NPR Music - New Music Friday: A roundup of December albums

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

It's a slow release day to start the new year, so this week NPR Music's Stephen Thompson brings us an abbreviated episode highlighting a few of the new albums you might have missed in December. Artists and albums featured in this episode:- Pink Floyd, 'Wish You Were Here 50'- Fred Again.., 'USB002'- This Is Lorelei, 'Holo Boy'- HEALTH, 'CONFLICT DLC'- Juliana Hatfield, 'Lightning Might Strike'- DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ, 'Fantasy'- Daniel Lopatin, 'Marty Supreme (Original Soundtrack)'Credits:Host: Stephen ThompsonAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital Producer: Elle MannionEditor: Otis HartExecutive Producer: Suraya MohamedSee 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

Happy Friday, everyone, and happy New Year from NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm your host, Stephen Thompson, and for today, January 2nd, we are doing a special, short-form, oops, all-lightening round edition of New Music Friday. January 2nd isn't a big release date, but we also don't want to skimp on a few of the albums we missed in December when we weren't doing our normal episodes, so I'm just going to run through a few December titles that deserve our attention. Now, the music you're hearing is from an album that turned 50 this past fall and just got the latest of many deluxe reissues. Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here is now available as a box set with fresh tracks, a fancy new mix, and even a hardcover book if you're into that sort of thing.

Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rain? A smile from a van can tell. As I said, we're going to do this episode, Lightning, round style, but before we get started for real, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm your host, Stephen Thompson. Let's kick off this shorter than usual episode. So the DJ and producer known as Fred Again has been rolling out updates to his latest project. It's kind of an album, kind of a playlist, and kind of a data dump. It's been updated multiple times, so it's ever evolving. Loads of guests pop up throughout, including Danny

brown and floating points, and the runtime currently stands at more than two hours. So if you're looking for a whopping dose of one of the biggest names in electronic dance music, Fred Again's new project is called USB2. Nate Amos is a singer-songwriter who's won half of the band Water From Your Eyes, and for more than a decade, he's been workshopping solo ideas using the name This Is Lorelei. In 2024, This Is Lorelei put out its first album, and December brought a terrific follow-up, in which Nate Amos re-recorded a bunch of songs he'd put on band camp over the years. If all that sounds a little convoluted, what you really need to know is that these songs are

sharp and polished, breezy and charming, poppy and sonically far-reaching. It's a terrific record. This is Laurel's new album is titled, Hollow Boy, that's H-O-L-O. The LA band Health has been around for more than 20 years now, and in that time they've constantly refined a sound that feels. uses industrial electronics with raw, crunchy metal. Listening to their new sixth record, you get a sense of not only the band's grit and power, but also a willingness to let slivers of light and beauty stream in.

The new album by Health, which came out in December, is called Conflict DLC. Now, as I've said, we are making this an all-lightening round episode, but even a lightning-round episode deserves its own lightning round, so here goes. Juliana Hatfield has been putting out great work since the late 1980s, first with Blake Babies, then the Lemonheads, then the Julianna Hatfield 3, then in a variety of other projects. And the entire time, she has been an underappreciated treasure. Juliana Hatfield's latest album dropped in mid-December.

It's called Lightning Might Strike. The London House Music DJ, known as DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ, just dropped a nearly four-hour 40-track collection. Her songs are a charming swirl of nostalgia and euphoria, big and joyful with signifiers of 80s pop and throbbing house music. If you want to get lost in a dance floor that exists only in your mind, throw on some headphones and check out DJ Sabrina, the teenage DJ, and her new album, Fantasy.

Finally, we are fully in the grips of award season, and the Oscars shortlists dropped a couple weeks ago, one movie score that's been shortlisted and is worth checking out comes from Daniel Lopatin. He's also known as One O Tricks Point Never. If you're like me and you were extremely stressed out watching the movie Uncut Gems, Daniel Lopatin is a big reason why. Now he's done the score for the movie Marty Supreme, both the movie and its score dropped on Christmas Day. That's our show for this week. This episode was produced by Noah Caldwell and edited by Otis Hart. The executive producer of NPR music is Saraya Mohamed. We'll be back next week to discuss new 2026 music

with the great and good Celia Gregory of WNXP in Nashville. Until then, take a moment to be well, resolve to go a little easier on yourself this year, and treat yourself to lots of great music.