New Music Friday: 13th Floor New Album Picks: June 13, 2025
New Music Friday is back on The 13th Floor. And June 13th brings us new albums by Jazmine Mary, Gasoline Lollipops, Van Morrison and more!
There is also a new album by Neil Young …click here to read my thoughts on the new Neil.
Anyway…here are my picks for the five albums that deserve your undivided attention on this New Music Friday:
- Jazmine Mary – I Want To Rock And Roll (Flying Nun) Don’t we all?!? Jazmine Mary releases their third long-player and first for Flying Nun. Mary says, “I was feeling such devastation and heartbreak and sadness in the last two years, that when there were moments of relief from that, that’s when I was writing. They’re expressed in moments of relief because it turns out, when you’re in bed, sad, you can’t write music.” Mostly recorded at Roundhead Studios with De Stevens (Erny Belle, Molly Payton, Office Dog), I Want To Rock And Roll sees Mary on a more refined sonic journey and denotes a shift in process. Click here to read the 13th Floor album review.
2. Ratso – Fuck Ratso (Self) The Auckland band’s first, and last album. The band is…was…made up of Jake Harding of NZ garage punk legends The D4 on guitar and members of Black Science, Psycho Daizies and Thee Rum Coves. Unfortunately this rockin’ little outfit is no more, but we do have this album as a memento of what they were capable of. It rattles your brain and shakes the walls. There’ll be no shows as RATSO is no more. There is just this: FUCK.RATSO, the unfiltered transmission of a band in full flight.
3. Gasoline Lollipops – Kill The Architect (ALP) Produced by longtime Los Lobos member Steve Berlin, they’ve been called “Colorado’s more eccentric, punk-minded answer to Old Crow Medicine Show”. A Colorado fixture for years now, they’ve really distilled their ever-evolving sound into something signature and distinct here, tying together the longtime themes of their music with a sound that reflects the dissonance of life. Click here to read the 13th Floor album review.
4. Van Morrison – Remembering Now (Exile) It’s Van The Man’s first album of original material since 2022 and his 47th overall! Morrison returns to the transcendent, uncategorisable rhapsodies that make him unique. Soul, jazz, blues, folk, country – this is music in conversation with all of them but limited by none. Truly transcendent.
5. Dee Dee Bridgewater + Bill Charlap – Elemental (Mack Avenue) Elemental hints at the profound virtually subatomic level on which these two brilliant GRAMMY-
winning artists connect. In a relatively short but fruitful period of time – interrupted but not derailed by the pandemic – they have forged a camaraderie that soars past the chemical to the
alchemical. Click here to read the 13th Floor album review.
