Music
New Music Releases in May 2020
These past couple of months have felt like just one big long decade due to the new quarantined lifestyle we’ve all adapted to. However, there are still many things to look forward to in the future, especially the near future. Check out our list of some of the hottest new music that will be released in the month of May.
Labb Rat
HDBeenDope, BrokeN Dreams
Type: Project
Release Date: May 1
Quality Control Music / Motown
Lil Baby, My Turn Deluxe Edition
Type: Album
Release Date: May 1
Mozzy, Beyond Bulletproof
Type: Album
Release Date: May 1
Music Access, Inc.
Lil Flip, Tum-Tum, Made in Texas
Type: Album
Release Date: May 1
Alamo (Geffen Records)
Lil Durk, Just Cause Y’all Waited 2
Type: Album
Release Date: May 8
N-LessEntertainment / Interscope Records
Moneybagg Yo, Time Served Deluxe Edition
Type: Album
Release Date: May 15
G*59 Records
Scrim, A Man Rose From the Dead
Type: Album
Release Date: May 15
Kingz in Denial Don’t Overcome
Kiddo Marv, Unappreciated Blessing
Type: Album
Release Date: May 18
The Phantom Entertainment / Empire
Styles P, Styles David Ghost Your Enthusiasm
Type: Album
Release Date: May 22
Darrius Jones for XXL
Skooly, Nobody Likes Me
Type: Mixtape
Release Date: May 22
Redefinition Records
Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic and Damu the Fudgemunk, Ocean Bridges
Type: Album
Release Date: May 22
Warp Records
Flying Lotus, Flamagra (Instrumentals)
Type: Album
Release Date: May 29
TenThousand Projects, LLC / Electric Feel Music
Kierra Luv, Take It Or Leave It
Type: Album
Release Date: TBD
We thank all the talented artists and musicians who are creating, producing, and releasing their music and helping us get through this pandemic one song at a time!
Album Review
Cognitive Constellation Corps blurs humanity and technology on “Thank You for Your Feedback (I)” album
In a world of notifications and automated responses, algorithms, and feedback requests, Cognitive Constellation Corps finds something unexpectedly human inside the machinery. “Thank You for Your Feedback (I)” is an alt-pop exploration of connection, isolation, communication, and the increasingly complicated relationship between people and technology, transforming familiar procedural language into something else.
Created by Brooke Tamsin Clevenger, a Belfast-based artist, the project’s principal composer, lyricist, producer, and conceptual director, the album is deliberately constructed around what happens to human emotion when our lives are increasingly structured by systems that process information rather than necessarily understand feelings. The album opens with “Opening Loop (i),” which introduces that world through the idea of repetition, linking software loops to the habits we humans learn in modern life.
Followed by “Signal Received (i),” the track becomes more fragile, a mix of bubbling electronic movement and the promise of waiting for a response. It picks up the strange emotional weight that can be behind something as simple as a digital signal. “Thank You For Your Feedback (i)” examines the pressure to be constantly evaluated, and “Echo Chamber (i)” reflects on how digital interaction creates intimacy and amplifies alienation. “The Curve of Clarity (i)” is a road toward understanding where data and human realization begin to converge.
On the production side, the project explores electronic textures without allowing its technological concept to overwhelm its emotional core. “Threadbare, Threadshare (i)” turns the fatigue of constant communication into an interesting concept. “The Response Loop (You’re Still Talking)” injects a sense of urgency with a faster, more club-friendly beat that mixes early-80s electronic music with state-of-the-art sounds.
“Harmonic Distortion (i)” continues the album’s obsession with emotion that has been filtered, and “Always (i) [Sevahem]” is an appropriate closer, reflecting on organic feeling and ancient human knowledge through the prism of digital sound. “Thank you for Your Feedback” is a tech-driven concept that is always aware of the person behind the screen. Cognitive Constellation Corps is cerebral and electronic and conceptually ambitious while remaining emotionally accessible.
Artist Spotlight
Shawn Brown raises the volume on love, loss, and survival in “What a Way to Go”
Shawn Brown’s new single, “What a Way to Go,” is a guitar-heavy rock-pop anthem that makes doomed young love, instability, and survival something ferociously cathartic. The single, produced by celebrated musician and producer Grecco Buratto, fully embraces the scope of its story. Brown doesn’t turn heartbreak into a quiet, inward experience, but he energizes it, giving it drive and urgency.
“What a Way to Go” is a relationship against impossible odds, and the emotional tension is the clash between a world that feels like it’s falling apart and the stubbornness of two people who won’t let go of each other. That tension is what makes the song dramatic, but it also allows Brown to aim for a bigger, more explosive sound.
Recorded at The Trench in Portland with engineer Gregg Williams and the full Shawn Brown Band and trusted creative team, including Ben Landsverk, Jeff Langston, Ned Failing, Tiago Becker, and Juan Garcia Petri. Their combined presence adds to the muscular, expansive character of the single that one would expect from an anthem of this magnitude.
Brown handles the emotional commitment with confidence, true to its survivalist spirit, and pairs the guitars with a performance that feels immediate rather than remote. “What a Way to Go” is one of Shawn Brown’s most electrifying releases, blending raw rock power with the emotional openness of a love story that won’t go quietly. It’s raw, loud, passionate, and unapologetically alive.
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Artist Spotlight6 days agoKarate Boogaloo find sunshine through the storm on “Wet Day Timetable”
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Artist Spotlight4 days agoMaija breathes new life into classic emotion with latest release “Where Is the Love”
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Artist Spotlight6 days agoSkyve makes life’s hardest questions latest release “Ponder”
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Artist Spotlight5 days agoDaiyon raises the stakes with unstoppable energy on latest release “Vicous”
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Artist Spotlight6 days agoJeff Vidov elevates orchestral rock ambition on latest release “Signs of Life”
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Artist Spotlight4 days agoBrian David finds quiet strength through emotion with new release “The Echo in Your Soul”
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Artist Spotlight4 days agoCrispy C Notes brings focused ambition on latest release “Chosen”
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Artist Spotlight4 days agoFinn pensively looks back on fading memories on latest release “Last Love Song”

