3 New Albums Out This Week You Should Listen to Now: Softcult, Lande Hekt, and Joyce Manor
There’s so much good music out in the ether that sometimes it’s difficult to parse through all of it. Every week The Daily Music Report will do the hard work for you and highlight the best releases available on streaming services.
This week we’re highlighting new music from Softcult, Lande Hekt, and Joyce Manor.
Softcult – When a Flower Doesn’t Grow
Softcult’s debut album When a Flower Doesn’t Grow arrives as a confident distillation of everything the twin-sister duo have honed through years in DIY shoegaze circles, blending hazy 4AD-inspired dream pop with the bite of ’90s alt-rock. The record balances shimmering melodies and explosive choruses with pointed, unambiguous lyricism, as Mercedes Arn-Horn tackles themes of predatory behavior and performative masculinity head-on. Heavy yet melodic, polished yet confrontational, the album positions Softcult not just as genre revivalists, but as a band using shoegaze’s volume and atmosphere to deliver sharp, socially charged statements.
Standout Songs: ‘Pill To Swallow,’ ‘Naive,’ ‘Hurt Me,’ ‘Queen of Nothing,’ ‘Not Sorry.’
9.1
Artist Links:
Lande Hekt – Lucky Now
On Lucky Now, Lande Hekt sheds much of the emotional weight that defined her earlier releases, embracing gratitude, clarity, and hard-won peace without losing her tenderness. The album reflects a quieter confidence, moving between introspective moments like the banjo-tinged ‘Middle of the Night,’ which acknowledges sobriety and survival, and brighter indie-pop highs fueled by jangly guitars, lilting melodies, and nostalgic warmth. While traces of melancholy remain, Hekt favors acceptance over regret, balancing wistfulness with genuine joy across songs that feel sunlit, sincere, and increasingly comfortable in their own skin.
Standout Songs: ‘Kitchen II,’ ‘Lucky Now,’ ‘Favorite Pair of Shoes,’ and ‘Submarine.’
7.0
Artist Links:
Joyce Manor – I Used to Go to This Bar
Joyce Manor’s blend of humor, melancholy, and low-grade existential dread has always felt less like a phase and more like a worldview, and it ages with them gracefully. Now writing from early middle age rather than youthful angst, they face life’s disappointments with the same wit and warmth that’s long set them apart from their pop-punk peers. Songs like the wry ‘Well, Whatever It Was’ and the brooding ‘The Opossum’ show the band subtly shifting away from pure punk toward melodic, literate influences like The Smiths and early Elvis Costello—proof that growing up doesn’t dull their charm, it sharpens it.
Standout Songs: ‘I Know Where Mark Chen Lives,’ ‘All My Friends Are So Depressed,’ and ‘I Used To Go To This Bar.’
6.8
Artist Links:
When you’re done here lose yourself in our full library of 3 Albums Out This Week You Should Listen to Now.
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