5 New Albums You Need: Alex G, Che, Jim Legxacy, and more

Alex G’s lowkey approach belies the huge influence he’s had on the last decade of indie rock and the devoted fan army he’s amassed along the way. Taken one way, Headlights is just another album from the prolific singer-songwriter; these rustic indie rock songs unfurl with an intentionality that always reads as thoughtfully tender. But it’s also an album that marks an inflection point in his career. As his first release on major label RCA, to whom he signed in 2024, it’s Alex G as no longer an underdog. “Some things I do for love/Some things I do for money/It ain’t like I don’t want it/It ain’t like I’m above it,” he sings on “Beam Me Up.” This self-referential ploy doesn’t remain in place on the slouched and melancholic “Oranges” or the mandolin-boosted title track, but it’s a line in the sand for the artist whose profile continues to be in its ascendancy. As ever, he remains aloof to outside noise, focused on writing songs that push him ever higher. —David Renshaw

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On his 2023 project Homeless N*gga Pop Music Jim Legxacy spoke candidly about chasing success at a time when circumstances were stacked against him. Since then, his profile has grown exponentially: he’s a leader in the rising British underground scene and a producer on Dave and Central Cee’s “Sprinter,” one of the biggest U.K. rap hits of the last decade. His new album, black british music (2025), however, begins not with a celebratory tone but one of sorrow: As the album explains, Legxacy lost his younger sister, and his mother has been ill, too. This context colors a wildly inventive album that never forgets the simple joy of a nagging melody.

It’s a music lovers album with Legxacy turning to Spanish guitar (“3x”), chipmunk soul (“Father”), thundering 808s (“Sun”), bedroom pop (“Dexters Phone Call”), and euphoric indie rock anthemics in the pursuit of expressing the depths of his soul. It filters references of 2000s staples like BlackBerry phones and soccer player Wayne Rooney into songs that could have only been created in the present moment. A voiceover regularly cuts through the noise with the message “turn that mediocre bullshit off – we’re listening to Jim Legxacy now.” The real flex isn’t that he’s better than his peers, it’s that this music couldn’t have come from anyone else. —David Renshaw

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It’s immediately apparent that no one but $ilkmoney could have made his excellent new album Who Waters the Wilting Giving Tree Once the Leaves Dry Up and the Fruits No Longer Bear? It’s unlikely to convert any naysayers — this is the most $ilkmoney project yet, more provocative, personal, and puerile than any other. It makes for some of his best music yet, too, whether he’s tenderly ruminating on love on “FIRST I GIVE UP, THEN I GIVE IN, THEN I GIVE ALL” or snarling at the crab-in-the-bucket mentality of the music industry on “OOOPS, HONEY I SHRUNK MYSELF WITH THE HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS RAY MACHINE AND CRAWLED INTO YOUR DICK.” As he told The FADER in a recent interview, “Every time I drop an album or do anything, I give my all to it. I give every single thing I have within me.” —Jordan Darville

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Che describes his music as “rap/electronic,” but where his debut pulled from rainbow-y EDM and nightcore vocaloid, REST IN BASS is sharper and darker, sawtooth synths grating against open hi-hats and hollowed-out 808s, degraded samples mired beneath sludgy basslines and plodding drums. “MANNEQUIN” is a strong contender for song of the summer — think “GNARLY” by KATSEYE for Zoomers whose J-Hope is Nettspend. Che often fixates on death in his music, but REST IN BASS takes things full kamikaze, from him yelping “I just put my opp block on a fucking canvas” on “Hellraiser” to frequently detailing his own demise. “My love for music is so dire. The sound, the speakers, no matter what, you hear it,” Che told The FADER in an interview. “And I’ll die for the music, so — REST IN BASS.” —Vivian Medithi

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Disiniblud is the self-titled debut LP from power duo Rachika Nayar and Nina Keith. Nayar is an endlessly inventive electric guitarist/producer whose most recent album, Heaven Come Crashing, leaned into her love of maximalist dance music; while the always-fascinating composer/multi-instrumentalist Keith tends toward minimalist, acoustic arrangements. Disiniblud’s new album finds a near-perfect balance between these divergent styles and, even more impressively, the styles of an all-star cast including Juliana Barwick, Cassandra Croft, June McDoom, Katie Dey, and Tujiko Noriko. These are songs that splash and flutter, their many layers of analog and synthetic sounds — which include a multitude of vocal snippets stitched together to create another living instrument — sliding in and out of sync but never out of control. —Raphael Helfand

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp