Review Roundup 5/8: NORA., Jenni Arnau, burnunit

There are so many great albums, and never enough time! In this feature, editor Rachel Cholst celebrates some of the best queer country EPs and albums you may have missed!

NORA. – Just Words.

NORA. claps back with a powerful breakup EP on Just Words. The big pop sounds on here match NORA.'s righteous fury – and they are definitely bangers. However, it's the softer songs that caught my ears. "Somebody's Secret." showcases the gossamer qualities of her voice and her penchant for killer hooks. The follow-up track, "I'm So Glad I Left." gives us a glimpse of NORA.'s vulnerability. By the time we get to the title track, we get a full sense of all the ways she's been done wrong, making the thundering beat all the more powerful.

burnunit – GIRL FRIEND

burnunit kicks off with some straightforward country songs on GIRL FRIEND – "Transgender Hick" is perhaps the trans country album of our time, while "Girlfriend" is an endearing ditty. But it's the places burnunit takes us after that hit hard: "Growing Out Our Hair" is an experimental electronic song about intimacy and deconstructing our personal barriers, gently undulating between guitar strums, ambient sounds, and electronic beats.

Jenni Arnau – A Rising Tide

Honestly, this is one of the best albums I've heard this year. (It came out in November 2025, but you need to add it to your list immediately.) A Rising Tide was written while Arnau, a fixture of New York's anti-folk scene downtown, was caring for her mother. Perhaps it was having some years to breathe into these songs that makes them feel so multi-dimensional. These are stories about people muddling through, and trying to keep their light shining – and they're told with a breathtakingly wide imagination. Arnau is an excellent storyteller, and these songs will stay with you.