From Nine Inch Nails to Madame: the releases of the week

Rock, electronic, songwriting, rap: there really is everything in the cauldron of New Music Friday next Friday, the day on which, among others, the new works of Nine Inch Nails, the former One Direction Zayn Malik, the loose cannon MIA and in Italy those of Madame, Cosmo, Arisa, Michele Bravi will arrive in stores. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ band returns to collaborate with the German DJ Boys Noize, pseudonym of Alexander Ridha. MIA closes with multinationals and starts again as an independent. Zayn tries to find his compass again. In Italy, Arisa returns with “Foto moves”, her first album in five years, while Madame continues her expressive journey with “Disincanto”. There is also space for the sensitivity of Michele Bravi with “Commedia musica” and for Cosmo’s sound research with “La Fonte”.

Madame – “Disenchantment”

It is the new and third album by the rapper and singer-songwriter. Three years after her last album, Madame returns with a project that is the result of a path of artistic and personal growth: she describes new awarenesses, both in the lyrics and in the taste and musical choices. The album is produced by Bias. “Disenchantment is being able to doubt everything: your own ways of thinking, of saying, of dressing, of doing. Disenchantment is understanding what is important for you and not for others. It is the constant search for your own truth. It is not synonymous with disillusionment, but with freedom: we are free to question everything we have learned to build a personal reality”, said the artist.

Dope – “No Country for Old Man”

It is the album released for Record Store Day by the unreleased duo formed by John Densmore of the Doors and Chuck D of Public Enemy. A project that combines the political and cutting attitude of Public Enemy with the lysergic and dark atmospheres of The Doors. A hybrid work, which mixes spoken word, electronic and rock, with a strong countercultural imagery. More than a simple album, a sound manifesto that looks both to the past and to the present. looking for a new language to describe social tensions and psychedelic visions.

Nine Inch Noize – “Halo”

No, it’s not a mistake: the new Nine Inch Nails album will be released with this name, Nine Inch Noize. The album sees Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross return to join forces with the German DJ Boys Noize, pseudonym of Alexander Ridha, with whom they had already collaborated in 2024 for “Challengers (Mixed)” and last year for the soundtrack of “Tron: Ares”. The name of the project is a portmanteau of that of the band and that of the DJ. The project comes six years after the diptych “Ghosts V: Together” and “Ghosts VI: Locusts” and will see the band experiment between rock, alternative and electronica.

Cosmos – “The Source”

After a long flight, the white horse from the 2024 album – which was titled “On the Wings of the White Horse” – landed at the Source. On the tenth anniversary of “L’ultima festa”, the 2016 album whose tour exceeded ninety dates and a surprising number of sold outs, Cosmo regenerates itself with an album that marks a turning point in his discography. “La Fonte” is Cosmo’s second album born from the collaboration with Not Waving, the stage name of Alessio Natalizia, an Italian producer and musician based in London with whom Cosmo had already worked at the time of Drink To Me: «After “Cosmotronic”, in 2018, I had a crisis. The anticipation surrounding my return, following the success of “The Last Party”, made me feel uncomfortable. With “The Third Summer of Love” I thought I had run out of ideas. Then Alessio got me out of a bind”, he explains. Which in the eleven songs that make up the album, the sixth as a soloist after the experience with Drink To Me, winks at the classic Italian song, “the one composed of a verse and a chorus”.

Arisa – “Blurred photos”

The album arrives after the excellent response obtained in Sanremo with “Magica Favola”, a song that brought her among the five finalists of the event and which continues to achieve excellent listening results. The new work presents itself as an intense emotional journey, anticipated by the atmospheres of the extracts. The album marks Arisa’s recording return five years after her last project and promises to be a more intimate and conscious work. The title suggests a blurry, imperfect, almost photographic aesthetic, which reflects a personal story made of changes, identity and expressive freedom.

Mia – “E7”

MIA, who has always had a conflicting relationship with show biz and its powerful people (she gave a real uproar when she pointed the middle finger at the cameras during the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show), starts again as an independent with her OHMNIMUSIC label. And she does it with a record that the musician described as “gospel, rooted in prayer, in the Book of Revelation and in the Ark of the Covenant”. The album, made with the participation of the Sunday Service gospel choir, the same as Kanye West, is composed of “seven songs written in seven different places over seven days”, however divided into 16 tracks.

Zayn – “Konnakol”

Two years after “Room under the stairs”, Zayn returns with “Konnakol”. The title of the album, the fifth by the first former One Direction member to embark on a solo career in 2016 (with “Mind of mine”), derives from konnakol, a technique of South Indian Carnatic music which consists of vocalizing percussive rhythms. The project takes up the r&b sounds explored in the past by Zayn, but with more marked cultural influences and a symbolic aesthetic (on the cover his face is half human and half the face of the snow leopard, an icon of South Asia). The album is co-produced by historical collaborators such as Malay and The Monsters & Strangerz.

Michele Bravi – “Musical comedy”

The new album arrives after participating in the Sanremo Festival with “Prima o poi”. The album is produced by Michele Bravi himself together with Carlo Di Francesco, the arrangements are signed by Alterisio Paoletti, while the cover was created by Mauro Balletti. It contains eleven songs and will be accompanied by the “Commedia Musicale Tour”. “From the beginning I imagined building a musical project that could be staged, as if it were a musical, songs supported by their show,” explained the singer-songwriter.