Ten New Albums to Hear Now: Quavo, Meshell Ndegeocello, Greg Freeman

Meshell Ndegeocello reimagines era-spanning classics as duets with Cat Power, Chaka Khan, Cynthia Erivo and ANOHNI on her new Blue Note album, Synonym. The record leads this week's batch of significant new streaming releases selected by Pitchfork's editors, alongside new LPs from Quavo, Greg Freeman, Emily A. Sprague and six others.

The Human League's "Don't You Want Me" becomes a smoky reggae groove on Synonym; Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" simmers into a jazz standard suited to the label's catalogue. Pitchfork's reviewers write that these left-of-center renditions "run the gamut on genre and style, but work together as a testament to Ndegeocello's distinctive timbre." Robert Glasper and Bill Callahan also appear among the collaborators.

Quavo made most of Qrömelife, out on Quality Control/Motown, on a yacht with Pharrell. The album taps Future, T.I., Justin Timberlake and A$AP Rocky for features and delivers what the site calls "an easygoing collection of Neptunes-styled hip-pop." Pitchfork flags it as "a solid enough appetizer for that final Migos album Q's been promising."

Vermont singer Greg Freeman works with producer John Congleton on All Set the Bone, out via Transgressive/Canvasback. The opener "Cahokia" moves from Riot!-era Paramore riffage through cabaret rock and power pop to a dual-guitar outro. Pitchfork's verdict: Freeman "no longer sounds like he's writing really good Isaac Brock or Jason Molina or MJ Lenderman songs. He's just writing really good Greg Freeman songs."

Miami duo B0YG1RL — Angela Rio and June "Tété" Vinette — release their fourth LP of 2026, a self-titled album on Surf Gang that follows the Novagang collaboration EXIT 2B. Their mix of kompa, post-rage rap, reggaeton, electro-pop and baile funk arrives primarily in Haitian Creole.

Emily A. Sprague, the experimental artist also known as Florist, conceived Cyano on a winter solstice trip to an Icelandic fjord. Released on Rvng Intl., the album draws on photographer Anna Atkins and her cyanotypes, building a science-fiction concept around a character on a faraway planet with sounds resembling holographic guitar and piano.

Victoria Monét's Frequency of Love arrives on RCA. Kaytranada produced the single "Reach Out," which Pitchfork describes as taking yearning and dancing "it out over retro house." Slow jams "Come Back to You" and "I Want You" carry the album's desire; on "Care for Somebody," Monét embodies "the classical whimsy of a Disney princess."

Wishy's Nature's Pill, out on Winspear, marks the first time vocalists Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites wrote together in a room, despite knowing each other since high school. Tracked almost entirely live after heavy touring, the follow-up to 2024's Triple Seven shifts from '90s-minded dream pop toward college rock, pop-punk and crossover indie.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's Ruin: It's Not Just Music, on Someone Special, builds the ballroom influence of last year's Gush into what Pitchfork calls "full-on, body-to-body combat" via futuristic garage and old-school drum 'n' bass. "I wanted the music to feel physical and direct, something that releases tension as much as it creates it," Smith said in a statement.

Santo Domingo producer Boundary's Proxima Centauri, named after the star closest to our sun, gathers nostalgic video-game samples and slow-burn IDM melodies. "In our current times, evil seems to prevail without end," Boundary said in press materials. "I hope this record can somehow bring some level of hope and faith in ourselves, during these very dark times."

Detroit singer-songwriter Stef Chura closes the list with Dancing Alone on the Concrete, out on Saddle Creek. Peter Buck and Mike Mills of R.E.M. contribute to the track "Danny"; Chura's cloudy vocals also recall Cat Power and Electrelane.

All ten albums are available now on streaming services, with Pitchfork's weekly selections continuing through its New Music Friday newsletter.