NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out April 11

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Bon Iver returns. Valerie June branches out. NPR Music's Stephen Thompson welcomes Erin Wolf of Radio Milwaukee's 88Nine to the show for a quick run-through of the best new albums out April 11.Featured albums:• Bon Iver, 'SABLE, fABLE'• Valerie June, 'Owls, Omens, and Oracles'• Gerald Clayton, 'Ones & Twos'• Real Lies, 'We Will Annihilate Our Enemies' (out April 16)• Kills Birds, 'Crave' EPCheck out our long list of albums out April 11 and stream our New Music Friday sampler playlist of more than 70 songs at npr.org/music.Credits• Host: Stephen Thompson• Guest: Erin Wolf, Radio Milwakee's 88Nine• Producer: Simon Rentner• Editor: Otis Hart• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed• Vice President, Music & Visuals: Keith JenkinsSee 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 from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Aaron Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee's 88.9. Hey, Aaron. Hey, thanks so much for having me. I am delighted to have you. We are going to talk about the glories of our shared, beloved home state of Wisconsin later in this episode. But first, before we start talking about new records, I did want to mention tomorrow, Saturday, April 12th, is record store day, coast-to-coast, independent record stores, all over the country are going to be selling exclusive titles, rare, 7 inches, live albums, reissues, kind of record store day exclusives.

And I was wondering, Erin, you like me, are a music nerd. Is there anything that you are specifically looking for? I have my eye on this Soul Slabs, Volume 4 from Coleman. They just always put out these really good various artist compilations. Got Delvon, Lamar Organ Trio, you've got the monophonics, Aaron Frazier. And also, I have to say, I have not yet been able to get my hands on a copy of George Harrison's. All Things Must Pass. And I really want that on vinyl.

And probably in my bag, it'll be Airs Moon Safari live in demos. Yeah. And the cures the head on the door, the picture disc. Record Store Day is such a crapshoot. You know, for every, like, really cool obscurity that you've been dying to get your hands on, you get things like there's going to be a 12-inch picture disc of We Built This City by Starship. And I feel like that's what I'm, I fear that that's what I'm going to run into, instead of what I'm actually looking for,

which is an album called Original Dreams Songs from Showbiz by a band called The Rock of Fire Explosion. If you've never heard of the Rockafire Explosion, they were the animatronic band at Showbiz Pizza in like the 80s. Imagine like a funkier version of Munch's make-believe band from Chucky Cheese. If you have not watched mashups of the Rockafire Explosion with contemporary pop and R&B songs, do yourself the world's biggest favor and Google the Rockafire Explosion in this club, where they mash up ushers in this club to this animatronic band. It may be the literal funniest thing on the entire internet. I'm definitely looking for this album by The Rock of Fire Explosion.

I'm sure what I will find instead is 75-7 inches of Taylor Swift's Fortnite. Oh yeah, no doubt. You know, Stephen, there's a documentary about The Rock of Fire Explan. Yes. You need to see this if you haven't yet. They sometimes do deluxe editions of albums that didn't sell very well, like anniversary editions, and there's a 25th anniversary reissue of Harvey Danger's King James version, which is a phenomenal record, and I'll be looking for that as well.

But first up on New Music Friday, a roundup of albums out today, April 11th. We're talking about Bonnie Vare. Bonnie Vair's new album is called Sable Fable. I know now that I can't make good. So Sable Fable Boneyver's fifth album, Band from O'Clair, Wisconsin, led by Justin Vernon. Famously, Bonnever began as a solo project

in that mythical Wisconsin cabin. Now it's kind of bloomed into this giant community. These songs have gotten bigger and dreamier and more expansive. and experimental over the course of the years. But at the same time, this record is chronicling changes in Justin Vernon's life as he's moved through the world. He's processed so much sadness and grief and in these songs that are deeply, deeply reflective.

And this record, Sable Fable, is kind of about cutting the darkness with joy. Even the title Sable Fable is referring to kind of darkness and Fable is referring to joy and wonder. And this record is kind of riding that juxtaposition. I mean, I recently spoke with Justin about the record how it came to be and what he called his sad former self. Basically he said he went into the woods and then figuratively he came out of the woods again. You know, he was focusing more on making good with himself as a person. And it felt like he just had like a really heavy yoke around his shoulders.

