Seven new releases to prick your ears up for on this final Friday of February. Been a good month for music, and it's ending on a good note!

Check them all out!!!

Bibi Club – Amaro [Secret City Records]

On this third album from Montréal-based avant-pop duo Bibi Club (real-life couple Adèle Trottier-Rivard and Nicolas Basque), vitality and death take to the edges of a chessboard dancefloor, engaging in a complex choreography that pulses with tension. Written in the wake of profound personal loss, Amaro’s energy is darkly graceful, doubling down on EBM that’s laced with streaks of neofolk and darkwave. Life may be fragile but its center (love) will always hold, “the Bibis” seem to say, and survival is a communal pursuit. Guests include Dimitri Milbrun on “George Sand” and Helena Deland, whose eerie spoken word amps up the death-walk ritual space of “A Different Light”. – Alan Pedder

deathcrash - Somersaults [untitled (recs)]

deathcrash's Somersaults tricks the listener with a slow, chiming lullaby for the introduction to its titular track. One might think the London experimental rock group, who cut their teeth in the slowcore genre for the past ten years, have returned with an equally quiet and instrumental-driven and sample-heavy record. But, when vocalist Tiernan Banks cuts in immediately, front and center, it becomes immediately clear that this record offers something different. With tracks like "NYC", "Triumph", and "Bella" — classic, clashing rock songs with an emo bend and group vocals that fill out the whole space — the record radiates confidence and a strong sense of group identity. It’s still moody and melancholic, balancing a yearning for the innocence of childhood with the disappointments and fears of growing up, but, more importantly, it’s euphoric. The love of being in a band, of finding community, and playing together comes through strongly in this record’s lyrics and sound, and it makes for an exciting listen. – Victoria Borlando

Fågelle – Bränn min jord [Self-released]

Sweden’s Klara Andersson, aka Fågelle, isn’t taking any prisoners with the ceremonial sonics of Bränn min jord (translation: Burn My Earth), an album that bridges folk tradition with industrial oomph and experimental glitch and distortion. Returning to her home region of Halland after years spent living in Berlin and Gothenburg, Andersson reconnected with her roots and the past’s long shadows through an ecology of sound that includes field recordings, a local brass orchestra, and audio traces of daily life captured by a 24-hour “sound time capsule” installed in the assembly hall of her old high school. Expect spoken word, screaming, and the sounds of heavy chains and a dancer’s feet in the forest, while a bonus remix offers an unexpected window into the rowdy car culture of Sweden’s bored youth. – Alan Pedder

Gorillaz - The Mountain [KONG]

The Mountain, the ninth studio album from Gorillaz and first on their own label, Kong, begins and ends with a droning sitar. What comes in between encompasses everything from post-disco pop, woodwind-soaked ballads, and seven-minute multilingual rap epics. And, in signature Gorillaz fashion, Damon Albarn is supported in curating this soundscape by an Avengers-level roster of contributors, including Anoushka Shankar, Black Thought, Joe Talbot, and Johnny Marr, alongside archival appearances from the late Bobby Womack, Tony Allen, Proof, and Dennis Hopper.

While Albarn partakes in his usual explorations of social satire, the album also serves as a deeply personal meditation on grief and the afterlife. Inspired by the recent loss of Albarn’s, and his longtime creative partner Jamie Hewlett’s, parents, The Mountain reframes death through a non-Western lens, blending mournful reflection with the optimism of Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The result is a strange, kaleidoscopic celebration of life, death, and whatever comes next. – Drew P. Simmons

Maria BC – Marathon [Sacred Bones]

Oakland-based Maria BC’s third album Marathon plays its toughest hand right off the bat with a wedge of thick, sludgy drone rock that hints at the potential for an album to rival the suspense and production-forward bite of 2023’s Spike Field. But while there’s certainly plenty of drama to be found in its wrinkles and folds, Marathon takes off in its own direction. It feels at times like a walk through a ghosted landscape, where nothing grows but nothing has fully died either (complimentary). At other times, it’s more dynamic and gritty, packed with dense air and not-so-distant threat. – Alan Pedder

Mitski – Nothing's About To Happen To Me [Dead Oceans]

In her follow-up to The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We, the record containing the indie rock titan's biggest hit to date, Mitski has found herself a recluse. Atop some of her most engaging instrumentation since 2018's Be The Cowboy, she laments the world outside of her home while clinging to the comfort of solitude. Accompanied by her The Land touring orchestra, Nothing's About To Happen To Me bounces between bossa nova, slacker rock, and forlorn country ballads. Heartbreak and newly minted viral success are less daunting with a cat nestled in your lap, and Mitski's sincerity (be it crazed or otherwise) is a reminder that those things will not keep her from what she does best. – Leah Weinstein

Vona Vella - Carnival [Strap Originals]

What started out as a duo between Nottingham bandmates Izzy Davis and Dan Cunningham, Vona Vella has since expanded to five members, pushing their own sound in the process. If their 2023 eponymous debut stood as a simple yet solid alt rock record, then their sophomore effort Carnival rushes in with pounding drums, a deeper punk-flavored bass, and the swirling of both original member’s melodic and honeyed vocals. It’s a fun album: songs like “Bass Driver” and “You Can Be So Ugly” dip into the grimy and propulsive scene of early ‘00s New York rock, and others like “Brand New Boy” and “Falling in a Sleeping Wind” are coated in a bright, poppy gloss. Carnival also has enough earworms (“Settle Down”, “Come By”) and instrumental flourishes to promise a good Vona Vella-fronted live show. –Victoria Borlando