Welcome to another installment of Today's Release Highlights, where the TND writers room gathers up some brand new projects they want to draw your eyes and ears to.

Today, we have six releases we'd like to key you into as you head into the weekend. Check them all out below.

Ba bam!

ARY – DARKSTAR [self-released]

Arriving four years on from her Norwegian Grammy-winning electro-pop debut For Evig, DARKSTAR finds newly independent artist ARY embracing a more alternative aesthetic. While her debut was inescapably tied to the tragic death of her twin brother and the long, long tail of grief, DARKSTAR charts her “waking up” to the realisation of how much of her own self she lost in the process. Drawing inspiration from Oslo’s underground electronic scene, ARY wrote, recorded, and produced everything herself, giving the record a somewhat opaque, even hermetic feel. “It’s about looking inward, meeting the darker parts of myself, and learning to live somewhere in between, holding both light and darkness at the same time,” she says of the journey, and that applies as much to DARKSTAR’s carefully calibrated “Scandi-tech” sound as to the shadowy subject matter: a reckoning with identity, estrangement, and the question of what exactly is left behind after change has taken its toll. – Alan Pedder

M.I.A. – M.I.7 [OHMNI]

M.I.A. is an outsider to everything: to pop music, to dance and club, to hip-hop and rap, to production, to the visual arts, to the political spectrum. This used to make her a brilliant artist: records like Arular, Kala, Matangi, and even AIM were so tuned into her personal tastes and upbringing in the underground Sri Lankan/British electronic dance and rap community, that she came off even more adventurous, alien, and non-replicable than her art-pop peers of the 2010s. Perhaps it has to do with the fact she lives in the Bugonia universe, spiraling in conspiracies about 5G and the surveillance state until she flips from supporting Jeremy Corbyn to endorsing Donald Trump because RFK Jr. was no longer an option. We just don't get many women like her!

So, when a record about conversion to a belief as mainstream as born-again Christianity hits the market, this artist is bound to wrap listeners up in a zany retelling of the creation story, and she's already reading it in a wholly different way than us. For her, this is the prototype to Rosalía's LUX, who M.I.A. even accused of plagiarizing her aesthetic to "bring Christ to the Left." For me and many others, the obvious parallel for M.I.7 is Ye's 2019 born-again Christian record, Jesus Is King. Like that project, M.I.A. draws upon the poetry of the New Testament — specifically the Book of John and Revelations — to overload the lyrics with visions of trumpets, ascension, bright lights, salvation, and Jesus' loving embrace. (The use of Christianity and a call to God as a political tool to solidify a right-wing spiral is also a common link.) The Sunday Service Choir provide heavenly backup vocals on "JESUS" and "CALLING", two tracks split up by spoken-word interludes, wonky trumpet solos, and idiosyncratic synth and percussion beats. M.I.A. never loses sight of herself: the album is still rap and dance-heavy, steeped in trance, and riddled with stream-of-consciousness-style lyrics that read as both immediate thoughts scribbled down that morning and mantra-like meditations. ("MONEY", "CIRCLE", "RIDE THE SKY") M.I.7 is worth getting into, at least to recognize that M.I.A. still has it when it comes to imaginative song construction. – Victoria Borlando

Nine Inch Noize – Nine Inch Noize [Null Corporation/Interscope]

Nine Inch Nails have been in a clubby mood as of late, teaming up with techno wunderkind Boys Noize. This new album by the Nine Inch Noize team is a hybrid of recent live performances and studio work, showcasing NIN tunes (plus two covers) in a new light – or maybe that’s an absence of light, on a dark dance floor. Trent Reznor's wife, Mariqueen Maandig, makes some appearances, adding a connection to the Reznor/Maandig-helmed How to Destroy Angels project. NINoize are a Coachella highlight this year, and the collab has infiltrated the recent score for Tron: Ares. Reznor has said that this pairing has lit a fire under him with regards to writing new Nails material, so stay tuned. – Tyler Roland

Prince Daddy & The Hyena – Hotwire Trip Switch [Counter Intuitive Records]

Prince Daddy & The Hyena are switching things up on their 4th LP, Hotwire Trip Switch, stepping out of their fifth-wave emo lane and diving headfirst into nostalgia-soaked pop punk. Still plenty of emo DNA here, but the delivery pops like a wad of Big League Chew, loud and sugary sweet. The band teamed back up with Joe Reinhart (who’s worked with Hop Along, Joyce Manor, and Modern Baseball), and it shows. The record feels tight, punchy, and dialed in without losing its chaotic charm. They set out to make a “singles album,” and for the most part it’s banger after banger, pulling from early 2000s teen movie soundtracks, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater energy, and that TRL-era pop-punk glow. Underneath all the fun, there’s still the usual Prince Daddy mix of self-loathing, growing pains, and messy feelings. It just sounds a lot more like summer this time around. – Ricky Adams

Teen Suicide – Nude descending staircase headless [Run For Cover Records]

Have you ever thought: damn, you know what would really kick off a song is someone singing about getting head outside of Denny’s? No? Well, Teen Suicide has – sorry, I mean Teen “Unalive” (Instagram algorithm police, please don’t ban us) – on the track "Everything in my life is perfect." Call it their Moons Over My Hammy moment. All jokes aside, the husband-wife duo of Sam Ray and Kitty Pryde return with their fifth LP, Nude descending staircase headless, and their first time working with an outside producer. Recorded with Mike Sapone (known for work with Taking Back Sunday and Oso Oso), the album sees the band leaning into new territory, less sludge, more indie/emo. It’s a good look. Singles like “Suffering (Mike’s Way)” flex that adventurous streak while hinting at something almost… optimistic? There’s a lot going on here stylistically, but all the twists and turns, sonically, really make this an interesting listen. Longtime fans will find plenty to latch onto, and if they never clicked for you before, this might be the one that does. And if you’re brand new, well, dang, you picked a pretty great time to jump in. – Ricky Adams

Yaya Bey – Fidelity [Drink Sum Wtr]

Hidaiyah Bey has always been a smart, progressive voice in R&B, from the rent-is-too-damn-high anthem "Eric Adams in the Club" to last year's surprise calypso-Afropop move "Merlot and Grigio." On her seventh album in a productive decade, following the high points Ten Fold and Do It Afraid, Yaya Bey returns to more traditional neo-soul with beautiful textures crunched beneath the crack of big drum grooves and well-massaged melodies abound even on a brief one like "In the Middle." She still can't resist a reggae detour like "Egyptian Musk," but that's part of why we can't resist her. – Daniel Aaron