4 New Albums You Need: Miley Cyrus, Obongjayer, EBK Jaaybo, and more

Starting from her last album Endless Summer Vacation, it’s felt that Miley Cyrus has been wanting to do something different. While the music from that record was still very radio friendly, gifting her first Grammy award for “Flowers,” there were some weird moments, like “Handstand,” her cinematic spoken-word fever dream made with Harmony Korine. That feeling carries over into her new album, Something Beautiful, which is finally something completely new from Miley in that it shirks current radio trends completely. Prog rock, disco, soul, and immersive soundscapes are the inspirations for this record, and Miley takes her time on these songs which run upwards of six minutes. Cyrus said high fashion and horror movies made up the mood board and these songs do have a severe and gorgeous quality to them. “Every Girl You’ve Ever Loved” sounds like a soundtrack for an Alexander McQueen catwalk flooded with fog. “Pretend You’re God” channels Tame Impala’s wind-swept psychedelia. The title track has guitars that can crater your speakers. This isn’t Miley the pop star, it’s Miley the artist. — Steffanee Wang

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music

In the summer of 2024 Obongjayar launched a party series in south London he titled PARADISE NOW. Essentially an excuse to perform new music and gather his friends on a regular basis, the night’s ethos of individuality and expression has bled into the Nigerian artist’s richly crafted second album. Also titled Paradise Now, the album builds on 2022’s Some Nights I Dream Of Doors with Obongjayar’s songwriting more robust, with sleek production that backs a unique voice made up of sunshine and gravel. Some songs tap into the party vibe, like the uber-confident “Jellyfish,” while others drop the pretence and dig deeper. “Just My Luck,” one of the most pop-leaning moments on the album, is about keeping up momentum when the knocks come thick and fast. “Not In Surrender,” meanwhile, plays with rock star aesthetics to mirror the high of grinding hard. Little Simz (one of the friends who performed at PARADISE NOW) makes an appearance on “Talk Olympics,” adding to an album that might have started in a small venue but is primed for maximum exposure. — David Renshaw

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

Every now and then in his songs, EBK Jaaybo will tell you that he can’t tell you something. Any more detail, the Stockton rapper implies, and he could get put away. It’s a confusing declaration, since Jaaybo’s music is defined by its granular detail of gang life — dead rivals are mocked, live ones are warned, and blood is spilled with harrowing specificity. Don’t Trust Me is Jaaybo’s first project since his 2024 project The Reaper and as the cover suggests — with its cloaked, hooded figure — the project sticks to his formula. Go-to producer Yvnng Ecko churns out mostly gladiatorial and menacing beats marked with choral pads, blown-out 808s, and a bounce fit for a hydraulic car meet. But as always, Jaaybo crafts narratives that are as vivid as they are troubling, a certain fatalism wafting off the songs like sulpher, even when he seeks a change (“Hope I could leave this gangsta shit behind me one day, for real / Get that location we gon’ come today,” he raps on the Mozzy-flavored “Million Dollar Thuggin”). It’s distinctly troubling music: his raps are written from deep within a rip current of endless loss and violence, and tragically, a weapon is the only purchase his seeking hands can find. — Jordan Darville

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music

On his new album, While The Iron Is Hot, Oakland MC Ovrkast. finds a pocket between the old school and the new, flowing dextrously over Dilla-indebted beats but adding enough personal style to the mix to beat the throwback allegations. His approach is studied but never comes off academic: The deep-cut jazz samples that avoid esotericism, and the slick references to hip-hop’s near past (most notably on “SPIKE LEE,” which begins with Kast rapping the repeated Rick James “look atcha” sample from “Runaway” himself) are refreshingly playful. Throughout the record, he picks his features carefully. Vince Staples, Saba, and several others fit perfectly into the scenery of their respective tracks. But the project’s strongest point comes at its exact center with “MAVIKAST!” Kast and Mavi have already worked together a few times and the results have always been excellent, but nowhere have their energies been quite as locked in as they are here, trading bars that feel as if they’re coming from a single brain. — Raphael Helfand

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music