NPR Music - M83, Shygirl, FKJ and the best songs we heard this week

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

We’re back with another round of the best new songs out now, including the universe-splitting “Blister Sunrise” from M83, Shygirl’s bone-rattling, euphoric track “Alyse,” subversive funk from Asher White and more.NPR Music writer and editor Sheldon Pearce joins host Robin Hilton.Tell us what you think with a review on Apple or Spotify wherever you listen to podcasts. Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: [e-mail] artists and songs:(00:00) Intro(02:02) M83: “Blister Sunrise”(07:51) Shygirl: “Alyse”(15:13) FKJ & Labrinth: “Little Little Voice”(22:21) Renny Conti: “Leaving the Zoo”(30:57) Asher White: “My Day at the Casino”(38:36) Rachel Chinouriri: “Make Believe”Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

This episode of All Songs Considered comes to you from NPR Music and the NPR Music podcast. NPR Music also where you will find the reviews and other brilliant work of writer and editor. Sheldon Pierce. Hello, Robin. You know, we nerd out on this show about all kinds of stuff happening in the world of music, including our most recent episode, I'm not sure if you heard it, about cover songs that we think are better than the originals. Yes, yes.

That was with Dora and Lars. if you don't want to be associated with the show as far as like in the same breath as that episode. People was there a lot of sort of contentious chatter that came out of that one? Absolute dumpster fire. There was one moment in the show I said, you know, I played this song for my daughter

and she totally disagreed with me. And I said, what do you know? You're 11 years old. And somebody wrote in and said, no, sir, you are the one who doesn't know what they're talking about. and your daughter is the one who is right. Thanks for listening.

But every other week or so on the show, we like to just talk about new music. The best new songs out now, and that's what we're doing this week. I thought I'd start with this new cut from M83. You an in 83 fan at all? I am. Yeah.

So this is mainly the music of Anthony Gonzalez. Makes this real shoegaze dream pop kind of music. He's from France. A lot of M83's music. has this real maximalist vibe to it. Not in an overwhelming, like everything but the kitchen sink, you know, chaotic sort of way. More in that the universe is just cracking open and revealing itself to you. Just big, widescreen sound.

That is what you get on this new song from M83. It's called Blister Sunrise. Not to be confused with blister in the sun. the song Blister Sunrise. It's from a new album called I Wrote You a Letter. You're really speaking my language with this one, Robert. Yeah, is that your vibe? I love any shoegay sound that feels like it's simultaneously, like,

wrapping you up in a big blanket, but also just like tossing you out into a boundless expanse. It's like, there is such a weird euphoria that sets. in when you start listening to music like this. Yeah. And this song in particular, it has these little moments where it just cuts out. Oh, that when the bottom drops out and he comes back with the scream, does that scream off in the distance? Screaming in music is a thing now like that. Like you hear it in Phoebe Bridger's new album, too.

Yeah. It's on there. It really says something about the times. Yeah, I mean, there's something cathartic about it, right? Yep, it's primal. Yeah. It's a true purge and expression of the self that requires no explanation. And so there is this sense in the song of like really screaming into the void, literally.

I'm not entirely sure what it's about. There are words in there. You can't really make any of them out. But Anthony Gonzalez has said that he recorded this new album while being in this deeply disillusioned state of mind, just about the state of the world. And he wanted a sound that reflected that state of mind. Even the name of the album, I think, I wrote you a letter. It conjures a simpler time when people would actually sit down, you know, before times,

in an analog world, when you would actually write a letter to somebody and send it through the mail to them. Blister Sunrise was the song from the album, I Wrote You a Letter from M83. That's an album. He just announced it, but it's coming up pretty quick. be out on September 25th. Robin, I want to play a song by the British singer, Shy Girl, known for basically exploding club music in every direction that you could imagine

and reinventing it in her image, essentially. She's got a new album coming out in November. It's called Swallow. And there's a new single that came with the announcement that's called Lucky. But I want to play the lead single. Okay. Keep going. The lead single called Elise.

So let me tell you something. I had picked the song Lucky. Okay. To play today. I'm sitting here listening to you. I'm like, all right, first time ever, 25 years doing the show. We picked the exact same song. We were so close.

And then I flipped it on you. You thought. Totally flipped it on me. Okay. We'll hear Elise. If you're not there. If you don't know, where do I go? Who would I tell what you know?

This is the same sky. We see. We breathe. Never be too far from me. Oh, sick. That is so good. Totally different from the song. Absolutely.

