New Music Friday: Stream new projects from Chief Keef, I. JORDAN, Amen Dunes, and more

Admit it: you didn’t think it was coming, either. I was very skeptical, even when the advance stream landed in my inbox earlier this week; the long-awaited album had first been announced in 2018 and has since blown through too many release dates to count. Sure, I was actually listening to the music, but in the back of my mind I expected today to come and go with no public release, and for the watermarked MP3s I was enjoying to be shelved once more or traded in Discord leak servers. Obviously, I was wrong, and the entire world can now hear the truth for themselves: that Almighty So 2 was worth the wait. Keef, a genius whose influence and presence over 21st-century hip-hop now feels as unshakeable as 808s and bustdowns, returns with the presence-of-mind that helped make his previous solo album, 2021’s 4NEM, such a convincing comeback. The Chicago drill pioneer’s voice may no longer have the impossibly addled quality that defined his breakout mixtapes, but the impishness that always sweetened his dire, violent lyrics is now more pronounced. He’s brought new energy to his role as this project’s primary producer as well, curating beats that have a titanium-tinted cohesion while retaining the spirit of a bedroom producer jamming out on Fruity Loops, trying to find his sound. It’s an exhilarating, multifaceted listen, and one that could serve as an effective relaunching pad for Sosa in the future. — Jordan Darville

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music

I. JORDAN’s latest release is the euphoric sound of a rambunctious Friday night pregame, where you’re taking tequila shots and Polaroid selfies while waiting for your friend’s dealer. The entire time, I AM JORDAN is blasting through a Bluetooth speaker, bringing immaculate energy to a room full of hotties scream-singing along to the hook of “Real Hot N Naughty.” You have to be dancing, or, at the bare minimum, furiously bobbing your head along to the sped-up house beats that pulse their way into raunchy donk and hardstyle songs like “Round n Round,” complete with the winking use of multiple kinds of siren samples, Eurodance piano lines, and a bunch of obnoxiously fun melodies. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself fist-pumping along. — Sandra Song

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

Damon McMahon’s death jokes aren’t meant to be funny; quite the opposite, in fact. His first Amen Dunes album in six years, cynical as its title may sound, is a work of radical sincerity. In the process of making it, he attended a second-line funeral, learned to play piano from a psychic medium and to sample from the work of J Dilla and others, and had a daughter. The result of these silver-lined tragedies, profound learning experiences, and domestic miracles is 14 songs that sound dramatically different from the rest of his catalog, and from each other. From its disorienting, jittery opener and title track to the thinly veiled chaos of “Rugby Child” to the eerie, stretched-out lament “Round the World,” the songs’ unpredictable, idiosyncratic production choices can make them difficult to parse on first listen, but immensely rewarding to sit with for multiple rotations. — Raphael Helfand

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

Knocked Loose are something of an anomaly in the metal and hardcore world; a band whose imminent breakout is seemingly discussed more as they get heavier and heavier. You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To arrives amid increasing chatter on the potential commercial peaks of the Louisville band. If this is the album that takes them to the next level, then fair play, because no edges have been sanded nor has any gloss been applied to the crushing heft of the group’s ferociously intense music. Frontman Bryan Garris, whose vocals are often delivered in a horror-adjacent roar, speaks of an “eclipsing weight” on “Suffocate.” It’s a phrase that sums up the album well, a ballast that feels like it could shut out the sun. That song, like many on You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To, is loaded with distorted breakdowns that leave it practically coarse to the touch. Scratch beyond what is already exposed by the scraping production and Garris reveals himself caught in a spiritual crisis, he dreams of being reborn (“Don’t Reach For Me”) and worries about demons prospering over hard-working folk (“Slaughterhouse 2”). The album artwork similarly taps into this lack of clarity. It displays a glimmering crucifix, whether it offers a guiding light or is intentionally glowing like the storefront of a newly opened franchise is open to interpretation. Garris appears to make his feelings clear on “Blinding Faith” when he says, “with my final breath, I deny the church.” It’s a rare definitive statement on an album that purges nuance from the deepest depths of the human condition. — David Renshaw

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

Dehd make fun music for lonely people. The Chicago band’s output since their 2016 debut has gone from catchy-as-hell melody-focused minimalist post-punk to fully blown-out art-pop excellence, brimming with musings on broken hearts, solitude, and open-hearted celebrations of loneliness. Their latest album, Poetry is partly inspired by a clip of Tom Waits reading Charles Bukowski’s “The Laughing Heart,” a poem emphasizing the importance of taking ownership of your life and embracing the good, the bad, and the ugly. Poetry builds on these themes and explores the joys of unabashed hedonism and debauchery. “Dog Days” sets the tone for the entire record, the chorus meant to be sung at the top of your lungs with your friends: “Everyone I know is breaking hearts tonight / Everyone I know is bleeding, but I know we’ll be alright.” — Cady Siregar

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp