New Releases Radar: July 17-24, 2026

The short version

The July 17-24 window has two obvious first clicks: Charli xcx's short, guitar-led follow-up to BRAT and The Strokes' messy, intermittently excellent seventh album. Rico Nasty also gets back into the Kenny Beats-adjacent attack that made her influential, while Charles Wesley Godwin turns a devastating family loss into a patient country record about grief and faith. For electronic listeners, The Avalanches' Karen O collaboration is the easy single, and U2's reunion with Martin Garrix is the more complicated experiment. Classical listeners get world premieres from Joe Hisaishi, a fresh Bruckner Fourth from Nathalie Stutzmann, and a film-music-minded Singapore Symphony program.

Quick scan

Genre	Artist - release	Date	Format	Signal	Start here
Indie / alternative	The Strokes - Reality Awaits	Jul 24	Album, 9 songs, 42 min	Stereogum: mixed, with several strong tracks	Apple Music 1
Indie / alternative	Charli xcx - Music, Fashion, Film	Jul 24	Album, 11 songs, 30 min	Pitchfork review; no numeric score shown	Apple Music 2
Hip-hop	Rico Nasty - RX	Jul 24	Album, about 20 min	Pitchfork calls it her most focused and satisfying release in years	Pitchfork review 3
Hip-hop	Loe Shimmy - Pretty Girlz Run The World	Jul 24	Album, 24 songs, 55 min	Apple Music editorial album note	Apple Music 4
Electronic	U2 & Martin Garrix - "Fireflies"	Jul 24	Single	Stereogum hears a restrained but overproduced EDM crossover	Stereogum 5
Electronic	The Avalanches feat. Karen O - "Blue Shadows"	Jul 23	Single	Stereogum: sunny, rustic, laid-back collaboration	Stereogum 6
Electronic	Throw Down Bones - 4EP	Jul 24	EP, 4 tracks, 17 min	Bandcamp release page	Bandcamp 7
Classical	Joe Hisaishi - Symphony No. 3 (Metaphysica) & Harp Concerto	Jul 24	Album	Two world premiere recordings, Presto Music roundup	Presto samples 8
Classical	Bruckner - Symphony No. 4, Romantic	Jul 24	Album	Presto cites an ArtsATL review praising Stutzmann's reconstruction of the familiar score	Presto samples 8
Classical	John Williams / Bernard Herrmann - Flute Concerto & Souvenirs de Voyage	Jul 24	Album	Film-score composers in concert works, plus a world premiere	Presto samples 8
Country	Charles Wesley Godwin - Christian Name	Jul 24	Album, 13 songs, 54 min	Apple Music editorial note; selected for Today’s Country	Apple Music 9
Country	Brantley Gilbert feat. Jelly Roll - "Begging For Change"	Jul 24	Single from Sins of the Father	Countrytown calls the album a full-hour listen and this collaboration a highlight	Countrytown Country Drop 10
Country	Orville Peck - "Too Little Too Late"	Jul 24	Single from Mule prologue	Countrytown notes Emmylou Harris, Noah Cyrus, and Allison Russell on the prologue	Countrytown Country Drop 10

Indie and alternative

The Strokes - Reality Awaits

Date / label / format: July 24, RCA Records; 9 songs, 42 minutes.
Signal: Stereogum describes the seventh album as a Rick Rubin-produced follow-up to 2020's The New Abnormal. The review is mixed, but specific: "Dine N' Dash" is a polished indie-rock standout, "Lonely In The Future" turns Auto-Tune into a catchy summer device, and "Going To Babble On" lands as a breezy earworm. The opener "Psycho Shit" and several other tracks are less convincing. 11
Why listen: This is not a clean return to Is This It. Julian Casablancas' vocal effects are part of the point, and the record keeps testing how much a familiar band can bend its own template before the songs stop feeling like songs. Start with "Dine N' Dash," then try "The Fruits Of Conquest" for the stranger quasi-rap turn.
Listen: Apple Music. Apple Music lists RCA Records, 9 songs, and 42 minutes. 1

Charli xcx - Music, Fashion, Film

Date / label / format: July 24, Atlantic; 11 songs, 30 minutes.
Signal: On the follow-up to BRAT, Charli xcx and producers A. G. Cook and Finn Keane move toward guitars, short songs, and a deliberately loose rock frame. Pitchfork calls it a "referential, proudly tossed-off rock sound" and points to "Yeah" and "SS26" as particularly effective moments. Apple Music's album note says the record was made mostly in Paris at the end of 2025 and frames it as a reaction against BRAT's club-pop expectations. 12 2
Why listen: Choose this if you want Charli's songwriting and self-consciousness without another attempt at the BRAT rush. "I'm Afraid" carries the album's anxious center, while "Yeah" reduces the rock reference book to a two-minute hook and dares you to complain about it.
Listen: Apple Music.

