Now Hear This: New music from J Cole, Nicki Minaj, Greentea Peng and Olivia Rodrigo, plus spotlight artists Fable and girlhouse

In her weekly column, music correspondent Roisin O’Connor goes through the best new releases

L-R: Fable and girlhouse (Press)

Three hours’ worth of new music on the playlist this week, and that’s just the good stuff. There’s been a sudden surge in new talent coming through which is very exciting, among the best this week are Brazilian-born, Oxford-based rapper S1lva, rock singer Viia, Ontario musician fanclubwallet, and the UK-based Fable and girlhouse.

Before we get stuck into all that, though, let’s do a recap of the albums that dropped this week. St Vincent’s Seventies-indebted Daddy’s Home got five stars from our critic Helen Brown (read Alexandra Pollard’s interview with her here), while I was a big fan of the The Black Keys and their record of hill country blues covers. Annabel Nugent also reviewed the eclectic new album by Sons of Kemet (you can also read an interview with them by Stephanie Phillips, here). Plus we’ve had a new project dropped by J Cole, titled The Off-Season, while Nicki Minaj has finally made her 2009 mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty available on streaming services.

The exquisite Greentea Peng has shared her woozy neo-soul single “Dingaling”, shortly after announcing that her debut album Man Made is landing on 4 June. I love Jorja Smith’s latest project, Be Right Back, which includes the Shaybo collaboration “Bussdown”. Right after her triumph at the Brit Awards on 11 May, Olivia Rodrigo has released another single, the defiant “good 4 u”, ahead of her debut album next week. Laura Mvula is on fire right now, having just dropped “Got Me”, which has proper Michael Jackson “The Way You Make Me Feel” vibes with that juddering hook.