Like he was supposed to be this sad hermit. bearing all this heaviness. I think he's finally allowing himself to break free of that persona and just step into joy just, you know, as a basic way of telling this lore. I get caught looking.

What I see there resembles some competitive. I see things behind things, and there are rings within rings. There's so much mythology around Bonne Verre. That story of the musician who retreats to the Wisconsin cabin to process his pain is really, really deeply wired into a lot of musical stories in the last 20 years.

And at the same time, he's not obligated to carry on processing the same pain he was processing in 2007. I appreciate the kind of defiant joy that comes through on this record. One of the singles from this record is called Everything is Peaceful Love. And when I first heard it, I thought, well, wrong song for this moment. But then you think about it, like, it's a reminder that we have a right to joy. We have a right to experience happiness. We only get one life.

And if you are feeling enveloped by love in times that are trying, good for you, spread it around. He's like healing himself and he's kind of, kind of offering up like a little lifeline to everyone else who's in this mire right now. And, you know, I think part of the reason it sounds so joyful also, I feel like he's reconnecting with himself. He recently renovated April Base Studios, was lying dormant for such a long time. He returned there to make this record with producer Jimmy Stack. He invited some new guests there, kind of breathed new life back into April Base.

He's got like some really cool collaborators on this one this time around, Dijon and Daniel Haim and McGee. He's, I don't know, he's kind of like opening up as a world and letting people in. And you can just hear that joie de vivre, so to say. And there's just something really beautiful too about Justin staying in Eau Claire and staying true to his roots. It feels like such a comfortable space for him right now. There's a track on this album called Day One, which features, you mentioned Dejean, but also Flock of Dimes, Jen Wassner's band, just a fantastic, fantastic project. So you suddenly get Jen Wozner's voice coming in, and I really felt hearing that song,

you're hearing an infusion of the musical community that surrounds him. You hear like the Sable songs that are a little dark, a little hermody, and then this storm breaks, and all of a sudden you know you've got, what is it, short story kind of leading in. It feels like a vibe. He's like arrived into a new season of his life. That's Sable Fable, the new fifth album from Bonnie Ver. Next up, a new album by Valerie June. Valerie June has a new album called Owls, Omen, and Oracles. Not very easy light.

You can see that he's wanting to be free. Heat and light deep inside my new choice to speak out. There is a light. You can find if you start to take time, the wind is right. Right and shine is door. Not all artists are cut quite like Valerie June. Just for you, I will swim more than a thousand seeds. She is just in the way.

most expansive artist dabbling in psychedelic folk, indie rock, Appalachian, Bluegrass, Country, soul, gospel, you name it. She's like humble and open to speaking truth and having those hard conversations in song. And she's just got this really deep humanistic knowledge. Light and love and a woman Just for you I'll swim across a thousand seas. One of the songs on Owls, Omen's and Oracles

called Sweet Things Just for You, she asks, How do we show up for each other with the spirit of sweetness in every move? And although it seems easy, I found it to be super challenging to practice sweetness, especially when we're facing the hurdles of the modern world. Valerie June's new album, is not just about practicing sweetness unto others,

but it's also practicing sweetness unto your own self, transforming your mindset into one of joy, trust, love, and every other good thing that you could focus on instead of the millions of other things that could distract you from your own goodness. Before the star shine, midnight blue, just a single hour till the clear sky morning. Valerie June, she has such an eccentric kind of throwback of a voice,

but she's not just using it to make songs that feel, you know, vintage or old-timey. She's deploying it in the service of many, many, many different kinds of sounds. That sweet voice that feels like it's, you know, billowing out of a radio in the 40s can be applied to a kind of aggressive sound or a track like Superpower. where she's got this kind of spoken word twang, you know, with dub vibes around it. Your moon glow night dance twirls, and who would have guessed? You'd sketch a rainbow, painted world.

Calling my spirit back to me, trusting the path I do not see. Late in the record, there's this contemplative stretch of songs, calling my spirit or a kind of gentle ramble like my life is a country song, that voice, part of what makes it feel so immediate and present is just how versatile she is genre-wise. Producer M. Ward did an amazing job, like making everything sound so cohesive,

and yeah, giving it that kind of old-time, vibe, but, you know, it makes you listen up. It makes you, like, really, like, catch what she's saying, you know? Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned M. Ward and the fact that M. Ward's production stamp is all over this record, because I think that is such an ingenious pairing of artists that I wouldn't have necessarily thought of off the top of my head. You know, like, his music is so ornate and thoughtful and extremely literate, musically literate. And when you apply that to Valerie June, who is so musically multilingual, you just get ideas blooming from every corner. What she's thrown at you too, spiritually, I feel like.

