New Music Friday: 13th Floor New Album Picks: May 26, 2023

New Music Friday is happening again (I always have Friday On My Mind). It’s slim pickin’s this week because, no doubt, of Memorial Day weekend in the US. But still some tasty morsels for you. Here are five new albums we think you should check out.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda has chosen these 5 new albums for your consideration released today:

1. Sparks – The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte (Island) Ron and Russell Mael release their 26th album! Back on Island Records where they made history 50 years ago. Here’s what the Mael Brothers have to say: “Here we find ourselves in 2023, almost 50 years later, re-signing with Island Records, again with an album that we all feel is as bold and uncompromising as anything we did back then, or for that matter, anytime throughout our career. We’re happy that after so much time, we’ve reconnected with Island, sharing the same spirit of adventure that we all had way back when, but with our new album, ‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte.‘”

2. Arlo Parks – My Soft Machine (Transgressive) Second album from this Mercury Prize-winner. And here’s what Arlo has to say about it: “The world/our view of it is peppered by the biggest things we experience – our traumas, upbringing, vulnerabilities almost like visual snow. This record is life through my lens, through my body – the mid 20s anxiety, the substance abuse of friends around me, the viscera of being in love for the first time, navigating PTSD and grief and self sabotage and joy, moving through worlds with wonder and sensitivity – what it’s like to be trapped in this particular body.”

3. Corrella – Road From 26 (Lil Sister) Debut album from the Kiwi 7-piece. Named for the Navy house where the band was created, 26 Corrella Road, near the Devonport Naval Base where the group met and formed – Road From 26 is a powerful, modern and outright vibe that takes you on a journey from Corrella’s past to present. With their signature feel-good roots-reggae, there’s also funk, soul, pop-rock. Watch for a 13th Floor Single Session with the band later today.

4. Water From Your Eyes – Everyone’s Crushed (Matador) The follow-up to the Brooklyn duo’s 2021 breakthrough, Structure, Rachel Brown and Nate Amos find silliness and fatalism dancing in a frantic lockstep, using heart palpitating rhythms and absurdist, deadpan lyrics to convey stories of personal and societal unease. Described by Brown as Water From Your Eyes’ most collaborative record ever, it’s a swollen contusion of an album: experimental pop music that’s pretty and violent, raw and indelible.

5. Matchbox 20 – Where The Light Goes (Atlantic) Are these guys still around? The answer is yes. “Once songs develop color and personality, it’ like, ‘Hey, this is who we are now,’” says Rob Thomas. “Then we can build on that because part of the journey’s figuring out what our individual parts sound like when they’re together again — and do we still like it? Luckily, we did.”