New Music Friday: 13th Floor New Album Picks: April 11, 2025
New Music Friday is upon us once more! Today we’d like to introduce you to Sofia Härdig and alert you to new releases by Bon Iver, Geoff Ong and more.
The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda picks these five new releases for your consideration:
- Sofia Härdig – Lighthouse Of Glass (Bark At Your Owner) Even though this is the Swedish artist’s 8th album, we just discovered her and now, hopefully you will too. Bringing to mind Patti Smith and PJ Harvey, Sofia Härdig pushes musical boundaries with a bold, genre-defying exploration that promises to redefine her artistic vision. Renowned for spellbinding, high-energy live performances, Härdig challenges musical boundaries, transforming everyday sounds into extraordinary artistic expressions. We hope to be talking to her soon…stayed tuned!
2. Galactic with Irma Thomas – Audience With The Queen (Tchoup-Zilla/Thirty Tigers) Two New Orleans legends team up. With Audience With The Queen, Galactic and Irma Thomas have come together to create a career-defining milestone for both artists, an uplifting joint effort that shines new light on the incomparable singer’s timeless, soulful sound. “I feel incredibly fortunate that we’re able to work with somebody like Irma Thomas,” says Ben Ellman. “I mean, we’ve worked with Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Cyril Neville, Corey Glover – just incredible lead singers, who have really contributed to the fabric of contemporary American music. I just feel like a kid in a candy store.” As for the 84-year-old Soul Queen of New Orleans? “I won’t ever retire from singing,” Irma Thomas promises. “I’m having too much fun.”
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3. Bon Iver – Sable, fable (Jagjaguwar)This is Bon Iver’s first album in six years, and with it comes a love story set to lush, radiant pop music. While the record begins with the vulnerable
unburdening of last fall’s three-song SABLE, EP, the triptych seamlessly gives way to a new nine-song saga in which one person becomes two, darkness turns to salmon-colored beauty,
and sadness transforms to unbridled joy. Click here to read the 13th Floor Album Review.
4. Geoff Ong – Diverging Lines (Self) A couple of Kiwi EPs today including friend-of-the-13th Floor Geoff Ong. Packed with self-produced and utterly wholesome bangers, DIVERGING LINES offers an intimate insight into Geoff‘s honest and raw songwriting, and his undeniable talent for encapsulating sensitive subject matter in a way that makes listeners feel less alone. “I really believe that platonic relationships can be just as impactful in our lives as romantic relationships,” says Geoff. “Both in how they define who we are as people when we are in them, and how heartbreaking they can be when they end.” An inspiring collection of heartfelt experiences and feelings, DIVERGING LINES is the perfect soundtrack for self-reflection. Listeners won’t want to miss this stunning new chapter in Geoff Ong’s story!
5. Robinson – Heavenly Hell Of Mine (LAB Records) Another Kiwi EP, this from UK-based Robinson. HEAVENLY HELL OF MINE is the latest chapter in Robinson’s exciting story, which has seen her rise from young emerging Kiwi artist who cut her teeth at Rockquest, to acclaimed singer and songwriter, who has toured with heavyweights such as OneRepublic and clocked up a whopping 129 million streams on her breakthrough smash hit, ‘Nothing To Regret’, which is certified Platinum in New Zealand and double Platinum in Australia.
