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 7 new releases we'd like to key you into as you head into the weekend. Check them all out below.

Ba bam!

Infinity Song - INFINITY SONG [Roc Nation]

New York City-based soft rock quartet Infinity Song – composed of siblings Abraham, Angel, Israel, and Momo Boyd – have released their self-titled, third studio album, INFINITY SONG. The follow-up to Metamorphosis Complete is preceded by two singles: the catchy "One Foot Out," with its charming harmonies and fuzzy guitar. And the funky and groovy “Hurricane,” a disco-influenced cut in which the group succeeds in expanding their sound. Infinity Song’s self-titled outing is an easy-going collection of tracks that showcases the quartet’s growth and confidence in their songwriting at this stage of their career. – Daniel Gonçalves Benítez

Kelsey Lu — So Help Me God [Dirty Hit]

Avant pop composer, singer, songwriter, and cellist Kelsey Lu has returned today with her second full-length record, So Help Me God. After some years spent collaborating with other artists, as well as composing the scores for two films (Earth Mama and Daughters), Lu is back in her solo bag with this new LP. “'So Help Me God' was built slowly and intentionally across seven years of transformation,” says Lu. “Sonically and emotionally it holds so many different worlds at once – devotion and desire, collapse and becoming – trying to make sense of what it means to break, to believe, to long for something without seeing it clearly, and to be reborn again and again and again.” Across 50 genre-blending and deliberately paced minutes, Lu and her collaborators — namely co-producers Jack Antonoff, Laura Sisk, and Yves Rothman; sax icon Kamasi Washington; as well as artists like Sampha and Kim Gordon — craft a true spell of a sonic landscape, like a moody watercolor. It’s been seven long years since her debut, Blood, but the wait may have been worth it if it’s what allowed something like So Help Me God to bloom. – Jeremy J. Fisette

La Sécurité – Bingo! [Mothland/Bella Union]

Today's new, extremely Montréalean release is Bingo! by La Sécurité. A zany DIY record that bakes egg punk, francophone pop, proto-punk, and no wave, and 80s goth rock into a quick and propulsive 30-minute run, the Québécois five-piece's sophomore effort is nothing short of bouncy and fun. "Detour" quickly finds its groove in a snappy drum line, a vintage-sounding resonant bass, jangly guitars, and a poppy and airy vocal full of the citrus color of the 60s. A couple songs later, "Princesse" struts forth with a steelier, more eerie, polyrhythmic energy, offering a more laid back and mysterious rock track that'd go crazy live. The album then comes undone by the grainy, frustrated finale of "Ketchup," a devolution into screeching chants, blasé backup vocals, and an incessant goth bass line that vibrates on and on and on as the chaotic madness of life never ceases. – Victoria Borlando

Mariam Wallentin & Vestnorsk Jazzensemble – Spring Flood [Hubro]

Recorded over two days in Bergan, this meeting of Nordic minds – Swedish singer Mariam Wallentin (Mariam the Believer, Wildbirds & Peacedrums) and one of Norway’s leading avant-garde jazz groups – actually began over a thousand miles away in Basel, Switzerland, by the flowering banks of the long river Rhine. Inspired by the changing of the seasons and movement of the water, Wallentin was flooded with sensory impressions and fragments of text, written down on paper and brought back to Sweden. Just two weeks later, during what were intended to be rehearsals of mostly rearranged older songs, the chemistry she found with the West Norwegian Jazz Ensemble just couldn’t be ignored. Out came the notes from Basel, and Spring Flood was born, dynamic, ever shifting, and rich in vision, with a nutso reinvention of Wildbirds & Peacedrums’ “Love is Fire” bringing the heat. – Alan Pedder

Olivia Rodrigo – you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love [Geffen]

On you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, Olivia Rodrigo returns a fully formed artist. The rough edges that held back Sour and GUTS have been buffed and smoothed, and what resulted is some of the sharpest writing from any pop star this year. Split in two halves, the record finds Rodrigo with a real-time chronology of her first “real adult relationship” (as she’s put it in interviews). The front half of the record features euphoric love songs that grow more and more turbulent, crossing into the “you seem pretty sad” back half. Inspired heavily by 80s new wave, the record harkens back to the era of Depeche Mode, New Order, and The Cure, whose frontman Robert Smith makes a guest appearance on record highlight “what’s wrong with me.” — Leah Bess

Ruth Garbus – Profound [Orindal]

“When I penetrated that man I felt just like a dog” is a hell of a line to open with, but that’s Ruth Garbus for you. The Vermont-based artist has always been a cut above when it comes to writing worlds both playful and poetic, and this fifth solo album features some of her most vibrant wordplay yet. Living up to its Bandcamp tag of “impish pop,” Profound finds her embracing a new age of clarity and ease, working closely with guitarist Nick Bescaglia, keyboardist elie mcafee-hahn, and producer Kyle Thomas to enrich her gently avant-garde minimalism. Vocal coaching from Junko Watanabe has clearly made a mark on Garbus’s ambition, not least with her inclusion of two pieces by French composer Gabriel Fauré (“Clair de Lune”, “Nocturne”) that she learned through the Japanese soprano. But perhaps the most endearing thing here is the way her trademark melancholy is softened by a touch of sweetly spirited joy, with songs like Sunny Summer Guy” and “Tip of the Hat to Fleur” as charismatic standouts. – Alan Pedder

Sumie – Stardust in Valleys [Pomperipossa]

Sandra Nagano’s third album under her middle name Sumie comes almost 9 years after her second, 2017’s spectral and somewhat bloodless Lost in Light, and a lot of life has happened in that time. Coming back from a frightening encounter with stage 3 cancer, Stardust in Valleys is at its soft and reverent heart a celebration of life, taking stock of what keeps her going – her children, her bestie (“Nina”), and how the radiance of love can sometimes feel immortal. Recorded in a Swedish summer house with Anna von Hausswolff’s creative partner Filip Leyman, and released on von Hausswolff’s own imprint, Stardust’s blossoming folk songs keep Nagano’s tenderly expressive voice front and center, artfully open and buoyed by balmy live instrumentation. – Alan Pedder