Hi and hello, TND readers. Today is a STACKED release day, so the writers have chosen a whopping 13 albums to highlight for you today. We probably could've done double, but this list alone will give you plenty to dive into today.

The Dare – Freakquencies: Vol 1 [Polydor/Republic Records]

The Dare's debut What's Wrong With New York? put the artist's personality on the front line. Brash, funny, lighthearted, and unserious (save for "Elevation" and maybe "You Can Never Go Home"), his first album stands as this return to the 2000s’ unapologetic love for the club. Yet, with Freakquencies: Vol 1, Harrison Patrick Smith reimagines that concept on a more technical level, asserting himself as a skilled DJ and producer. (Though, with Pinkpantheress' "Stateside", Charli Xcx's "Guess", and numerous remixes now under his belt, one might say he's already proven himself in this regard.) The new EP is an ode to dance music, blending French touch, acid, house, and electro in a tight series just under 20 minutes. The first single "Tambourine" starts and then doesn't stop, building around that hook-y vocal sample with the snaps, warbles, and beats that are unique to The Dare's signature production style but still feel classic and a bit old-school in method. Anyway, it's Friday — if dancing is on the schedule for tonight, and the mood is, "I'm in the club while you're online!", then give Freakquencies: Vol 1 a spin. – Victoria Borlando

Deftones - private music [Reprise]

No longer viewed as “the one good nu-metal” band, Deftones stand as one of the biggest acts in heavy music. Hindsight is 20/20, but it seems obvious that by crisscrossing metal, shoegaze, and alternative in sultry and downcast fashions, they’d rise to festival headliner status eventually. private music, their tenth album, makes it evident that although they’re often imitated, they’re impossible to replicate. The composite Deftones pieces – guitars tuned down to the floor, Chino Moreno’s idiosyncratic vocals, quiet-loud song structures, addictive grooves – are as strong as ever. There are few surprises in store, but that’s the story here. private music reasserts the enrapturing formula that’s inflated Deftones’ status four decades into their career. --Colin Dempsey

Earl Sweatshirt – Live Laugh Love [Tan Cressida]

Fans weren’t sure if Earl Sweatshirt was really going to release a new album after a peculiar listening party hosted by an impersonator of the rapper, but he did. Live Laugh Love, the follow-up to 2022’s Sick! and 2023’s Voir Dire, is named after the “inspirational” slogan often seen in rugs, mugs, and home decor, which he says was initially just a critique of the phrase’s irony – “I named it before I wrote it,” he says, but then it turned into something more. “And then everything started clicking.” The LP features raw, dusty, sample-heavy instrumentals, as well as lush, mellow piano arrangements over which Earl raps about his current stage in life, his feelings, or fatherhood, as in the song “TOURMALINE”. – Daniel Gonçalves

Eve Adams – American Dust [Basin Rock]

Leaving the rush of Los Angeles for a new life out in the Californian high desert will change anyone, and Eve Adams is no exception. Her fourth album American Dust filters her own experiences through ten seductively bittersweet tales of life on the margins, giving her characters a rich interiority carved out of sacrifice, solitude, and windswept romance. “There’s something very radical about domestic life,” she says of her inspiration for the record. “So many women live their entire lives behind closed doors, completely in the shadows. Within those lives is such sacrifice, devotion, and love. I wanted to honor that: the poetry in the mundane, the longing in the repetition. The way love survives boredom and dust and time.” American Dust was produced by Bryce Cloghesy of Crack Cloud/Military Genius and features Caroline’s Oliver Hamilton on violin. – Alan Pedder

Hot Mulligan – The Sound a Body Makes When It's Still [Wax Bodega]

Rejoice: there is now a song in the world called “It Smells Like Fudge Axe in Here”, courtesy of post-emo heroes Hot Mulligan and their fourth LP The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still. Like all of their records, this one is packed with brilliantly oddball titles — standouts include “Monica Lewinskibidi”, “My Dad Told Me to Write a Nice One for Nana so This Is It”, and lead single “And a Big Load" (which, I'm sure, is probably just a dump truck reference. Get your mind out of the gutter). Sonically, Hot Mulligan return to familiar territory with sounds reminiscent of their breakout 2020 album, you’ll be fine, while also pushing into new ground. The record sprinkles in softer acoustic moments, even dabbling with synth-driven interludes, showing off a more experimental side. All in all, Hot Mulligan continues to perfect their brand of post-emo, post-pop punk, post-everything on The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still. – Ricky Adams

Innumerable Forms - Pain Effulgence [Profound Lore]

A few years ago, Justin DeTorre was best known as the guitarist and vocalist of Innumerable Forms, playing a sentimental hybrid of death and doom metal. That was before he teamed up with Tomb Mold’s Derrick Vella for Dream Unending and released three of the decade’s best metal projects, each draped with dream logic and progressive rock-like ambitions. On his latest record with Innumerable Forms, Pain Effulgence, he returns to a more conventional setting. Turgid riffs and cavernous vocals are the main course, but they exist inside slow-burning tracks that toy with the tension and release between measures. Sabbath-esque guitar solos often duel with DeTorre’s growls. Innumerable Forms is then a forgiving death-doom record with a good amount of bite. – Colin Dempsey