Hip-hop

Rico Nasty - RX

Date / label / format: July 24, Sugar Trap; roughly 20 minutes.
Signal: Pitchfork says Rico Nasty is working again with Kenneth Blume, the producer known as Kenny Beats during their Anger Management collaboration. The review calls RX her "most focused and satisfying release in years," while also noting that it retreads an established formula rather than matching the earlier record's intensity. "CDG Foams" and "Frenzy" lead with hard, breathless rapping; "Blow Your Nose" and "Kiss N Make Up" soften the attack with brighter, pop-punk vocals. 3
Why listen: The decision is simple: if you want Rico's blown-out, confrontational mode, this is the compact version. If you are looking for another left turn like Las Ruinas, the return to rage and punk-rap may feel familiar.
Listen: Read Pitchfork's review of RX. A numeric score was not shown when checked.

Loe Shimmy - Pretty Girlz Run The World

Date / label / format: July 24, Rebel / gamma; 24 songs, 55 minutes.
Signal: Apple Music describes the Florida rapper's first full-length since his high-profile appearance on Drake's HABIBTI as a hedonistic album built around lust, status, and romantic transactions. Brent Faiyaz appears on "Run the World," Sexyy Red on "5 Star Freak," and Summer Walker on the more earnest "Just Saying." 4
Why listen: This is a long, melodic rap album with a narrow subject and a broad guest list. Start with "Body Dangerous" for the direct version of its premise, then "Just Saying" if you want to hear Shimmy make room for a softer register.
Listen: Apple Music.

Electronic

U2 & Martin Garrix - "Fireflies"

Date / label / format: July 24, Darkroom; single.
Signal: The collaboration brings U2 back toward dance music after the band's late-1990s Pop experiment, this time with the Dutch DJ and producer Martin Garrix. Stereogum hears a mood piece rather than a full festival anthem, with subtler EDM touches and prominent Auto-Tune on Bono's vocal. 5
Why listen: This is for listeners who want to hear what U2's familiar guitar chime sounds like inside a modern dance production, not for anyone expecting a new "A Sky Full Of Stars." The production is deliberately glossy and, in Stereogum's reading, sometimes too formulaic.
Listen: Hear the single via Stereogum. The article identifies Darkroom as the label but does not expose a separate Spotify or Apple Music URL.

The Avalanches feat. Karen O - "Blue Shadows"

Date / label / format: July 23, Modular; single.
Signal: The Avalanches have been teasing a new album and have recently released collaborations with Nikki Nair, Jessy Lanza, Prentiss, and Jamie xx. On "Blue Shadows," Karen O sings about mending a broken heart over what Stereogum calls a sunny, rustic, laid-back beat. It is her first real singing role on an Avalanches track after a spoken appearance on 2020's We Will Always Love You. 6
Why listen: The track is an easy bridge between the Avalanches' sample-rich warmth and Karen O's more exposed vocal presence. It is gentle rather than maximal, and that restraint makes it a useful weekend single.
Listen: Hear the single via Stereogum.

Throw Down Bones - 4EP

Date / label / format: July 24, Fuzz Club Records; 4 tracks, 17 minutes.
Signal: The Bandcamp release page lists the exact track sequence: "Honesty / Truth / Reality," "Juno Harm," "No One Cares," and "Two Different Cubes." It is a short, direct electronic release with a full Bandcamp stream and download route. 7
Why listen: Take this one when you want a four-track commitment rather than another 50-minute album to sort through. The available evidence is mostly release metadata, so the recommendation is based on its compact format and direct listening access rather than a developed review consensus.
Listen: Stream or download 4EP on Bandcamp.

Classical

Joe Hisaishi - Symphony No. 3 (Metaphysica) & Harp Concerto

Date / label / format: July 24, Deutsche Grammophon; album for orchestra and harp, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Hisaishi and Emmanuel Ceysson as harpist.
Signal: Presto identifies both works as world premiere recordings. The Symphony No. 3 was commissioned for the fiftieth anniversary of the New Japan Philharmonic and draws on Mahler, minimalism, and even Sudoku. The Harp Concerto, written for Ceysson in 2024, is described by Hisaishi as intense and dynamic rather than traditionally gentle. 8
Why listen: This is the strongest classical entry for listeners who know Hisaishi through film and want to hear him take that melodic clarity into concert music. Start with the harp concerto if you want a focused test of the contrast between the instrument's familiar image and Hisaishi's more forceful writing.
Listen: Presto samples and details. The source checked provides sample playback and download formats, not a confirmed Spotify or Apple Music link.

