Welcome to the latest installment of Five Albums, the weekly feature for paid Hearing Things subscribers in which we recommend a handful of new records that you need to hear. As music journalists, the question we get most often from friends is how to stay on top of what’s new and cool. This is our attempt to provide a practical answer.
Since starting Five Albums this winter, we’ve collectively recommended nearly 150 albums to Hearing Things readers. Somewhere along the way, we extended the use of our Must Hear stamp of approval to the newsletter too. (For quality control, each of our five founder-critics can drop just one MH in Five Albums every month.) The goal, as ever, is to cut through the clutter and point you towards music you’ll love. Just like the song that grows on you over time, some things are worth repeating. This week, the entries are pulled from past newsletters and curated with a single goal in mind: to make sure you’ve heard HT’s favorite albums of the year so far.
To coincide, we are also rolling out trial subscriptions: get one month of Hearing Things FREE. Five Albums, along with its sister newsletter Five Songs, are accessible to paid subscribers only. Now’s a great time to see what you’ve been missing and decide if it’s worth a few dollars a month to support independent music journalism. (We sure think it is!)
Also, we heard music criticism is dead? Nah. Next week in Five Albums, we’re covering the most overrated records of 2025 so far. Get ready. *cracks knuckles*
Get access to everything we do at Hearing Things—including weekly album and song recommendations along with our ever-growing archive of interviews and reports—with a free 30-day trial!