I feel like this album listening to, it's a little bit like, you know, going to church or going to your corner bar and like hearing someone play music and a dimly look corner. and just like the community that it's inspiring. It feels like music that's bringing people together. That is Valerie June. Her new album is called Owls, Omen's and Oracles. We've got more great records we're going to be talking about this week. But first, let's take a quick break.

From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Eric. Aaron Wolfe of 889 from Radio Milwaukee. Aaron, before we start talking about the next crop of records, I wanted to ask you how things are going at 889 and how can people listen? We just celebrated 18 years of Radio Milwaukee. We're getting ready to celebrate three years of Hyphen, which is our urban alternative station on June 10th of this year.

And at 889, the Indy Alternative Station, we're gearing up for some great studio Milwaukee sessions. We've got Craig Finn and Valerie June coming in. And also, yeah, we're plotting and planning some special sessions with artists coming to Milwaukee for Summerfest. And if people want to follow along on both stations and stream, you can do so at RadioMawkey.org, hyphen.org, and on our mobile apps. It's wild. There are people in this country who have not heard of Summerfest, which is in Milwaukee every July. That is one of the biggest music festivals in the world.

The sheer volume of unhealthy fried food, it's heaven. You do. You do. It's beautiful. It's like a state fair combined with a big music festival. There's nothing quite like it. All right. Next up on New Music Friday, we've got a new record from Gerald Clayton.

Gerald Clayton has a new album called Ones and Two. So Gerald Clayton is a piano player and a composer. He's been recording for Blue Note for a while now, making really adventurous and expansive jazz music. And listening to this record, I put this record on without any context and was really kind of drawn into just the cool vibes of it all, but also just like a sense of searching and scope. These songs really convey these interesting moods and everything. And then I look at the album on my iTunes and I start to notice patterns and realized as I kind of dug in and started reading about this record, that this album is designed where you can take side A and side B,

you know, split this record perfectly into halves and overlay them and play them on top of each other. Remember many, many years ago, the Flaming Lips put out an album called Zyrica. It was four CDs. They were designed to be played simultaneously. You would set up four boom boxes with your friends and hit play at the exact same time. and they would overlap, kind of overlay, and kind of create this really cool kind of symphonic sound. This record is a little like that. It's two records that individually, they sound great.

Like, they really work as individual pieces. But if you basically, in this day and age, you set up two laptops with the same album on it, play them simultaneously, and you get a different vibe. Did you do this? Yes. I did. and it is richer and fuller, but it's also not 100% necessary to do that.

I think it shows, like, as a writer, he's thinking about music from, like, the stance of being a live performer. These parts that he writes and plays with his band and producer that, you know, he can mix, match, and mel together with the right approach. I didn't quite listen to the two sides back to back, but I listened to it singularly,

and ones and twos just feels like this really, like, wide-eyed and totally smart, imaginatively produced album. It's just got these dynamics of tension and release, harmony and dissonance, and I really think it's helped along too by the production work of the talented Casa overall. He is a jazz musician and producer from Seattle, who I've been very lucky to see perform at Radio Milwaukee. And I think the songs I was drawn to most, like sacrifice culture, rush, and Space Seas, all had kind of a hip-hop element to that. And I don't know, I think I'm probably going to be listening to more Gerald Clayton in the future. I really thought his music was

super imaginative and exciting. He's surrounded by extremely talented players here. You have Joel Ross playing vibraphone. You have Elena Pinderhues on flute, Marquise Hill on trumpet, and Kendrick Scott, who's his drummer. And those sounds are blending in beautiful. ways, but as you said, there's also this element where it's inspired by turntableism. It's supposed to sound remixed in a certain way, and that's where Casa Overall comes in. You have this sense that every second of this song, it's not fussed over in a way that makes it feel like a museum piece. It's fussed over in a way where it all fits together. On a track like Rush, this like high-tech cocktail rasmataz that I really love that feels like

a throwback to like a lot of the cocktail jazz of the 50s and 60s. I really dug this record. That is ones and twos. The new album by Gerald Clayton, we highly recommend it. Next up, a new album by the band Real Lies. It's called We Will Annihilate Our Enemies. 17 and I met and it was game over. That's it.