So I was going to play Lucky, which is, I mean, this song, Elise, is more of what I think of when I think is Shy Girl. Yes. Lucky, totally different. It's almost more like, indie pop or something. It's kind of like a love pop song. A complete reimagining of her sound

very distant from the idea of dance music, even as she has imagined it. But I pick this song because it does something that I feel like she does better than anyone else, which is take something that feels familiar and just completely re-contextualized. When I hear this song, I think of,

like the big beat sound of like the prodigy. Oh, yeah, I hear that. But it's more artful, less jacked up. Like that music was often accused of being like very macho and virile. But this has so much softer energy, even amidst all its sort of like banger energy. It opens sort of muted with the cello, very spoken word. Then it erupts. but then there's this really serene, like, duet passage

where the two voices just sort of swell in harmony before it crashes back into you at the end. She has such a way of playing with the textures of dance music, the ideas of dance music, to then give you something that feels completely of another genre, which to me is just as impressive as the turn unlucky, which is her just re-deciding. what she wants her music to be on a whim.

Yeah, I mean, she called this new album a reintroduction. Yeah. So I wasn't surprised to hear the song, Lucky, and think, okay, she's really turning everything upside down here. Yeah. Have you heard the whole thing? I haven't heard the whole thing. Yeah, because she said that she wrote the album after falling just madly in love and is in a

really good place right now. So I was expecting more of this new sort of pop sound. It's funny because, I mean, I imagine that this. song is dedicated to that person, right? It's named after someone. Its lyrics are very much about finding comfort in someone. It's interesting. It doesn't sound like a ballad, but I guess maybe that's typical of Shy Girl, right?

Luck can be that way sometimes. Right, right, right. So the album, the new one from Shy Girl, is called Swallow, and it is out November 6th. Well, I've got another French artist for you. So I played M83. and the other artist I want to play from France is FKJ. Are you familiar with FK? I'm not familiar with FKJ.

Not FKA, FKJ. It stands for French Kiwi juice. Just goes by FKJ. His real name is Vincent Fenton. His sound, I think, channels a vibe that's very similar to M83s and that it can be kind of celestial and there's a real sense of awe in some of these songs. He just dropped a new.

new album called Tyber, T-Y-B-E-R-Tiber. And the song I want to play from it is called Little Little Voice, and it features Labyrinth. Labyrinth is singing lead on this. Normally, F-K-J sings lead on his own songs, but Labyrinth is doing it on this one. Things are you going to hear these years to rest matter of time when the day will come. Sure patience, you gotta work on. This is a song that really rewards patience, because that drop doesn't come until about halfway through. Yeah.

But when it does, it really takes off. Yeah, I do think all that comes before is really captivating in a different way, too. Yeah. There is a very clear intentionality to the first half that piano is really just sort of setting you up for the level raise that comes in the second half of this song. Yeah, he has said that he wrote this song at a very low point in his life. And in fact, the song was originally called Reach the Bottom. And he's singing about intrusive thoughts and definitely struggling with some complicated feelings.

You know, there's a sense at the beginning that he is at that low point in the song. And then when it takes off, it's really more of a flailing and grasping at something. And then at the end, you hear that kind of wheezing voice. He just sounds completely spent by the end of it. Yeah, there's a real smallness to it when it starts. Yeah. It's very intricate but very delicate, very tender, very raw almost. Yeah.

It's clear that he is trying to keep those little voices from penetrating his psyche. Yeah. And then as it breaks open, there's kind of this question of have they say, Have they succeeded? Like, has he succumbed to the darkness that he is feeling? And it really does draw you into the image of someone trying to wrestle with their own inner voice. Expelling all the outer doubts that are trying to creep at the edges of it. So he went on a meditation retreat as he was working through all of these feelings.

And he had a vision where he saw this magical tree-like. creature that he called a Tyber, T-Y-Y-B-E-R, and that's where the name of the album comes from, that vision that he had. He's in a better place now, he has said, which is great. But what an incredible song. The whole album is pretty rapturous, honestly. It just radiates this kind of, this kind of magic. Again, the album is called Tyber, T-Y-B-E-R, and that song was Little Little Voice. Where do you want to go next? I'm going to take us out of the realm of electronic music for Just a Spell and play a song by

the singer-songwriter Reni Kanti. Are you familiar with Reni Conti? Brooklyn-based artist who was originally from the Bay Area makes sort of lo-fi folk-inflected indie rock. He's been compared to Connor Oberst. Some have even

said Elliot Smith, which I think is a bit of a stretch. But there is something so beautiful and haunted about his sound. And I want to play a new song from his upcoming album split second. It's called Leaving the Zoo.

So Conti, I mentioned, was Brooklyn-based. He wrote this song as he decided to leave New York and return West after. Yeah, I mean, I assumed it wasn't a literal zoo. Yeah, yeah. There was a period of turmoil in his life and he was reflecting on why he was there. And he said the song became more of a meditation

on trying to imagine what it feels like to stand on the precipice of life and death. And so leaving the zoo is a bit of a double meaning, as in leaving the city of New York, but also... Terrifying. Yeah. Yeah. Escaping the idea of the mortal plane

and imagining the afterlife. And I think you've... can sort of hear both of those in the way it gets quiet and then gets very loud. Oh, the push and pull is very similar to the FKJ song, I thought, in that, you know, and also a similar kind of exhaustion in it, too, with the way things have been and the uncertainty of whether or not you're ever actually going to get away. You know, the way he repeats that line leaving the zoo over and over, I kept thinking, you know, the more you say something and the more you repeat it, often the less you believe it. It's like, it gets to a point

where like, all right, I'm just saying this now over and over again and I stopped believing it a long time ago. As it starts to repeat during the passage where he's just running through the second verse, it goes from being a mantra to being kind of like trying to convince yourself, trying to work

up the nerve to die to still go. And I think the way it plays with patterns as it goes, not just the soft to loud passages, but also the lyrical overlays of the chorus and the verses, the way they start to slowly blur the lines between each other.

