3 new songs and 3 new albums to check out this weekend

Last month, TV On The Radio announced their first live shows in five years to coincide with the 20-year anniversary of their debut album, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. Now, lead singer Tunde Adebimpe has announced his first solo album with the release of its lead single, “Magnetic.” It’s an apt name for the track, which opens with a reflective, melancholic lyric (“I was thinking about my time in space”) before the propulsive instrumentals drop in and never let up. Adebimpe self-directed the spare, stylish music video, which we’d definitely encourage you to watch.

What on earth are The Black Keys doing collaborating with Alice Cooper? Having a pretty great time, apparently. “Stay In Your Grave” is a bonus track from the upcoming deluxe edition of their latest album, Ohio Players. From the opening organ notes to the featured vocals from the godfather of shock rock, it’d be easy to mistake it for a novelty song. But it’s a solid track made a little more interesting thanks to a fun video and the objective coolness of hearing Cooper sing with Dan Auerbach.

Halloween might be over, but there’s still something haunting about Ethel Cain’s “Punish,” the first single off her upcoming sophomore album Perverts. The lyrics obliquely reference sexual pleasure and shame, but there’s a more sinister and unknowable presence in there too. It is, in other words, peak Ethel Cain.

This is only the second album from pop duo Bubble Tea And Cigarettes, but there’s an enviable self-assuredness to their sound. It’s lush and dreamy, mystical and nostalgic. It’s very much a vibe, and you’ll probably know if you’re into it based on the band’s evocative name alone. If you’re over the whispered-vocal trend, this might not be for you, but Bubble Tea And Cigarettes bring something new to the table with we should’ve killed each other.

Phil Elverum, a.k.a. Mount Eerie, built something towering and fragile with Night Palace. It’s a 26-track double album that takes stock of the wreckage of a life and tries to make sense out of the pieces, then put them back together in some way that’s not the same, but is at least stable. Night Palace shines when Elverum gets deeply personal with the lyrics, making an expansive album feel intimate.

On Girl Prometheus, singer-songwriter Ruby McKinnon, a.k.a. Flower Face, explores the fallout of a devastating breakup. It hurts sometimes listening to these songs—they can border on being too honest, painful like staring at the sun. The last track, “If I Beg You,” starts off with that painful thread again, but it warps into something meditative and healing by the end. It’s a wound finally closing instead of being torn open again and again, and it makes Girl Prometheus feel redemptive instead of just sad.