It's you and me forever, kid. Realize was established in the UK about a decade ago. It's the duo of lyricist, Kevin Leekaris, and producer Patrick Kee. King. And they call the new album an 11-track Ode-defining magic among the madness. Otis Hart, our producer, recommended we talk about this record. And I was listening to it, and I thought, oh, I know why Otis thinks I'm going to like this record. This is like an EDM version of the band's Stars. Do you know, Stars, that mix of salt and honey, these like acerbic lyrics, but they're also beautiful and catchy. And I felt like this tapped into that kind of vibe, really, really, really,

effectively. We were just children. Bear you that cringe, caroac choir. You've got these tracks that are built on these kind of EDM arrangements, but with talky vocals that are really dramatic and intense, and at times deeply sad. Love a dumb world, love a numb world, love a world of pain. There's a track on this record called Lover World, you know, which is kind of tapping into one of this record's big themes of kind of how hard it is to find love in.

the digital realm. It's really cool and catchy and it's kind of a banger, but it has this undertone of deep melancholy. Yeah, it does. It feels very teenagerie to me. This record reminded me so much of what I was listening to about 20 years ago. You've got that underworld vibe. Back in the day, you know, the train-spotting soundtrack was all the rage. Romeo and Juliet's soundtrack was all the rage. And yeah, there is a... this like EDM meets Pet Shop Boys kind of ethereality, which makes, I don't know, it just kind of pumps up this romanticized aspect of being in your 20s and being supremely glum, for lack of a better description, you know?

Everybody has felt like that. And I think this is music that really does immediately tap into that. But I love the way, my favorite kind of dance music, my favorite kind of electronic music, has this sad, pulsating part at the center of it. I think that's been true of electronic music for as long as there's been electronic music. One thing that really strikes me about this record is how conversational it is.

I used the word talky a second ago. That gives this record a sense of intimacy that not all electronic music possesses, where it really feels like human beings having a heart-to-heart conversation. It's hell to talk. There is a sense of poetry about the delivery. They're speaking on themes of alienation,

but there seems to be a longing to connect. Oh, absolutely, and that's one of the big themes of the record. And I appreciate that this release day in music, April 11th, is expansive enough to include an album called We Will Annihilate Our Enemies and a song called Everything is Peaceful Love. I just appreciate how much music has to offer. for us this week. That is, we will annihilate our enemies by real lies.

I should note that this album was scheduled to come out today, April 11th, but it got pushed at the last minute to this coming Wednesday, so you won't be able to find the whole thing on streaming today, but it is worth waiting for. We've got one more record we're going to talk about in-depth, but first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Aaron Wolf from Radio Milwaukee's 88-9.

We've got a lightning round of some of our other favorite records out this week. But first, we wanted to talk about one more. It's an EP by a band called Kills Birds. It's called Crave. Kills Birds is led by vocalist Nina Letty, a filmmaker and Bosnian-born Canadian who moved to L.A. to follow her love of film. And just like a good film, Killsbirds' songs are really epic.

I love how crushingly heavy their songs are while still maintaining this dominant melodicism. Modern bands like Mama and Ben Stellar are also really good at making tuneful heaviness too, and it feels like there's a new generation taking the lead on a new brand of hard melodic rock, and unsurprisingly, Aaron Kobayashi Rich, who's worked with both Mama and Ben Stellar, produced this EP. The Mama comparison hadn't really occurred to me, another great L.A. band that we just talked about on this show last. week. That Mama record is one of my favorite of the year so far, and this is a pretty stellar kind of companion piece to that. It's just five songs, just this dose of heaviness I didn't know I needed as the weather's been starting to get warmer. It's kind of pummeling and potent, windows down,

revving a motorcycle, kind of just like big, booming rock. And it's funny, you know, when we were looking at the albums that were coming out today, April 11th, Otis Hart, our producer, kind of pulled this out and was like, who is this band? What is the deal? We've never covered this before. And then he found that I had written about them for the Austin 100, this roundup of artists that we would be excited about at South by Southwest

each year. And for 2020, this sadly canceled South by Southwest, this band was scheduled to play. And this was one of the bands that I had discovered and then subsequently completely forgotten about. And it was interesting going back and listening to the track that I'd

