3 new songs and 3 new albums to listen to this weekend

Though Zach Condon has continuously released music over the past half-decade, he hasn’t taken his band/solo project, Beirut, out on the road in six years. But something about composing a soundtrack for a Swedish circus (yes, that’s really where this new song comes from) must have inspired him to perform live again. In May 2025, Beirut will play five shows throughout Europe. We’ll cross our fingers for some U.S. dates, too. And, in case you were wondering, yes, “Caspian Tiger” does sound exactly like something that would be central to a Swedish circus soundtrack, and yes, that bizarre little tidbit does make the song and its accompanying video even more hypnotic.

Angel Olsen is taking a swing at music curation with her new album, Cosmic Waves Volume 1. It is, admittedly, a bit of an odd concept: Side A is five songs from artists picked by Olsen, and Side B is Olsen covering songs from those artists… but not the same ones they picked for Side A. So, Side A features the song “Glamorous” by Poppy Jean Crawford, and Side B has Olsen’s cover of Crawford’s “The Takeover.” Needlessly complicated? A little. But we’ll always stump for new Olsen material here at The A.V. Club, and her curation skills are top-notch, too.

Fresh off her “Midwestern sad girl indie rock version” of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut To The Feeling” for A.V. Undercover, SASAMI brings a similar vibe to her new single “Just Be Friends.” “I returned to some of the stream of consciousness, emotional lyrical writing style of my first album and kept riding the country wave that was in the fabric of [my previous album] Squeeze but with a bit more modern country influence,” SASAMI told Stereogum. “I love how country songs often tell a story. Longing, lingering, loneliness and lust. When I play this one live I always dedicate it to anyone ‘sad and horny’ in the crowd… if that means anything.” It’s an apt description of the song, which deals with a messy situationship and the complicated feelings that arise when you like someone a little too much but know your connection is probably a little unhealthy. It makes for a visceral listening experience; you feel “Just Be Friends” just as much as you hear it.

The first few singles from Fazerdaze’s sophomore full-length album, Soft Power, hinted at a more electronic sound than her first LP, 2017’s pop-infused Morningside. Amelia Murray, the singer-songwriter behind Fazerdaze, describes Soft Power’s sound as “bedroom stadium,” and it’s a description that feels right, even though it doesn’t actually mean anything. Listening to these 11 tracks, it feels simultaneously like you’re curled up on your bed with lights off and your headphones on and like you’re lost in a giant crowd, one small speck among thousands. It’s massively intimate and probably several other contradictory descriptions that ultimately don’t do much to enhance our understanding of the English language but instead evoke an emotion that’s impossible to capture in words.

Happy is the first solo album from Jin, a member of the K-pop powerhouse BTS. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the six tracks are meant to evoke joy, and it’s pretty much impossible not to smile while listening to the album. BTS is rumored to be making a comeback in 2025, but Jin’s music is a good stopgap while we wait for the all-encompassing sensory overload of BTS’ combined star power.

Unbound is the final part of Chelsea Wolfe’s She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She project. The full album came out in February, followed by Undone, an EP of remixes, in August. Unbound offers acoustic takes on four songs from the album, and they’re a significant departure from the originals’ electro-industrial-pop sound. The minimalist versions allow the songs’ thematic elements—mainly about Wolfe getting sober in 2021—to shine, and the lyrics hit even harder this time around.