Welcome to another installment of Today's Release Highlights, where the TND writers room gathers up some brand new projects they want to draw your eyes and ears to.

Today, we have a list of nine (or 11 depending on how you want to count) new releases we'd like to key you into as you head into the weekend. Check them all out below.

Ba bam!

Dino Gala — Ronny Music [self-released]

Though it’s been out since Wednesday in an unconventional but probably wise move, Boston DIY group Dino Gala have finally released their debut LP five years after their debut single. Ronny Music is the mark of a reserved band that makes music purely for the love of the game. Their members are elusive outside of a stray acoustic performance online, and it’s clear their lyrics refuse to be parsed for scraps. In the margins you’ll find a gem of the New England underground with lush guitarmonies to boot. — Leah Bess

Drake – Iceman, Habibti, and Maid of Honour [OVO]

For the special someone in your life who was convulsing on the floor, tossing and turning, muttering "what did I miss?" in their fitful sleep, knowing full well the scary world outside of their spacious, wind-whistling mansion was Not Like Them, the Chosen One has returned with exactly 150 combined minutes of music. While I will never play it, I'm certain the artist in question has demonstrated growth as a family man, developed insight and perspective from a place of humility, and learned how to properly consider the women in his songs without condescension. Having learned from his mistakes, the man they call BBL Drizzy has bestowed upon the universe his magnum opus in triplicate, which surely has valuable lessons to teach the souls at Universal and the Grammys and that mean old gnome he likens to Muggsy Bogues (he was also short!!). These three albums being thrown at the wall simultaneously out of no desperation whatsoever are probably Totally Normal, let's just take a look at the lyrics for this song called "BBW" for instance: "So much ass you should be cremated." Fuck. Well, the Iceman goeth. – Daniel Aaron

Favreblind – Micro Pleasures [Self-released]

Making their debut with Micro Pleasures, the Danish trio Favreblind (riffing off the translation for "colorblind") are portraying quiet resistance to the crushing and uterrly vibeless weight of capitalism as loudly as possible, turning their frustration into an endless night at the punk rave. Their album is grounded in EBM — channeling the same dark, strobing, lose-your-mind, danceability of Chalk's Crystalpunk — yet leans more into rap, drum 'n' bass, and 90s techno. The album even boasts some impressive features in the underground electronic world, roping in experimental rapper K.Flay, the electropop duo Foreign Air, and EDM/dancehall producer Elliphant to give this album a real populated feel: multiple people express the same overload with consumerism ("Things"), normalized apathy ("Natural Behaviour"), and distress under an unforgiving economic system ("Salary Man"). It's hard, it's gritty, it's throbbing and sweaty, and it's raving in punk and dashes of hardcore, — Micro Pleasures allows Favreblind to leap into their music career with raw, stylish energy. — Victoria Borlando

Mrs. Magician — Spiritual Hangover [Swami Records]

Mrs. Magician, the longtime San Diego indie surf-punk staple with a healthy sprinkle of ’80s rock nostalgia, are back with their new album, Spiritual Hangover. This time around, frontman Jacob Turnbloom sounds more reflective, looking backward instead of staring into some bleak future abyss. The album is soaked in Southern California atmosphere: beaches, isolation, longing for connection, and trying to feel something in an increasingly numb world. Sonically, Spiritual Hangover is packed with punchy ’70s and ’80s-inspired pop-rock riffs, plus lyrical nods that wink at the era too. At one point, Turnbloom belts out an “I want my MTVVVVV,” like the ghost of late-night cable television floating through a foggy coastal drive. The record arrives at the perfect time too, right as June Gloom settles over San Diego before the clouds burn off and summer fully kicks in. In a lot of ways, the album’s mood feels like the sonic equivalent of that exact transition. – Ricky Adams

Primus — A Handful of Nuggs EP [Prawn Song]

Those crazy bastards over in Primus have released a new EP with, as they put it, "a handful of nuggs" before a new full-length surfaces. You’ve got a new track, "The Ol' Grizz," to chew on along with a trio of odds and ends. A studio cover of Dio classic "Holy Diver," which Primus have been performing recently, is here, boasting some assistance from woeful clown Puddles Pity Party; call this one the wildcard of the bunch. Then there’s the delightfully-named Puscifer collaboration "Little Lord Fentanyl," which surfaced last year, and a live rendition of Primus classic "Duchess (and the Proverbial Mind Spread)." Some ripping drum work from the band's fresh addition, John "Hoffer" Hoffman, drives "Duchess" — don’t miss it. – Tyler Roland