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – GUSH [KAS Sounds/Nettwerk]

If anyone can make an album about “experiencing the genius of everything” and not go mad in the process, it’s electronic art-pop savant Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. Having pushed the limits of cohesion with 2023’s frequently bonkers Let’s Turn It Into Sound, GUSH sounds almost conventional by comparison but turns out to be just as playful, just as artistically bold, just as addictive. It’s a flirty thing, too, often using repetition to tease out anticipation. It hardly needs saying at this point in her career, but GUSH confirms Smith as a sonic architect of the most genuine kind, embodying the work in a sensual, neon-lit world of wide eyes, racing pulses, and synesthetic, liquefied color. – Alan Pedder

Laufey – A Matter of Time [AWAL]

In just a few years, Laufey has gone from a girl singing jazz standards and playing cello like a guitar on TikTok to the ubiquitous face of modern jazz pop. With a Grammy now under her belt, her third studio LP, A Matter of Time, is out today. The Icelandic singer-songwriter tapped The National's Aaron Dessner to co-produce the record with longtime collaborator Spencer Stewart. While maintaining the jazz and traditional pop influences that made her beloved, this record sees Laufey draw back the curtain. “This time, I was interested in seeing how I could draw out the most flawed parts of myself and look at them directly in the mirror,” she says. – Leah Weinstein

Nourished by Time – The Passionate Ones [XL Recordings]

After the release of his debut album in 2023, artist Marcus Brown (AKA Nourished by Time) set to work on his follow-up almost immediately. The Baltimore native announced its title, The Passionate Ones, signed to XL Recordings, and slowly sprinkled in performances from the LP through the rest of that year, including at his first ever festival performances. The Passionate Ones synthesizes Baltimore club and the music of the early ’90s when it still sounded like the ’80s with ease, yet a sense of paranoia always lurks beneath the surface. Brown told Bandcamp his sophomore album was concerned with his attempts to to keep up with his newfound success and making sense of achieving his lifelong dream. “9 2 5”, the album’s second single, looks at Brown’s past stints in customer service with the wisdom of someone who knows these stagnant days are finite. Plus, the dance floor is always there if you need to blow off some steam. – Jaeden Pinder

Mac DeMarco - Guitar [Mac's Record Label]

It’s been over six years since Mac DeMarco released a proper, vocal-forward album in 2019’s Here Comes the Cowboy. Today, after a stretch of mostly fragmented, instrumental releases, the Canadian indie icon makes a full return to song-driven form with a new full-length LP, simply titled Guitar. Mac explains that all the recording for the album took place over two weeks in November 2024, and he “did everything alone except for the mastering.” He also notes that Guitar is “as close to a true representation of where I’m at in my life today as I can manage to put to paper.” The new offering is somber, reflective, laid-back, and, of course, heavily features Mac’s work on guitar. Fans may be disappointed that Guitar only has 12 songs, compared to the 199 on his last effort, One Wayne G, but they should be excited that they’ll hear much more of Mac’s voice and meditative lyricism in this one. – Drew P. Simmons

Pino Palladino & Blake Mills – That Wasn't a Dream [New Deal/Impulse!]

Pino Palladino, one of the most prolific session bassists in history, and producer/songwriter/guitarist Blake Mills have returned for their second collaborative LP. The pair's first team-up, 2021’s Notes With Attachments, was a brilliantly off-kilter project with twisted arrangements, eclectic influences, and a jazzy, instrumental M.O. That Wasn’t a Dream continues the form in a tasteful second helping. For fans of Fela Kuti, J Dilla's loping rhythms, or just two master musicians bouncing ideas off of one another. – Tyler Roland

Water From Your Eyes – It's a Beautiful Place [Matador]

Water From Your Eyes, the duo comprised of Nate Amos (who had a breakout 2024 with side project This Is Lorelei) and Rachel Brown (who also releases music under the moniker Thanks For Coming) present themselves in a humble and understated fashion despite how audacious and daring their music sounds. While 2023's Everyone's Crushed made them a bonafide act to watch, I have no doubt that It's A Beautiful Place, out today via Matador records, will really send them over the top. It's a Beautiful Place continues the duo's stellar run of experimental pop, with Brown and Amos delivering poignant political statements that only pack a punch if you're actively listening for them. They're disillusioned, but allowing themselves to dance under the weight of it all. – Leah Weinstein (Read our interview with the duo here.)

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die – Dreams of Being Dust [Epitaph]

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die return with Dreams of Being Dust, the band’s fifth LP and their most aggressive, political album to date. Sonically, Dreams of Being Dust leans fully into the heavier, intricate sounds the band only hinted at on 2021’s Illusory Walls. Tracks like “Beware the Centrist” showcase crushing riffs and complex rhythms, a far cry from the lush, twinkly soundscapes of their indie beginnings. The lineup has changed a little over the past sixteen years, and with it the band’s style has shifted as well — but this record marks their boldest evolution yet. Check out our interview with guitarist/producer Chris Teti, where we dive into the band’s history and the making of Dreams of Being Dust. – Ricky Adams