold,” or the downtempo Laurel Canyon vibe of “Woman Lake.” Snuggle frequently sing about losing their grip, but their handle on stunning pop that balances the orchestral with the intimate is as tight as a vice. — Jordan Darville
Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp
Frost Children: Sister
Sometimes the indie sleaze revival seems cooked. Then I hear music like Frost Children’s Sister and I think, yeah I could get into this a little longer. Of all of the bands today toiling to revive that dirty, mid-2010s vibe, this N.Y.C. sibling duo is the one doing it the best. Their new album Sister hits a balance the many other electroclash revivalists tend to miss: hedonism injected with a heavy dose of heart. Opener “Position Famous” tempers a line-snorting beat with starry-eyed synths; “What is Forever For” is a crashing heartbreak ode injected with a syringe full of uppers. But it’s the title track that probably embodies the Frost Children spirit the best: taking a digitized guitar melody to reminisce about their time growing up and facing the eternity of being tied together. “Fuck whatever took you from me / Turn around and face me, sister.” Indie Sleaze lived as a function to party but many people overlook that it also accompanied a generation of young adults rapidly growing up. Frost Children didn’t, and that makes their attempt brilliant. —Steffanee Wang
Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp
Other projects out today that you should listen to
Algernon Cadwallader: Trying Not to Have a Thought
Anysia Kym & Tony Seltzer: Purity
Asher White: 8 Tips for Catastrophe Living
El Cousteau: Dirty Harry 2
Guerilla Toss: You’re Weird Now
Ho99o9: Tomorrow We Escape
The Hidden Cameras: Bronto
Iron & Wine & Ben Bridwell: Making Good Time EP
Jens Lekman: Songs for Other People’s Weddings
Jessy Lanza: Slapped by My Life EP
King Princess: Girl Violence
Liim: Liim Lasalle Loves You
Liquid Mike: Hell Is an Airport
Lucrecia Dalt: Rabbit Trap (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Maruja: Pain to Power
mei ehara: All About McGuffin
Michael Hurley: Broken Homes and Gardens
Nyxy Nyx: Cult Classics Vol. 1
Rian Treanor & Cara Tolmie: Body Lapse
Silver Gore: Dogs in Heaven
Tony Shhnow: Self Portrait
Verses GT: Verses GT