picked for the Austin 100. It was called Volcano. very good song. Listening to that and then these five songs, you just hear a band that has really tightened up and revved up its sound. They're never drowning out Nina Letty, who just has this volcanic presence at the center of this band. Yeah, yeah, throughout the songs on Craves, she really doesn't compromise her vocals by letting that heaviness

deflate those vocals in any way. Instead, they seem to grow stronger the heavier things get. And I get this really strong visual of her screaming into the abyss amid a wailing and howling guitars. It was so satisfying to listen to this because it felt like true human catharsis, like fragility in its most chaotic state. And like a bunch of the bands that we've talked about, including this band, like Mama, this would fit pretty cleanly onto a 90s playlist. This is drawing from a bunch of different sounds, but in many ways, it just feels kind of classic and undeniable.

Like, I could absolutely play this for my metal-loving daughter and have her get into this band. They have certainly gotten cosines, you know, from other major artists. They toured with the foo fighters for a while. Dave Grohl has spoken very admiringly of this band. And Nina Letty, she's definitely been around and connected in the industry for a while, but people need to be hearing her music. This is a small investment, people. It's five songs, 16 minutes. They're called Kills Birds.

The EP is called Crave. To close out this show, we wanted to do a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today, April 11th. I'm going to kick us off with the rowdy Americana band Turnpike Trubadors. They've been around on and off for about 20 years now, and today marks the release of its seventh album. There's been vanishingly little advance word about this record, which was announced just a few days ago

via a billboard in Stillwater, Oklahoma. But the album is out now, and like its predecessor from two years ago, it was produced by Shooter Jennings, which gives you a sense of some of the kind of outlaw country vibes going on here. This record is called The Price of Admission. North Carolina's Daughter of Swords' Latest sees them shedding inhibitions and constructs in both music and in person. Their former folk lens takes on some synth-pop flair thanks to the production and musical input from Nick Samhorn and Amelia Meath of Sylvan Asso.

Alex Sousermanagh spent years in the folk trio Mountain Man alongside Meath and Molly Sarlays, showcasing the true beauty of of their joined voices in close harmonies and on Daughter of Swords new album Alex. There's like this synth-pop infusion to that folk pop foundation and it provides some unexpected twists and turns that just sparkle real hard. The haunting and mysterious UK dream pop duo Jadu Hart has moved through many phases over the course of its nearly decade-long career. Right now, they're currently kind of building a following in part because they're opening for Fontaine's DC on its latest tour, another band that has moved through many phases. Jadu Hart has played in masks and with alter egos. Now they've kind of taken off those

masks and are trying different sounds. Their music touches on everything from electropop to shoegaze to grunge. Jadu Hart is still expanding its sound on its stylish new fourth album. It's called Post. host heaven. Toronto band Casper Skulls, I just really appreciate that they're so good at reminding me of things I already love and have love for years. On their new album Kit Kat, there's a delightful array of indie rock flavors, like the contri-tweig on spindle top. There's just like a grab bag of amazing sounds that I've loved for years.

It's also giving me book vibes in a way. Like I feel like I'm reading a chapter. of a book that's from a different author throughout, but it all just flows, and I love albums that make me feel like this. This is totally an album I would read again, if that makes any sense. Finally, in 2021, the Flaming Lips released an album-length collaboration with a Canadian 13-year-old named Nell Smith. It was a collection of Nick Cave covers called Where the Viaduct Looms. Sadly, Natalie, Nell Smith died in a car accident at 17 last fall, and now her family has released a posthumous solo debut.

It's full of bright, catchy, immensely promising indie pop songs. Proceeds from this record will go to a memorial fund that supports young musicians. That album from Nell Smith is called Anxious. And that is our show for this week. Thank you so much, Erin Wolf, for taking time out of your week at 88-9. Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me. It's the week of Boni Vair's release. It's always exciting.

If you enjoyed this week's show, we always appreciate a positive review on Apple or Spotify or whatever app you're listening to right now. This episode was produced by Simon Rentner and edited by Otis Hart. The executive producer of NPR music is Saraya Mohamed, and her boss is Keith Jenkins, NPR's vice president of music and visuals.

We'll be back next week to talk about new records from Rianan Giddens, Julian Baker and more with WUNC Music's Brian Burns. Until then, take a moment to be well, plant a garden, and treat yourself to lots of great music.