Welcome to another installment of Today's Release Highlights, where TND's writers shout out some new releases for your listening pleasure this weekend.

Below, we've got an eclectic mix of eight new projects for you to check out. Hope you enjoy them!

Ba bam!

Avalon Emerson & the Charm – Written into Changes [Dead Oceans]

For the first day of spring, Avalon Emerson offers a record that puts the rush of a satisfying gust of wind to song. Written Into Changes — which reimagines trip-house with a The Japanese House-reminiscent synth pop sensibility — opens new doors by closing others. The titular song, sitting fourth on the tracklist, finds us on the eve of the birthday of someone once important. Lingering in the cracks of light left from a tightly shut door, the singer documents the precise moment of change, entering a new period both somberly and excitedly with a relaxed, synth rock beat. Another track highlight would be "How Dare This Beer", which sets a prickly guitar riff to Emerson's sharp, autotuned vocals singing a self-aware ode to a really satisfying, wound-healing pint of beer.

As for the rest of the album, the sound oscillates between sparkly dance beats and crisp synth pop that harkens back to the feel-good hits of the 80s. Written Into Changes is invigorating like a cool splash of water to the face. – Victoria Borlando

Colleen – Libres antes del final [Thrill Jockey]

Water is everywhere in this newest album from Colleen, aka French experimental musician Cécile Schott, and not just symbolically. Libres antes del final (“Free before the end”) adopts the nature of water as a sort of compositional logic. Playing with ideas of buoyancy, pressure, ebb and flow, the album’s structure mirrors the instability of the open sea, where direction is fluid and a swimmer is never fully in control. The title speaks to death, of course, but Schott describes it as also relating to the process of freeing yourself from unnecessary suffering and personal roadblocks – of being more like water and coursing around them – and, across its gorgeously immersive 38 minutes, Libres antes del final does the trick of making such a transformation feel a little closer to hand. – Alan Pedder

Grace Ives – Girlfriend [True Panther]

The long-awaited follow up to Grace Ives's eclectic 2022 record Janky Star is finally here. Girlfriend offers up more of what makes Ives great and singular. She hits you with a recorder as soon as you press play, forcing you to leave your expectations at the door. Ives' sonic world is rich and ever-evolving, and Girlfriend cements her as one of the driving minds of pop, one flirty hook at a time. – Leah Weinstein

Green-House – Hinterlands [Ghostly International]

On their third album Hinterlands, LA-based duo Green-House (Olive Ardizoni and Michael Flanagan) travel further than ever from their roots, folding in everything from tropical synth-pop, laidback lounge, evocative folk, and fantasy film scores. At the heart of the record sits an illusion of scale, which speaks to the idea of biomimicry – “of projecting yourself as being larger in a certain way” – and that everything's connected. Ambient no more, there’s an overall expansiveness to Hinterlands that feels far less like the work of two and more like the invention of a finely-tuned ensemble. Any limitations they may have once felt are well and truly sidelined across these dozen, densely textured songs, which grew steadily in scope to become far more cinematic and, at times, almost orchestral, turning the miniature into the monumental. – Alan Pedder

Gyda Valtysdottir – Mother Pearl [marvada]

Shaped by the end of a decade-long relationship and moving back to Iceland, Gyda Valtysdottir’s third solo album Mother Pearl feels like a private unfolding. Themed around ideas of emergence and becoming, it’s fun to think of the arrangements here as like nacre, the iridescent substance that accumulates to form a pearl over time, fine layer after fine layer, bonded into something precious and tough. The former múm member’s post-classical solo work has always rewarded a deep and intimate listen, and I think that holds especially true for Mother Pearl, where closeness doesn't equal confession, and what at first seems delicate is, in fact, much more resilient, bearing the source’s undeclared weight. – Alan Pedder

Poison The Well – Peace In Place [Sharptone]

After 17 years, metalcore pioneers Poison The Well have returned with new record Peace In Place. The South Florida group migrated up north, specifically New Jersey, to work with Grammy-winning producer Will Putney, and the end result is a culmination of everything they’ve accomplished in their time as a band. Stabbing dissonant chords, galloping double-pedal chugs, clean refrains as catchy as they are intricate, twanging Telecaster grooves, and atmospheric, country-inspired leads come together to make something fresh, yet familiar. It’s been a long time since we heard from Poison The Well, but it’s like they never left. – Shaye 

Slim Soledad – Noches Calientes de la Soledad [Headroom Records]

Brazilian DJ and producer Slim Soledad has been making people dance in São Paulo for over a decade – and since relocating to Berlin in 2019, in Europe as well. She has been inescapable in festivals and clubs, from Barcelona's Sónar to Paris' Peacock Society. Her signature sound is a blend of high energy techno and baile funk, and she takes this compound to new levels in this debut record, Noches Calientes de la Soledad. With repetitive flows and sexually explicit lyrics, Slim rhymes over creative beats – sometimes in Portuguese, sometimes in English, and once in Italian – and creates dancefloor anthems. The collabs stand out: Badsista handles the beat to "Jetlag Queen", musician Evissimax appears on "Put4n4" and, of course, there's Slim and Brazilian DJ Clementaum's ode to womanhood, "Mapoas Only". Brazilian soft power, baby. – Amanda Cavalcanti

underscores – U [Mom+Pop]

underscores wants to be a pop star. She bleached her hair, leaving some of her natural black in the shape of headphones. She's learning choreography for music videos and doing remixes with members of LOONA. Perhaps this feels like a sudden change for an artist that spent their career beginnings as a faceless internet entity, but the music is too good to deny her this quest. U, underscores' third album, is a tight 34 minutes of confidently confessional hyperpop. She oscillates between the hyper-online sound of her past with the public-facing, diva-prone sound of her future. What a treat. — Leah Weinstein