New Music Friday: Arca returns to chaos, Shaboozey builds a Western, and a legend re-emerges
The last Friday of July is loaded with left-field swings — an experimental electronic star reconnecting with her early self, a country hitmaker attempting a full concept album, a jazz-fusion duo doubling down on virtuosity, and a cult post-punk institution breaking a 16-year silence. Five records that reward the deep dive.
Arca — XXXXX (XL). After the sprawling, five-part ambition of her 2020 Kick pentalogy, Arca snaps back to the whirlwind unpredictability of her 2013 mixtape era — the title itself nods to &&&&&. Cinematic atmosphere collides with noise across electronic, pop and reggaeton fragments; "Willow" pairs ambient wash with 8-bit twinkle, "Fxck" glitters with pop-inflected bass, and "Finisher" recalls her production work on Björk's Vulnicura. The Fader called it "a nimble and varied show of force," and after five relatively quiet years, the sheer energy and ease of it read as a release valve.
Shaboozey — The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales (Empire). The "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" juggernaut swings big on his fourth album: a loose concept record narrated into being by Jamie Foxx, following a female outlaw named Cherie Lee bent on avenging her father and falling for the wrong man in the process. Gospel harmonies meet riffing guitars on "Sweet Revenge," and the guest list — Gunna, Kehlani, Leon Bridges, Orville Peck, Teyana Taylor and actor Sam Elliott — signals real gravitational pull. NME's 3.5-star review flagged the storytelling as more spiritual than airtight, but the vulnerability underneath is genuine.
Wyatt Flores — Scared of Heights (Island). The Oklahoma red-dirt songwriter's sophomore album pushes past the campfire and into fuller country-rock and Americana arrangements across 13 tracks. Cuts like "Tulsa and Eleanor," "Sleepless Lullaby" and the unsparing "Hate Myself" trade on the raw-nerve honesty — mental health, self-doubt, homesickness — that built Flores a devoted following in the first place. Produced with a heavier hand by Charlie Handsome and company, it's the sound of a young artist testing how far his voice can carry.
DOMi & JD Beck — WHO ASKED? (Blue Note). The keyboard-and-drums prodigies follow their 2022 debut NOT TIGHT with a second album for Blue Note (via their APESHIT imprint) that leans further into organized chaos — jazz fusion played at impossible tempos with a grin. The interplay between DOMi's dense harmonic runs and Beck's rubber-band drumming remains the whole show, and reviewers largely agree the pair have turned early hype into something durable and genuinely their own.
The Durutti Column — Renascent (London). The most quietly remarkable release of the week. Vini Reilly's fabled Manchester project delivers its first new material in 16 years, since 2010's A Paean to Wilson. Recorded intimately — sessions reportedly happening in Reilly's kitchen with minimal gear — and produced by Keir Stewart with longtime drummer Bruce Mitchell and vocalist Caoilfhionn Rose, it lands amid a wave of renewed reverence, including a Harry Styles-curated Meltdown tribute in June. The lead single "Liars" was described as "perfume-esque in its exquisite formlessness." Some things are worth a 16-year wait.
Sources: NPR Music, New Music Friday July 31; The Fader, Arca review; NME, Shaboozey review; Album of the Year, Wyatt Flores; Renascent (Wikipedia))