Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

New Music Preview: Courtney Barnett, Leon Bridges, and Jon Hopkins

Image used with permission by copyright holder

May has plenty of new album releases in store, but there are three particular records coming out this month that we can’t wait to hear.

Leon Bridges – Good Thing

Two new songs — “Bad Bad News” and “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand” — arrived in March of this year, along with the announcement of Leon Bridges’ sophomore album, Good Thing, which comes out via Columbia Records on Friday, May 4. Both songs find Bridges adding new, more contemporary elements to his music and expanding on the retro soul sound of his Grammy Award-nominated debut album. “Bad Bad News” is bouncy and upbeat, incorporating elements of jazz and hip hop, while the ballad “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand” is smooth breakup track with strings accenting the musician’s falsetto.

Leon Bridges - Bad Bad News (Official Video)

Bridges spoke with Exclaim! about the new album and his desire to move expand outside of the soundscape of Coming Home. He remarked, “I made [Coming Home] because it was reflective of where I was at the time, but that sound doesn’t all the way define me … I wanted to share my voice through other outfits, so it’s not only a classic R&B thing.”

Jon Hopkins – Singularity

“Everything Connected,” the latest single from Jon Hopkins’ forthcoming album, premiered barely a week ago. The British electronic music producer described the ten-and-a-half minute long song as the “energetic peak of the new record” in a tweet on April 25. With its gradual build, pulsing beat, and slow descent, the tracks captures the spirit of Hopkins’ forthcoming album, which, as a press release describes, “begins and ends on the same note: a universe beginning, expanding, and contracting towards the same infinitesimal point.”

Jon Hopkins - Everything Connected (Official Audio)

Singularity marks Hopkins’ fifth studio album and his first full-length since 2013’s Immunity. Where the former “charted the dark alternative reality of an epic night out, Singularity explores the dissonance between dystopian urbanity and the green forest. It is a journey that returns to where it began – from the opening note of foreboding to the final sound of acceptance.” Look for its release on Friday, May 4.

Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel

Australian musician Courtney Barnett began to receive international attention in 2013 with the release of her double EP, A Sea of Split Peas. Her debut full-length, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, followed in 2015 and exceeded all the expectations set by A Sea of Split Peas. The AV Club, The Guardian, Pitchfork, Rough Trade, and Stereogum all featured the record in their top 10 albums of 2015, and Barnett picked up a nomination for Best New Artist at the 2016 Grammy Awards.

Courtney Barnett - Nameless, Faceless

Her sophomore album arrives Friday, May 18. Titled Tell Me How You Really Feel, the record takes an introspective turn. Per the artist’s bio, Barnett has turned her gaze inward to study how the world and the people in it are affecting her. She notes, “This album has been my own personal introductory study into human behavior and Psychology 101. How do you grab all those queries and opinions and tie them into one sensical song before it branches off into another rambling train of thought?”

Did you miss on April’s releases? Check ’em out here.

Editors' Recommendations

Terence Praet
Terence Praet contributes to The Manual’s New Music Monday column. He studied Philosophy and History at Skidmore College…
Everything points to Apple TV+ making a change you’re not going to like
Is an ad-supported tier coming to Apple TV+?
The Apple TV Plus Logo

It turns out that TV worked pretty well under its old model. According to a new report from Business Insider, Apple TV+ may be the latest streaming service that's set to introduce an ad-supported tier and charge those who don't stream with ads a premium fee to access their great shows and movies.

At this point, the report is still speculation, but Apple has made several recent hires in the advertising space that seem to suggest the direction they're planning to take. The company recently hired former NBCUniversal ad executive Joseph Cady to serve as executive vice president of advanced advertising and partnerships, a move that comes following the company's hiring of another former NBCUniversal executive, Jason Frum, who joined Apple's video ad sales team.

Read more
From Gilda Radner to Ali Wong, these are the best female comedians of all time
These women from all generations will make you laugh out loud
Ai Wong comedian 2017 Moontower comedy festival

Hot take: I don’t care for straight male comedians. It’s not that they’re not funny, they’re just … I don’t know, boring? Maybe that’s reductive of me, but I never seem to leave a straight male comedian’s set feeling particularly inspired. And though some may argue that it’s not important for a set to "inspire" its audience, I’d actually argue that the opposite is true. For me, I want to see a comedian use humor to address real issues and say real things about the world, even if they do it in a completely goofy way.

Therefore, I tend to prefer female and female-identified comedians. They’re sharp, tough, and have often seen shit that makes their comedy feel raw and true. Undoubtedly there are male comedians who do this, too, but to a much lesser degree, in my very humble and very personal opinion.

Read more
12 classic sci-fi books everyone should read
If you love science fiction and reading, these classic sci-fi novels are a must
Man reading a book and drinking coffee

It may feel like we were recently living in a science-fiction dystopia life -- and in some ways, we were -- but that doesn't mean that we should simply avoid an entire genre of writing. Hardly. In fact, this is probably the perfect time to explore classic sci-fi books, to see what the masters have written, and maybe even see if someone predicted anything like this. Many, though, simply ignore sci-fi wholly and completely because of an association with robots, aliens, and the like.

Long story short, if you think you don't like sci-fi, you have never read great books from the genre. But indeed, many such books abound, including a number that has delighted generations of readers going back well over 150 years. In fact, one of the best things about so many sci-fi books is their very timelessness. As by definition, this type of fiction breaks away from the norms of the everyday world -- whether slightly twisting things or taking place on entire other worlds -- the stories often feel as fresh and relevant today as when they were published decades ago.

Read more