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.

This week, we have four new releases we'd like to key you into as you head into the weekend. Check them all out below.

Ba bam!

Citizen – Halcyon Blues [Run For Cover Records]

There's something heartwarming about growing up in the '90s and early 2000s and getting to watch rock reinvent itself over and over again. It almost always starts as something fresh and exciting before eventually morphing into something more familiar. Grunge becomes radio rock. Pop-punk becomes arena rock. The cycle repeats. Just as interesting are the bands that survive those shifts and evolve alongside them. Acts like The Killers, Muse, and, dare I say, Imagine Dragons all found ways to grow beyond their original scenes into something much bigger. I'm not saying Citizen should be compared directly to any of those bands. Sonically they're operating in a different world. But there is an undeniable sense of scale on their sixth LP, Halcyon Blues. Arena hardcore is the better label, sitting comfortably alongside bands like Turnstile, Militarie Gun, and Angel Du$t. And fuck man... what a lineup that would be. Citizen really lean into their craft here, expanding their sound with atmospheric transitions, beautiful piano keys, acoustic jangles, and even flashes of '80s rock that occasionally bring Billy Idol to mind. Throughout it all, they never lose that signature push and pull between soaring clean vocals and shouted passages that has become such a defining characteristic of modern melodic hardcore. Lead single "Highs and Lows" is a perfect example, playing into that dynamic both sonically and lyrically. Now, I said I wasn't going to compare Citizen to Muse... but if you'll indulge me for just a second, "Matador" might spark a little resemblance (no shade, its a banger.) Maybe I'm reaching. Give it a listen and you tell me. – Ricky Adams

Ela Minus & Nick Léon – qué les pasó a mis amigos? [Domino]

In what seems to be a divinely paired friendship, the experimental electronic producers and pop artists Ela Minus and Nick Léon have released their first collaborative EP, qué les pasó a mis amigos? Their creative partnership began about two years ago, when both — active artists in New York City's electronic underground — were working on their respective breakout albums, DÍA ("QQQQ" remix) and Tropical Entropy ("Ghost Orchid"). Both have their unique, addictive pulls to their sound. Minus offers a punk, melancholic darkness to her clean, spectral beats; as demonstrated by her sophomore LP, with her blunt lyricism and raw industrial production, she is able to make destruction an invigorating and clarifying process. Léon, on the other hand, champions physicality, offering a futuristic production influenced by melodic trance and house that mimics the movement of blossoming, unfurling, twisting, and undulating.

Together, qué les pasó a mis amigos? brilliantly merges the moody, gothic songwriting and cool vocal performance by Ela Minus and Léon's expansive, hypnotic composition style. With three songs stretched across 14 minutes, beginning with the over-six-minute-long titular track, the two explore emotional burnout, self-doubt, and failing attention. Crunchy ambient loops, scattered snaps and warbles, and tactile snares whirl around as the artists mourn friendships, youth, and a pressure-free life collapsing under the chaos of the world. – Victoria Borlando

god of war – molly picture [Julia's War Recordings]

god of war, the side project featuring members of They Are Gutting a Body of Water and Hooky, return with their sophomore album, molly picture. Pulling from both bands' DNA, the result is a hazy blend of lo-fi beats, indie rock, and shoegaze, with vocals that float somewhere in the mix. Low-key, it sounds a bit like Alex G meets Animal Collective. Lead single "mickey don't pose" perfectly captures that formula, pairing warped vocals with layers of upbeat synths, pan flutes?, and driving guitar riffs that somehow all click together. This is the kind of album made for summer drives. Roll the windows down, throw on a pair of sunglasses, cue up molly picture, and cruise the coast with an iced coffee in the cup holder. The vibes, the beats, the caffeine, and the scenery all sync together into something pretty close to bliss. blessed! – Ricky Adams

The Mountain Goats – Days [Cadmean Dawn]

Not Glory Days or Better Days or worse ones, for that matter. Just Days. On John Darnielle’s 24th album (one of the only guys whose fans are ravenous for a 24th album), he permits himself to entertain nostalgia as 60 approaches, which means the radio-rock he abjured during the early ‘90s when he started the Mountain Goats by recording on a boombox and tiny label only accompanied by tape hiss. He almost called it Grunges to parallel his nearly decade-old 2017 album Goths, and many of his greatest works are front-to-back concept albums about everything from a fictional nightmare marriage (Tallahassee) to a stepfather who really abused him (The Sunset Tree), as well as pro wrestling (Beat the Champ), action movies (Bleed Out), and cohabitating with meth tweakers (We Shall All Be Healed). But “Woodstock” (“stand before the people, yell about cocaine”) and “Candlebox” (“there was love in the air and all the money was there”) are merely two highlights that tie the obvious ‘90s motif to much older parallels including obscure ‘70s prog band Renaissance and one excellent detour for “Best Hard Rock Albums of 2013” he declines to name. In short, time marches on, and so does this overwhelmingly thoughtful, historically literate band even as they indulge the vice of looking backward, via simple folk tunes (“Going to Fennario”) and stadium-rock flourishes (well, “Candlebox”). – Daniel Aaron