10 new albums to listen to in November

The Mountain Goats, Rosalía, Mavis Staples, and several more will all release new work during the first weekend of November.

By A.V. Club Staff | October 30, 2025 | 6:00am

Album art: Cadmean Dawn, Columbia, Anti-

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We are officially in the winding-down portion of 2025, but November, especially in its first week, still has plenty of highly anticipated music. The weekend of November 7 will be one of the busiest and musically diverse release windows of the year, with new music from Rosalía, The Mountain Goats, Mavis Staples, and several more arriving at the same time. Later in the month, perennial rock acts Cheap Trick and Danko Jones will return as we move into the holidays. You can check out our 10 top picks for the month below.

Rosalia, Lux (November 6)

Mavis Staples, Sad And Beautiful World (November 7)

Soul legend Mavis Staples returns this month with her 14th studio album, and her first since 2019. Featuring “cameos” from artists like Bonnie Raitt, MJ Lenderman, and Justin Vernon, per a press release, Sad And Beautiful World promises an urgent, timely collection of songs delivered with the gravitas that can only exist with seven-plus decades of practice. While Staples’ style is generally timeless, the new album includes writing from some of the 21st century’s most influential voices; “Human Mind” was co-written by Hozier (who previously collaborated with Staples on his 2018 single “Nina Cried Power”) while “Godspeed” is a cover of the Frank Ocean track from Blonde. [DG]

The Mountain Goats, Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan (November 7)

The Mountain Goats can never stay in one place for too long, an inclination that’s apparent even on their 23rd studio album, Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan. This one comes with a full, maritime-y sound and an extremely Mountain Goats concept: The album tells the story of “a small crew shipwrecked on a desert island, where three surviving members—an unnamed narrator, Captain Peter Balkan, and Adam—are plagued by diminishing resources and apocalyptic visions.” Joining the band on this voyage are former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and Broadway’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, giving the record, which the band describes on their site as a “full-on musical,” some extra theater cred. [Emma Keates]

Danny Brown, Stardust (November 7)

Danny Brown’s music can be chaotic and frantic, and what we’ve heard so far from Stardust seems to maintain a lot of that energy. Advance single “Starburst” leaves up to the chewiness of the candy of the same name, while “Copycats,” which features an appearance from hyperpop-rap upstarts underscores, bounces off the walls in-between some almost-house piano riffs. The rest of Stardust features a list of fellow glitched-out collaborators, including Frost Children, Jane Remover, and femtanyl, all of whom have worked with the emcee in the past few years. [DG]

Allie X, Happiness Is Going To Get You (November 7)

Allie X’s 2024 album The Girl With No Face was one of the strongest pop albums of that year, and the first few glimpses of Happiness Is Going To Get You seem to signal more progression. In a press release ahead of the album, Allie X said she was “drawn away from my computer, toward the piano,” and the bits of the album we’ve heard so far support that. Moving from the new wave-influenced electropop of her last album, lead single “Is Anybody Out There?” dips into some light funk and some new jack swing-style orchestra hits beneath a layered, hypnotic vocal. Second single “Reunite” includes some harpsichord before settling into another funky ’80s bass line and a floating pure-pop melody that almost recalls ABBA. [DG]

Del Water Gap, Chasing The Chimera (November 7)

Del Water Gap (aka songwriter and producer S. Holden Jaffe) is getting introspective on his third studio album, Chasing The Chimera. “I know too much it’s freaking me out,” he sings on “How To Live,” a warm slice of indie pop in the vein of The 1975 or former collaborator Maggie Rogers. Creating the album has “been healing my cynical heart,” Jaffe wrote in his announcement on Instagram. That includes his experience of evacuating from the recent Los Angeles wildfires, which he captured in opening track “Marigolds.” The song is also about how “everything feels too late and too early all at once,” he said. This album, at least, is coming right on time; it’ll pair well with hot cocoa, solo walks, and crispy leaves. [EK]

Hatchie, Liquorice (November 7)

Liquorice, the latest offering from Australian dream pop practitioner Hatchie (aka Harriette Pilbeam) is all about yearning. “This album feels like the culmination of everything I’ve wanted to do with this project since I first started it,” Pilbeam said in a press statement of the record, which “focuses on the trajectory of love found and lost, inspired by my favorite tragic romance films.” Pilbeam’s effervescent vocals evoke The Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser, but these songs are all her own. On her Bandcamp page, Pilbeam explained that the album was inspired by a quest to go back to basics and turn her songwriting limitations into strengths. She’s certainly done that on nostalgic, Jay Som-produced lead singles “Only One Laughing” and “Lost It Again,” both of which would be right at home on a tragic ’90s romance soundtrack of their own. [EK]

Cheap Trick, All Washed Up (November 14)

After over five centuries in the biz, Cheap Trick can afford not to mince words. Their 21st studio album, All Washed Up, is “just one more great album from the best rock band in the world,” singer/guitarist Robin Zander quipped. No matter how tongue-in-cheek that statement is, lead singles “The Riff That Won’t Quit” and “Twelve Gates” really do rock. Long live Cheap Trick; they’re not all washed up yet! [EK]

Danko Jones, Leo Rising (November 21)

Scorpio season turns to Sagittarius right around November 21, but you can always trust a Leo to make something about themself. Jokes aside, Danko Jones will release their 12th album, Leo Rising, which so far appears to be an unrelenting set of driving drums and power chords. “Diamond In The Rough,” which features Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman, is a cocky come-on while second single “Everyday Is Saturday Night” is the kind of classic hard rock party song we’ve come to expect from the Canadian band. [DG]

Haley Heynderickx and Max García Conover, What Of Our Nature (November 21)

Haley Heynderickx and Max García Conover set out to channel folk royalty Woody Guthrie on their upcoming joint album, What Of Our Nature. They studied his work and recorded the album directly to tape in only five days, evoking Guthrie’s practice of playing a project straight through to capture it in its most raw, intimate form. The result, at least as heard in lead singles “Boars” and “Fluorescent Light,” is tender and meditative, as Heynderickx and Conover’s vocals intertwine amidst spare but warm instrumentations. The two first joined forces on the 2018 EP Among Horses III, an album that similarly feels like the musical embodiment of a walk through the woods. [EK]