You really get a sense of the distortion of the psyche when trying to make a big decision or when trying to imagine what comes after this. The tensions of those two things seem to be overlaid on top of each other in this song. and to me that is what really drew me into it. So the song Leaving the Zoo, that's from the album Split Second. Split second. Yeah, and that is out September 25th.

Well, Sheldon, I got to go to my safety because you played Shy Girl. So I had this one in my back pocket in case there was some overlap here. So sorry to disrupt your flow. No, that's all right. This is from Asher White, and this is a song that I really wanted to play as well.

So, you know, she is an artist, sort of like we had Dominic Fike on the, I think the last show that you were on with me. Yes. And played his stuff. He's someone, you know, he makes just a super resting, unpredictable, super adventurous music. Asher White exactly the same. I think one of the most interesting artists of the past five years.

She put out a top 10 album of the year for me last year called Eight Tips for Full Catastrophe. Really good. Living, the incredible record. And now, Asher White, back with another full-length album called Love Aggregates. And the song that I want to play from it is called My Day, at the casino. I mean, everything Ashurwhite does Just came out of nowhere.

Yeah, I don't think I ever would have considered an Asher White song funky before I heard this one. Soft rock funk. The horns, like, it's subtle sort of like strut almost. Yeah. There is something laid back in easy. going about it that maybe wouldn't be familiar in the rest of her discography? Yeah, but I think the thing that is interesting in her music and is in this song is it's all the incidental sounds that are happening in the different on the left side and

the right side of your headphones, you know, like there are those horns and it's got that sort of funky vibe to it, but then you'll hear this gnarled guitar or some, like it sounds like an amp being unplugged or something, you know, just all these little bits of candy that I love. Yeah, I was going to say, she can't help her impulses at any given moment. And so there are always bits of distortion thrown in to just like throw you off your axis.

Exactly. Just because you think it's familiar, she's got to like throw a little wrench in there and be like, you may think you know what's happening. You don't. This is an Asher White song. Yeah. So this album that this is from,

I'm saying love aggregates, but it could be love aggregates, Love aggregates, just came out. This song that we just heard, My Day at the Casino, I think it's kind of a breakup song. I don't know if she's playing with the idea of gambling, like taking a chance on love, or maybe just go into the casino after the breakup,

and you're just trying to get away from it. Yeah, I mean, there is a line in here that it almost reads like poetry. If you blink, you'll miss it. If doubt is swept from blessings clean as etching from its metal, then the morning's no concession to a game. that doesn't settle. I'm like, that is... Yeah, that feels like Victorian boatery.

I mean, that's the other thing that I love about Asher White is that kind of wordplay. It's like, it's, to your point, if you blink, you'll miss it. It's very deceptive because you're listening to this song. It sounds so familiar in a lot of ways, but really not.

But Sheldon, you've got one more that you're going to play. Yes. I want to go out on a song by the English alt-pop artist, Rachel Chino-Riri. She's been making music for about eight years. She broke through in the early days of TikTok. Her music, it sort of riffs on like soft rock and like pop rock, but it's always got these little flourishes that surprise you.

This song is no exception. There's like a dark sort of synth sound to it. That's funny because like, is this the song Make Believe? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, so this was on my short list as well, and I don't really know her very well, but I came across this song, and the thing that I was so knocked out about is just the bottom in. Yes.

It's just like such a heavy, low, bassy. And I wouldn't think like, like, what did you say soft rock? A lot of her stuff is much lighter than this. Okay. This is a bit of a turn for her. Yeah, this just rattles your bones. But it's really interesting because the song is kind of about wanting to buy into the fairy tale that someone who was wrong for you once can be right for you now.

And I think the song is sort of playing with that tension inherently in the way that it sounds. It's sort of ethereal in her vocal performance. It's kind of trying to navigate that fantasy. It sounds suspended in air. But to your point about the way the rest of it is, there's like a gravity to it that is, it feels like it's trying to pull her back down to earth. and that creates this sort of inherent tension that make believe is an apt title, right? She wants to believe something that is not actually real.

And so in the floating performance, you get the sense of what she wants to be true, and then the music itself is telling you that it isn't. And I love the way that those things play off of each other. So this is from an album called I Think I Spoke Too Soon, and it is out October 16th. Sheldon Pierce, thanks as always. Always a great hang. Yes, thanks for having me.

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