With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new projects from Bas, 박혜진 Park Hye Jin, Certified Trapper, Wishy, and Laura Karpman. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.)
Bas: We Only Talk About Real Shit When We’re Fucked Up [Dreamville/Interscope]
Since 2018’s Milky Way, Bas has worked often with his Dreamville associates, picking up two Grammy nominations along the way. He’s back now with his fourth studio album, We Only Talk About Real Shit When We’re Fucked Up, which he previewed with the singles “Diamonds,” “Passport Bros,” “Ho Chi Minh,” “Khartoum,” and “179 Deli.” Guests on the album include J. Cole, Amaarae, AJ Tracey, Adekunle Gold, and A$AP Ferg.
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박혜진 Park Hye Jin: Sail the Seven Seas [self-released]
Two years after issuing her official debut album, Before I Die, producer and songwriter 박혜진 Park Hye Jin returns with a new self-released project, Sail the Seven Seas. She wrote, performed, and produced all 15 tracks herself, singing in English and Korean. Though the record includes club-friendly cuts like “Win” and “Bklyn Babe,” she turns toward a moody piano reflection in its title track. Park previewed Sail the Seven Seas with “Foreigner” at the end of November.
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Certified Trapper: Deep End EP [Signal]
Certified Trapper’s new EP, Deep End, is the latest glimpse into the Milwaukee rap staple’s vision for the sound of his city, which has spawned some of the most interesting trends in hip-hop this year. Deep End is the busy Trapper’s fourth project this year, following I’m Certified, I’m Certified 2, and Trapper of the Year. This time around, he recruited fellow Milwaukee artist MyaaP and South Florida’s Luh Tyler to contribute verses across the eight-song release. Read more about Certified Trapper in Pitchfork’s feature “Inside the Unmistakable Madness of Milwaukee’s Rap Scene.”
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Wishy: Paradise EP [Winspear]
Indiana songwriters Kevin Krauter—the bassist of the disbanded indie-pop group Hoops—and Nina Pitchkites have led a new band, Wishy, to a debut EP. The group previewed Paradise with “Donut,” “Too True,” and “Spinning.” Krauter shared his most recent solo album, Full Hand, in 2020.
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Laura Karpman, Elena Pinderhughes & Patrice Rushen: American Fiction (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Sony Music Masterworks]
In Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, Jeffrey Wright stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a professor and writer who stumbles into unwitting, outrageous success in his efforts against being pigeonholed as a Black writer. Composer Laura Karpman, whose credits include music for The Marvels and Lovecraft Country, developed a loose and occasionally tense jazz score for the motion picture in collaboration with pianist Patrice Rushen and flautist Elena Pinderhughes.
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