New Music Friday: Stream new projects from Beth Gibbons, Draag, Lip Critic, and more

Lives Outgrown is an album 10 years in the making after half a century in the ether. The debut solo LP from Portishead frontwoman Beth Gibbons, released six-and-a-half months before her 60th birthday, comprises 10 jaw-droppingly lush tracks, each a condensed saga of its own. The songs’ astonishing intricacy and immediate impact are testament to the benefits of taking one’s time. — Raphael Helfand (read the full review here)

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music

A year after dropping their debut album Dark Fire Heresy, Draag return with their new EP Actually, the quiet is nice. A quintet that's always been more interested in revival than reprisal, Draag take notes from the salad days of shoegazing, dream-pop, and metal while brewing something unique and transportive. "Orb weaver" and "The day has come" weave summery fuzz rock into the kind of incandescent vocal lines that permeate through the entire EP, "Microgravity tank" adds a few wonky production choices reminiscent of Alex G, and "Recharge," offers a fight to the death between Deftones and Stereolab. Even though the shoegaze market is undeniably oversaturated, Draag consistently find new ways to break through the often indistinguishable noises. — Jordan Darville

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

Hex Dealer is a synth-punk blast filled with rabid breakbeats and an obliterative energy fuelled largely by their deployment of twin drummers Ilan Natter and Daniel Eberle. They, alongside producer Connor Kleitz, create a frantic and aciding percussive landscape that prizes feeling over form. Lyrically, frontman Bret Kaser throws a bunch of ideas at the wall to see what sticks. Sometimes he barks, other times he raps. However his words come out, they you in closer. Songs on Hex Dealer reference everything from delusions of God-like grandeur and doomsday preppers, to Greta Gerwig's Barbie, and the awkward stage of wearing new jeans. It all combines to create a goofy take on the line-blurring of punk and electro that Liars and Lightning Bolt were making 15 years ago. — David Renshaw

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

girli’s got an alt-pop hit on her hands with her latest release, which might as well serve as the score to an ‘80s teen comedy about ex-girlfriends, sapphic love triangles, and self-love. Unrelentingly energetic from the get-go, Matriarchy pushes the idea of frenzied, retrofuturist synth-pop to its absolute limit with overdubbed vocals, hyper-maximalist production, and the playful use of kitschy Devo-style synths. The end result is infectiously catchy chaos, a collection of rebellious pop-punk melodies on songs like “Lose My Cool” and “Nothing Hurts Like a Girl” that also take clear inspiration from sources like A-Ha’s “Take on Me,” Charli XCX’s Pop 2, and Tove Lo’s anti-patriarchal attitude. And while some of her broader lyrical statements on songs like the title track feel a little empty and overplayed, it’s clear she’s still figuring out what exactly she’s trying to say. Judging from her innate confidence and fiery attitude, though, that’ll come in due time. — Sandra Song

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music