3 Albums We Love Right Now

Mimi Arden | Mimi Arden
Mimi Arden vocalist Michelle Gaw has a voice as startling as it is smooth. While her inviting alto seems built to comfort listeners, the folk rock on Mimi Arden’s debut is too commandingly melodic to fade into the din of a coffee shop. On “Soul Pocket” and “Standards,” Gaw’s bright tone is so sunny, you almost miss the loneliness and righteous anger peppering the lyrics.

Muted Window/ Hollow Drive | Ouster
The 10 tracks on Ouster’s debut can careen from quiet admissions to barn-burning yowls in the span of a single phrase. It finds its sweet spot in the tension between such opposites, pairing roots guitar with enough punk static to blow your hair back on “I Don’t Have A Dream.” Real-life couple Desarae Petersen and Matt Meinke trade lead vocals throughout the record, but when Meinke’s Shannon Hoon-esque yowl meets Petersen’s wistful croon on “You Don’t Want Out,” the raucous harmony proves they’re most potent together.

Life’s A Trip | Trippie Redd
Some know Canton’s Trippie Redd more for feuds with XXXTentacion and 6ix9ine than collaborations with Drake and Quavo. That’s a shame, because the 19-year-old rapper and vocalist proves the power of his chameleonic croon on Life’s A Trip, an uneven debut that blends Soundcloud rap with emo influences and rock star posturing. From beneath a spasm of candy-red dreds, Redd backflips between dense rhymes on “Missing My Idols” and tuneful despair on affecting ballad “Together.” He can fall into radio tropes, but when Redd lets his weirder dreams drive, this is a Trip worth taking.