The Lead Sheet ~ 5/13/2025

The Lead Sheet is your guide to this week’s new music - taking a look at newly released albums, who made them, and how listeners are responding. 

Summer jams are dropping, and they are hot. 

Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire (or, THE Arcade Fire, depending who you ask) released their new album Pink Elephant, marking 3 years since the release of their 6th album We, in May of 2022. Despite the anticipation, Pink Elephant is receiving lukewarm reviews, and perhaps audiences will end up “not-thinking-about” Pink Elephants after all. 

Speaking of indie bands, Car Seat Headrest, led by frontman Will Toledo recently dropped their highly anticipated album, The Scholars, an indie-rock opera, to great reception. The album is being discussed as an exciting deviation from the band’s standard sound, and while some purists may prefer their earlier work, many are giving it praise for exploring new ground. 

Kali Uchis’ new project Sincerely, debuted on May 9th,; a neo-soul love letter to the concept of love itself, dedicated to the singer’s late mother. Sincerely is both moody and reflective, taking inspiration from her family – in a recent interview, Uchis expressed that after her mother passed all she had left were the letters she’d written over the years. The album’s title was chosen for that reason. The track “ILYSMIH” explores the theme of motherhood as Uchis wrote it during labor recovery for her newborn son, and the song is dedicated to him.

Fans of rising star PinkPantheress, are celebrating her 2nd studio album, Fancy That, which was also released May 9th. Fancy That is rife with alt-pop bangers, perfect for the summer playlist, and listeners are enjoying a step up in production value from her first release- Fancy That has a sound that is grander than her first album; Pink collaborated with experienced music producers like Askel Arvid and Count Baldo, and made bold choices like sampling songs from Panic! at the Disco and Jessica Simpson. The level of complexity has been cranked up with layering effects, clever use of synths which make the album shine.

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and electronic musician Mark Pritchard released Tall Tales, their first collaborative project. Tall Tales is an experimental dystopian collage, exploring themes of isolation in an increasingly artificial world. The album harkens back to Yorke’s earlier discography like Kid A and Ok Computer with its drum machine loops and eerie, swelling futuristic synths. Pritchard (who has gone by many aliases such as Harmonic 313, Reload, and Troubleman) has been creating electronic music since the 90’s, but Tall Tales is his most significant collaboration to date in terms of name-recognition. 

New Albums for the week of 5/13/2025: 

Arcade Fire - Pink Elephant

Released May 9th 2025, 

Columbia Records

Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars

Released May 2nd, 2025

Matador Records

Kali Uchis - Sincerely 

Released May 9th, 2025

Capitol Records

PinkPantheress - Fancy That

Released May 9th 2025

Warner Records

Thom Yorke and Mark Prichard - Tall Tales

Released May 9th 2025

Warp Records Limited