This week’s biggest music news was broken elsewhere on NPR Music — that’d be the release of Andre 3000’s first album in 17 years, New Blue Sun — so be sure to head there for André’s long and illuminative interview with our own Rodney Carmichael. But there are other new records worth highlighting this week. Superstar rappers 2 Chainz and …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Nov. 10
On her debut studio album, Heaven Knows, the English singer and producer PinkPantheress navigates a heady mix of gothic horror and blissful solitude. It’s a record that reflects on the ways we survive trauma only to exist in a kind of uncertain purgatory — alive, unsure of the future and, ultimately, how it’s OK to not be OK. We open …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Oct. 27
The Austin, Texas, duo Black Pumas drew album-of-the-year nods when they dropped their self-titled debut in 2019. Now the group is back with its long-awaited followup, Chronicles of a Diamond, a scruffy, fuzzed-out soul and psych-rock album anchored by singer Eric Burton’s unforgettable voice. We give Chronicles of a Diamond a spin to kick off this week’s show and talk …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Oct. 20
U.K. singer-songwriter Sampha has become a go-to guest vocalist for artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Alicia Keys, Frank Ocean, Solange and Stormzy. Naturally, he’s got a distinctive, genre-blending style as a solo artist, too: Sampha’s second full-length album, LAHAI, showcases his vulnerability, growth and gorgeous vocals, which can sound both timelessly familiar and futuristic, often simultaneously. We’ve also got …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out Oct. 13
We didn’t get a chance to hear Bad Bunny’s new album, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana, prior to taping this week’s episode. But we did hit some of the other records that highlight a busy week of new releases. Australian singer and actor Troye Sivan put out one of this year’s late-breaking Song Of The Summer contenders …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out Oct. 6
Rapper Earl Sweatshirt’s album-length collaboration with producer The Alchemist had been rumored for quite a while. Its first internet release rolled out on a little-known streaming website over the summer. Now, Voir Dire is officially out everywhere — and it’s a remarkable cross-generational collaboration, full of inventive samples and lyrics that can be abstract and dark, but also hopeful. We’ve …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out Sept. 29
It’s been five years since singer Jorja Smith released her beloved and acclaimed debut album, Lost & Found. She returns this week with a long-awaited followup, Falling or Flying, a wide-reaching album of solitude and quiet confidence, as Smith explores new rhythms in both her music and life. We open this week’s show with a listen and talk about the …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out Sept. 22
The music of Singaporean artist and producer yeule often sounds like it was made from turn-of-the-century home electronics — dial up modems, simple keypad tones or a broken VCR. But, in deceptively disarming moments, it’s also warm and beautifully organic, just before erupting in thunderous sheets of guitar noise and primal screaming. As we discuss on this week’s show, their …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Sept. 15
Our picks for the best albums out this week refuse to be one thing — they shape-shift and warp any rules around genre and conventions, with hairpin turns and sometimes strange sonic shifts that, despite upending expectations, are seamless and often breathtaking. We start with Corinne Bailey Rae‘s Black Rainbows, an album inspired by the English singer’s visit to Chicago’s …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Sept. 1
Speedy Ortiz‘s music may sound jagged around the edges, but it comes bundled with glimmers of sunny pop, clever lyrics and smartly deployed lap steel. The band’s new fourth album, Rabbit Rabbit, finds singer-songwriter Sadie Dupuis wrangling with abuse and trauma, learning to let go of anger and writing about the activism that’s fueled her life and career. (She’s a …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Aug. 25
Nigerian singer Burna Boy is one of the biggest pop stars in the world, as well as a global superstar by any metric. His seventh album has a title that promises the victory lap for which he’s long-overdue: It’s called I Told Them… The record continues to expand Burna Boy’s Afro-fusion palette, as he draws inspiration from ’90s hip-hop and …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Aug. 18
After beating out Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and others for the 2022 album of the year Grammy — and after stepping down as the bandleader for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Jon Batiste is back with a new album this week called World Music Radio. As the name suggests, it’s a sprawling exploration of what global music can …
All Songs Considered | The best releases out on Aug. 11
