New Zealand-born and Australian-raised singer-songwriter Jess Cornelius is making a name for herself in North America with the release of her new single “No Difference” accompanied by a beautifully shot music video. Described as a balance between self-help and blind fatalism, “No Difference” expands on her common themes of womanhood, relationships and the confusions of existence, all delivered by her startling voice. This track comes as the first release under Cornelius’s self-named project since her debut Nothing Is Lost EP in 2017—and it’s a striking stateside introduction.

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From director Gaspar Noé (Irreversible, Enter the Void) comes a hypnotic, hallucinatory, and ultimately hair-raising depiction of a party that descends into delirium over the course of one wintry night. In Climax, a troupe of young dancers gathers in a remote and empty school building to rehearse. Following an unforgettable opening performance lit by virtuoso cinematographer Benoît Debie (Spring Breakers; Enter the Void) and shot by Noé himself, the troupe begins an all-night celebration that turns nightmarish as the dancers discover they’ve been pounding cups of sangria laced with potent LSD. Tracking their journey from jubilation to chaos and full-fledged anarchy, Noé observes crushes, rivalries, and violence amid a collective psychedelic meltdown. Starring Sofia Boutella (Atomic Blonde) and a cast of professional dancers, Climax is Noé’s most brazen and visionary statement yet. (A24)

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In German director Christian Petzold’s brilliant and haunting modern-day adaptation of Anna Seghers’s 1942 novel Transit Visa, Georg, a German refugee (Franz Rogowski), flees to Marseille assuming the identity of a recently deceased writer whose papers he is carrying. There he delves into the delicate and complex culture of the refugee community, becoming enmeshed in the lives of a young mother and son and falling for a mysterious woman named Marie. (Music Box Films)

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Hand Habits’ debut album, Wildly Idle (Humble Before The Void), was released by Woodsist Records in 2017. Two years later, Hand Habits (AKA Meg Duffy, who you might recognize as a long-time member of Kevin Morby’s touring band) has returned with their sophomore album placeholder. As tender and immediate as anything Duffy’s ever written, the album is also intensely focused and refined—the work of a meticulous musician ready to share their singular vision with the world. (Saddle Creek).

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Two years after the release of her critically acclaimed debut Beyond the Bloodhounds, and after a season of dealing with life on tour and a new and more public life around an album campaign, Victoria went inward. The result, Silences , was recorded with The National’s Aaron Dessner at his studio in upstate New York, and through its twelve tracks Victoria explores themes of mental illness, drug addiction, sexism and all the elements that consume the day-to-day lives of women attempting to make a world of their own. (Canvasback Music)

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The follow-up to Julia Jacklin’s critically acclaimed 2016 debut Don’t Let the Kids Win, Crushing finds the Australian artist continually acknowledging what’s expected of her, then gracefully rejecting those expectations.Her second full-length album, Crushing embodies every possible meaning of its title word, and is formed from sheer intensity of feeling, an in-the-moment narrative of heartbreak and infatuation. Produced by Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, Liam Finn) and recorded at The Grove Studios in Sydney, Crushing sets Jacklin’s understated defiance against a raw yet luminous sonic backdrop. (Polyvinyl Record Co)

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Australian pscyhe-pop band Methyl Ethel release their remarkable new album Triage — written, produced and performed by lead singer Jake Webb. Recorded in Jake’s home studio, this is the third album for the band, following the universally acclaimed Oh Inhuman Spectacle and Everything is Forgotten. Triage marks a more reflective album for this surrealist outfit — a dark and obscured expression of life set to the backdrop of dream pop hooks.(4AD)

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Stuffed & Ready follows Cherry Glazerr’s Secretly Canadian debut Apocalipstick, an album that sizzled with frontwoman Clementine Creevy’s confidence, vision and fiercely idiosyncratic personality. When Creevy began writing Stuffed & Ready, she found unexpected inspiration by turning inward. Her unblinking honesty attempts to reconcile confusion and anger in the current political climate. (Secretly Canadian)

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