Bruckner - Symphony No. 4, "Romantic"

Date / label / format: July 24, Warner; Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann.
Signal: The recording was made live at Atlanta Symphony Hall during the orchestra's September 2024 Bruckner bicentenary festival, Architect of the Spirit. Presto quotes an ArtsATL review that praised Stutzmann for taking apart a familiar piece and reassembling it into a fresh whole. 8
Why listen: This is the choice for a new interpretation of a canonical symphony rather than a new piece of repertoire. A live recording and a conductor known for structural clarity make it a useful comparison listen for anyone who already has a favorite Fourth.
Listen: Presto samples and details. The source checked provides sample playback and download formats, not a confirmed Spotify or Apple Music link.

John Williams / Bernard Herrmann - Flute Concerto & Souvenirs de Voyage

Date / label / format: July 24, Pentatone; Singapore Symphony Orchestra, with Jin Ta, Ma Yue, Darrell Ang, and Joshua Tan.
Signal: The program pairs John Williams's 1969 Flute Concerto with his Essay for Strings, Bernard Herrmann's 1967 clarinet quintet in an orchestral arrangement, and the world premiere of Hugo Friedhofer's Suite for 5 Woodwinds. The connecting idea is concert music by composers best known for film scores. 8
Why listen: This is the most accessible classical recommendation in the issue if film music is your route into concert repertoire. Williams's flute writing gives the program its center, while the Herrmann and Friedhofer pieces test how much cinematic color remains when the screen is removed.
Listen: Presto samples and details. The source checked provides sample playback and download formats, not a confirmed Spotify or Apple Music link.

Country

Charles Wesley Godwin - Christian Name

Date / label / format: July 24, Big Loud Records under exclusive license to Mercury Records; 13 songs, 54 minutes.
Signal: Apple Music's editorial note says the album follows Godwin's 2023 Family Ties and chronicles the loss of his and Samantha's stillborn son, Samuel, alongside a longer healing process. "Better That Way" features Luke Combs, "Hey There Son" features Wyatt Flores, and "Brand New" closes the record with a meditation on faith and redemption. The album is also listed in Apple Music's Today’s Country and Country Risers contexts. 9
Why listen: This is the week's most emotionally direct country album, but its subject is not the whole listening experience. The 54-minute sequence moves from grief toward a fragile peace, with "Hey There Son" as the clearest entry point before the full album.
Listen: Apple Music.

Brantley Gilbert feat. Jelly Roll - "Begging For Change"

Date / label / format: July 24, from Sins of the Father; single and album track. The Countrytown roundup does not state the label or expose a separate streaming URL.
Signal: Countrytown describes Sins of the Father as an album worth the full hour and selects the Jelly Roll collaboration for its weekly Country Drop. 10
Why listen: Use the single as the test rather than committing to the whole album immediately. It is the week's obvious mainstream country-rap crossover pick, with Jelly Roll providing the quickest clue about whether the record's broad, radio-sized approach works for you.
Listen: Countrytown's Country Drop page. A direct Spotify or Apple Music link was not surfaced in the source checked.

Orville Peck - "Too Little Too Late"

Date / label / format: July 24, from the Mule prologue; single. The Countrytown roundup does not state the label or expose a separate streaming URL.
Signal: Countrytown says the track introduces Orville Peck's September album Mule and that the prologue includes Emmylou Harris, Noah Cyrus, and Allison Russell. The page places the release in the week's Country Drop alongside the other July 24 songs. 10
Why listen: This is the preview pick for listeners who prefer a larger project tease to a self-contained album. The guest list makes the forthcoming Mule worth tracking, while the single itself is the low-commitment way to hear the new direction.
Listen: Countrytown's Country Drop page. A direct Spotify or Apple Music link was not surfaced in the source checked.

Bottom line

Start with Charli xcx if you want the week's sharpest change of direction, The Strokes if you can tolerate a familiar band making some bad decisions on the way to several very good songs, and Rico Nasty if you want a concise return to high-pressure rap. The two strongest country and classical commitments are Charles Wesley Godwin's Christian Name and Joe Hisaishi's concert-music premieres. For a shorter sequence, play The Avalanches' "Blue Shadows," Throw Down Bones' 4EP, and Charli's "SS26" before deciding whether to go deeper.