Rostam – American Stories [Mastor Projects]

The renowned producer and independent singer-songwriter Rostam has once again changed sonic direction for his third solo record, American Stories. Inspired mainly by subverting our cultural understanding of the "American Experience" by injecting his own perspective as a first-generation Iranian American coming of age in the 21st century, he fuses bluegrass, folk rock, and pop with ornate Persian guitar music composition, even melding his own lyrics with those of the American folk rock giants ("Back Of A Truck"). His new record reckons with his past, how he forged his own identity and planted his roots in a delicate, scarred soil, and how he found lightness and forgiveness through turbulence ("Forgive Is To Know," "The Weight). And with one prominent baroque pop explosion in "Hardy" — a nostalgic nod to the Vampire Weekend days, with cellos and violins shredding through the melody, livened even more with club-esque drum beats — this album feels disparate yet complete, a mosaic of Rostam's musical and philosophical life story that puts much of his inner life on stage. — Victoria Borlando

Smerz – Easy EP [Escho]

The girls are back! Following their 2025 breakout record Big city life, the Norwegian experimental pop duo Smerz have returned today with Easy. Originally just a jam session at the end of their album recording process, even taking the same name of their final track, this collection of six songs took on a whole world of their own, allowing the Norwegian singer-songwriters to indulge more in the open-ended production process. "Spring summer," their first and only single, blurs the "snapshot" of a moment they experienced last year, elongating time itself through hazy, R&B-tinged beats, strings-imitating synths, sultry vocals, and less straightforward lyrics. (In other words, Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt are letting vibes fully dictate the composition here.) The prickliness of their previous record, while still present in the irregular tempos and idiosyncratic drum sections, is almost completely sanded out on Easy. Instead, lush, gliding, lo-fi meets bedroom pop instrumental interludes allow the lyric-based tracks to bleed together until the EP just sounds like a blurry nine-minute song. If Big city life dominated the night, then Easy feels like the morning after: refreshing, warm, and sunny. – Victoria Borlando

Spencer Krug – Same Fangs [Pronounced Kroog]

Wolf Parade had a bit of a resurgence in the main sphere last year, what with Heated Rivalry climactically using their signature tune “I’ll Believe in Anything.” The band’s Spencer Krug even released a piano-only version of the 2005 track to celebrate the moment. And now Krug is back with a brand new solo LP. Same Fangs follows 2023’s I Just Drew This Knife, as well as the return of his side project Sunset Rubdown on 2024’s Always Happy to Explode, and it finds the singer/songwriter/keyboardist/wizard returning to demos he put up on his Patreon over 2024 and 2025. The new versions were recorded in a single week, with additional instrumentation such as percussion, strings, synths, and guitars melding in from his collaborators, as well as additional vocals Elbow Kiss. According to press notes, the record contends with “life in bands, marriage and fatherhood, ending friendships, small-town living, political fatigue, gratitude, and songwriting itself.” You can catch Krug on a North American solo piano tour now.

Super Sometimes – Show the World What’s Underneath [Pure Noise Records]

Can there be reincarnation while the original people are still very much alive? If so, all three lads from Blink-182 may have been reincarnated into the members of Super Sometimes and their debut album Show the World What’s Underneath. The San Diego Gen Z pop-punk outfit somehow sound more like classic Blink than Blink do these days. This is the kind of album that makes you nostalgic for TRL-era 2000s pop-punk while also appreciating that a new generation gets to take a swing at it themselves. Alongside the expected pop-punk energy, there’s a definite emo edge too, undoubtedly helped by writing sessions with Nick Casasanto of Knuckle Puck and Chris Freeman of Hot Mulligan, plus producer Kyle Black, whose résumé includes Paramore, New Found Glory, and Taking Back Sunday. Super Sometimes feel primed to be part of the next wave carrying the pop-punk torch forward. – Ricky Adams