The Chicago rapper Noname returns this week with her first new album in five years. Like her earlier works, Sundial is filled with songs that stand at the nexus of slam poetry, literature, jazz and hip-hop. We give a listen to open this week’s show and talk about the ways Noname seeks to serve her community and speak truth to …
New Music Friday | The best releases out on July 21
NewJeans has only been putting out music for about a year, but is already taking a serious run at K-pop domination, partly by subverting the genre’s conventions. On the group’s second EP, Get Up, the songs do lean heavily into cute, sugary sweet dance pop, but leave the edges a bit more ragged with a warmer, more genuine sound. On …
New Music Friday: The best releases out on July 7
Electro-pop singer Aluna Francis first made her name as one-half of the hit-making duo Aluna George. Now, her second album as just Aluna, MYCELiUM, finds her working with the worldwide artistic community she’s built in the last few years. With an emphasis on queer and/or Black artists from many different countries, she’s built a powerful statement about claiming your power …
Favorite New Artists Of 2023 (So Far)
On this edition of All Songs Considered, we asked NPR member stations to pick their favorite new artists of 2023. We begin with Matt Shaw from WJCT in Jacksonville, Fla. He chose the grunge-inspired music of Blondshell. Justin Barney from WNXP in Nashville is obsessed with the music of Hannah Jagadu, who recorded her debut as a student at New …
New Music Friday: The best releases out on June 16
We’ve got two big releases this week from artists who’ve returned after long breaks from their own work: Killer Mike has his first new solo album in more than a decade and Iceland’s Sigur Rós is back with the band’s first new studio album since 2013. Killer Mike’s Michael is steeped in gospel and deeply personal stories that reflect on …
New Music Friday | The best releases out on June 9
When Amaarae began work on her latest project, Fountain Baby, she knew she wanted it to defy labels. On one hand, it’s defiantly pop, but it’s persistently kaleidoscopic, built on a consistently surprising world of sound that draws from alternative Afrobeats to punk rock, R&B, bubblegum pop and more. As NPR Music editor Sheldon Pearce says on this week’s show, …
New Music Friday | The best releases out on June 2
It’s a big release day for veteran artists who’ve been putting out great music for decades, from Bob Dylan and Foo Fighters to Tanya Tucker, Cowboy Junkies and more. We can’t get to all of them on this week’s show, but we do spend some time with What Matters Most, the first new solo album from Ben Folds in 15 …
New Music Friday | The best releases out on May 19
The rapper Aminé and producer and DJ KAYTRANADA drop their highly anticipated joint project KAYTRAMINÉ this week, a free-wheeling, feel-good party album just in time for summer. We give a listen to several tracks from across the project to open this week’s show, marvel at the lyricism (“Y’all talkin’ like we’re equals when we know you’re Sméagols”) and talk about …
New Music Friday: The best releases out on May 12
The singer Rahill is best-known to some for her work in the Brooklyn garage-rock group Habibi. But this week she drops her debut solo album, a collection of genre-hopping songs that are as danceable as they are idiosyncratic. On this week’s show we give a listen to Flowers At Your Feet and talk about the ways Rahill crafts deeply honest …
Interview | Bob Boilen on the 2022 Tiny Desk Contest
The Tiny Desk creator offers tips on submitting your video to the 2022 contest
Attention unsigned Jacksonville musicians: The Tiny Desk wants to hear your music. NPR’s 2022 Tiny Desk Contest is underway. Over the past seven years, nearly 35,000 musicians have submitted their videos to the Tiny Desk Contest in the hopes of being chosen to perform as part of NPR Music’s signature music discovery series. Now, NPR is once again calling for …
Join NPR Music’s film screening of ‘Karen Dalton: In My Own Time’
Join us for an online screening of Karen Dalton: In My Own Time. Bob Boilen from All Songs Considered will be joined by director Robert Yapkowitz and singer-songwriter Margo Price in a live conversation about the film. The event will take place on Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. ET – you can RSVP via NPR Presents and watch via NPR …
New Music Friday: The Top 6 Albums Out On Aug. 6
The best new music of the week from the All Songs Considered team
Abstract Mindstate might be the greatest rap duo you’ve never heard of. MCs Olskool Ice-Gre and E.P Da Hellcat got their start in Chicago in the late ’90s and were about to make an album with features from Kanye West, Common, John Legend and more. But the deal fell through, E.P and Olskool fell on hard times and the two eventually stopped making music altogether. …
New Music Friday: The Top 6 Albums Out On July 9
NPR Music contributors share their choices for the best albums out on Friday, July 9.
West Coast Rapper Vince Staples has never shied from sharing details and stories from his life coming up in and around Long Beach, Calif. But on his latest, self-titled album, he reveals more of what’s in his heart and on his mind than ever before, with vivid and intimate songs about childhood dreams, his family, the scars he carries with him and …