Jeremy Fisette

Welcome to another installment of Today's Release Highlights, where the TND writers room gathers up some brand new projects they want to draw your eyes and ears to. This week, we have four new releases we'd like to key you into as you head into the weekend. Check them all out below. There's something heartwarming about growing up in the '90s and early 2000s and getting to watch rock reinvent itself over and over again.

Glen Hansard – the Irish singer songwriter and guitarist of bands such as The Frames and the Swell Season – has passed away. He was 56. Hansard was involved in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash in the early morning hours in Dublin. Around 4:30am today, Wednesday July 29, emergency services received word of the crash. Hansard was pronounced dead at the scene.

Indie rock band Shearwater have been trickling out songs for their new album, The New World, for a couple months now. The record is out this Friday – July 31 – but today the group is sharing one final single: the album closer, "You and Your Dog." But this isn't just any Shearwater song – it's a 7-minute story-song featuring none other than art pop and spoken word icon Laurie Anderson.