Queen is the fourth studio album by Trinidadian-born American rapper Nicki Minaj, released by Young Money Entertainment and Cash Money Records on August 10, 2018. Queen features production by J. Reid, Big Juice, Supa Dups, Beats Bailey, Messy, and Ben Billions. It includes guest appearances from Eminem, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Future, Lil Wayne, Swae Lee, Foxy Brown, and Labrinth.

The second album set for release this summer represents Barenboim’s Chamber Music series with a wonderful ensemble: Yulia Deyneka who works as professor at the Barenboim-Said Academy and is the principal viola of the Berlin Staatskapelle. Michael Barenboim, who is Maestro Barenboim’s son, an acclaimed violinist and West-Eastern Divan’s concert master. And DGs newly signed cellist, Kian Soltani who’s debut album ‘Home’ was released earlier this year.

Pianists have been overlooking a treasure trove of solo Ravel: the composer's short score for Daphnis et Chloé. Previously only a handful of musicians have made their own suites for solo piano; here the Lithuanian pianist Indre Petrauskaite has produced something new: a 40-minute concert suite of unsuspected Ravel for solo piano. Indre Petrauskaite has used only Ravel's original material, but she consulted the orchestral score to fill out the textures, and her suite also respects the dramatic outline of the original ballet. The other, more familiar works here extend the ideas of antiquity and transcription. Indre Petrauskaite studied in Kaunas, Lithuania, winning a host of prizes. In 2000 she began studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She has given many solo and chamber-music recitals, not least in St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

Born and raised in Britain, David Templeman was just twelve years old when he moved from small village to Rochford, Essex —a move that would forever alter the course of his life. In 1996, while living in Rochford he was introduced to a program called FT2, a basic music production program where he began fusing sample snippets and experimenting in sound construction. David soon began producing under the moniker, “ALTYA” solidifying his interest in electronic music that guided his musical focus; accordingly he crafted many house and trance tracks that followed suit.

Dave Grohl has never lacked for big, high-concept ideas. On “Play,” the Foo Fighters frontman pays tribute to the romantic, often obsessive relationship musicians have with their instruments by uncorking a wordless, 23-minute rock epic on which he plays everything himself: drums, bass, guitar. All captured in single, uninterrupted takes—and filmed for a short documentary of the same name—it moves fluidly from heavy-headed grooves to jazzy interludes to the sort of searing crescendos that have made up the spine of many a Foo Fighters single. As has always been the case, Grohl is at his most electrifying when behind a drum kit, and “Play” overflows with both subtle moments and seismic, definitive fills. “It was really just to see if I could pull it off,” he told Jimmy Kimmel. “To see if I could do those full takes without making any mistakes and actually memorize that much music.”

AVIE continues its acclaimed series of recordings of the music of Hans Gal with the newly formed Briggs Piano Trio performing Gal's lyrical Piano Trio in E and his witty Variations on a Popular Viennese Tune, alongside Shostakovich's harrowing Piano Trio in E minor.

Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno recapture the dizzy exuberance that drew audiences to their early singles—but trade the weed for ice cream—on their first foray into kids’ music.

Anna Meredith announces the release of Anno, a boundary pushing collaboration with the Scottish Ensemble, in which original pieces of work by the classical-electronic composer are intertwined with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Released via Moshi Moshi, the project began as an immersive 360 degree live experience but will be available on double vinyl, CD and digitally for the first time from 17th August. After a recording process using the unusual ‘binaural recording head’ the project will also be available in an exclusive binaural recording – allowing the listener to experience the unique spatial aspects of the piece through headphones.

Thank You for Today is the ninth studio album by American indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie. The album was released on August 17, 2018, on Atlantic Records. The album was produced by Rich Costey, who returns after collaborating with the band on their eighth album, Kintsugi. It is the first Death Cab for Cutie release to not feature Chris Walla since the band's first album, You Can Play These Songs with Chords. The album also marks the first time guitarist/keyboardists Dave Depper and Zac Rae have appeared on a Death Cab for Cutie album, after making their debut recording with the band on the 2016 single "Million Dollar Loan".

Sweetener is the fourth studio album by American singer Ariana Grande. It was released on August 17, 2018, through Republic Records. The album is the follow-up to her third studio album Dangerous Woman (2016), and features guest appearances from Pharrell Williams, Nicki Minaj and Missy Elliott.

Tangerine Reef is a full-length audiovisual album by Animal Collective (Avey Tare, Deakin and Geologist), in collaboration with Coral Morphologic, to commemorate the 2018 International Year of the Reef. Tangerine Reef is a visual tone poem consisting of time-lapse and slow pans across surreal aquascapes of naturally fluorescent coral and cameos by alien-like reef creatures (note: no CGI or artificial enhancement was used in this film). Tangerine Reef is the sight and sound of a literal underwater collective of animals.

A good jazz-funk-fusion album by Weather Report's bass player Alphonso Johnson, a few songs like "Stump" picked up some disco plays. It's nice to hear an album by a player of a particular instrument where the player and his instrument play a prominent role. This album abounds with muscle bass riffs; unlike Idris Muhammad's (drummer) albums, where the drums are indistinguishable. Other notable tracks include "Involuntary Bliss," "Pandora's Box," and "On the Case."