Stream: New albums from Gracie Gray, Manuel the Band and Sam Weber

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From left: Gracie Gray, Manuel the Band, Sam Weber

Check out three albums that were released Friday — from Gracie Gray, Manuel the Band and Sam Weber …

GRACIE GRAY, “Anna”

L.A. native Gracie Gray says her new album of endearingly loose indie-pop is about no less than “holding onto love for yourself through all of life’s changes.” Titled “Anna” (her given first name), it succeeds. Like the best bedroom pop, it’s greater than the sum of its parts, from her gently poetic lyrics to her guileless delivery of them to the subtle production flourishes she adds to keep the 10 tracks from strumming themselves into a one-note stupor. Highlighted by the extraterrestrial-sounding “Alienlover,” which opens with a sample of a voice memo from her brother, the album unfolds as if a waking dream. The title track is a love letter to herself; “Happiness” is a hard rock anthem waiting to be blown up into one; “Warm the Beach” is a fragile meditation that could be a holiday song (“Christmas is down the street / let’s warm the beach”); and “Dig” goes deep into Gray’s lyrical prowess. It’s an album for quiet moments, because there’s really no such thing as being alone with your thoughts.

MANUEL THE BAND, “Things That Can’t Be Seen”

The second full-length from Long Beach sextet Manuel the Band is a spirit-lifter that ranges from working-class rock to introspective pop to twangy Americana. “Things That Can’t Be Seen’s” mix of electric guitar, horns, pedal steel and atmospheric production makes for an overall buoyant time, even slipping as it does into overly familiar tropes. While the album’s calling cards are “Watch It Burn,” “Without You” and “Hell Yeah Everyday,” the dreamy “Post College” spills over with anxiety about what’s next in life. “It’s time to move, it’s time to go,” singer-songwriter Manuel Grajeda declares, and that’s always a good mantra.

SAM WEBER, “Get Free”

L.A.-based Canadian troubadour Sam Weber is an astute storyteller as well as a deft guitarist, and his jazz-inflected compositions transcend the usual singer-songwriter fare over the course of “Get Free,” the follow-up to 2019’s “Everything Comes True.” It’s a spare album, owing to its creation in the apartment of his partner and co-producer Mallory Hauser. But it’s also a triumph of Artist over Pandemic, a big ol’ “Here’s to the Future” from a songwriter with a restless, and relentless, creative spirit.