This week, we have the much-anticipated new single from Kendrick Lamar, as well as new songs from Sharon Van Etten, Ezra Furman, Julia Jacklin and Death Cab For Cutie, plus a new track from Minneapolis artist Papa Mbye.

Kendrick Lamar, “The Heart Part 5”

He's got a Pulitzer, multiple chart toppers and Grammys. He's performed at the Super Bowl halftime show, and his ravenous fan base jumps at any tease that there might be new music. Well, fans: relax, the new Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers, will be out May 13. The fifth album's first single is "The Heart Part 5," where a mysterious dance beat undercuts the vibrant machine-gun delivery of Lamar's heartfelt look at "the culture."

Sharon Van Etten, “Mistakes”

It's hard to avoid doomscrolling in 2022, a year of upheaval, destruction, and arguments abounding. Sharon Van Etten's new album, We've Been Going About This All Wrong, is "designed to be listened to in order, at once, so that a much larger story of hope, loss, longing and resilience can be told." 

Ezra Furman, “Forever In Sunset”

Ezra Furman once told me that living as a trans person in the world is constantly rattling a cage. The reoccurring themes of running away, getting in a car and driving away from everything, that escape to freedom is something that she longs for. The new album, All of Us Flames is, according to Furman, "a first person plural album. It’s a queer album for the stage of life when you start to understand that you are not a lone wolf, but depend on finding your family, your people, how you work as part of a larger whole. I wanted to make songs for use by threatened communities, and particularly the ones I belong to: trans people and Jews."

Julia Jacklin, “Lydia Wears A Cross”

The Australia musician, Julia Jacklin, is plotting out a world tour and releasing a new album, Pre Pleasure, on August 26. It seems likely to be a continuation of stirring up the emotions of those volatile teen years of self-discovery — figuring out who you are, who you like, and what the world means when it could still mean anything.

Death Cab for Cutie, “Roman Candles”

After a productive Covid quarantine where Death Cab for Cutie frontman, Ben Gibbard, offered daily sources of inspirational livestreams (which raised over $250,000 in donations), and dedicating time to cover songs for other various causes and tributes, Gibbard is switching focus back to DCFC. The band's tenth album, Asphalt Meadows, will be out September 16. But don't expect the pandemic to be too far in the rearview mirror, as Gibbard shared the inspiration for the new song "Roman Candles," saying, "The lyrics were cobbled from a couple of different songs dealing with my general sense of anxiety; the feeling that the fabric that weaves a functioning society together was crumbling during the pandemic.”

papa mbye, “PASSENGER”

There's a wonderful experimental rap-rock-pop scene in the Twin Cities, a bit of continuation of the Minneapolis sound that has morphed and changed through the decades. One of the frontrunners of the movement is Papa Mbye. The artist has a new song, "Passenger," a song about keeping watch and keeping momentum no matter what happens.

Playlist