Also in stores this week are the new records from Lambchop and Westside Cowboy.
Julia Holter Materia (Domino/Sony Music)
The Laugh Is in the Eyes. A suspended vocal line framed by synth textures and bass — a sumptuous opening track for Materia, which borrows the name of a track from Julia Holter’s previous album Something in the Room She Moves, and presents itself as a continuation. Yet this is not a matter of padding lines or recycling session scraps: it is a new, enclosed journey, offering near-fetal comfort, from the Californian musician.
By Sophie Rosemont. Read the review of Materia
Lambchop Punching The Clown (City Slang/PIAS)
For this seventeenth album, a counter-move: Kurt Wagner opts for an archaic acoustic setup and, as an unexpected guest star, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver… on banjo. This return to pure, bare songwriting is completely twisted and spiced up by employing a choir led by Blake Morgan.
By Vincent Brunner. Read the review of Punching The Clown
Jorja Smith What Are the Odds (Because)
Her voice embraces the highest BPMs, able to turn a toxic breakup into a cathartic anthem on What’s Done Is Done, while ballads break away from their tempo, such as Pretend or When It Gets Like That. Beyond the title track, which unpacks the paradoxical solitude Jorja Smith navigates while being thrust into the limelight at such a young age, the album also touches on disappointing friendships, fragile loves, the grief to undergo, and the trust to cultivate — in oneself as well as in others.
By Sophie Rosemont. Read the review of What Are the Odds
Weezer Weezer (Gold Album) (Warner Records)
Short and sharp — well, yes, sharp enough — Weezer (Gold Album) zeroes in on their rollercoaster artistry (moments of rage paired with melancholic dips) in three minutes. More than the awkward four-season run with the lukewarm pizza taste (the four SZNZ EPs) in 2022, and even more than the duo of pleasant surprises OK Human and Van Weezer in 2021, this Gold Album returns to the disarming way Cuomo makes electric pop. It also owes a good deal to the production (handled by Klas Ahlund and Kenneth Blume, a Vince Staples collaborator and already the producer of Geese’s Getting Killed in 2025): has the band ever sounded so tight?
By Rémi Boiteux. Read the review of Weezer (Gold Album)
Westside Cowboy It Goes On (Island Records/Universal)
After two EPs dubbed “Britainicana” by those involved, a careful blend of English traditions and American references, the Mancunian group keep turning toward the New World. New York and the East Coast as a starting point, with Velvet Underground as the launchpad, but also The Modern Lovers, Pixies, and the early records of the Strokes and Arcade Fire.
By Valentin Gény. Read the review of It Goes On
