NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out Aug. 8

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

Ethel Cain. Charley Crockett. J.I.D. Plug in to the week's top new releases with NPR Music's Stephen Thompson and guest DeShun Nance of WJSU's The Sipp in Jackson, Miss.The Starting 5:• J.I.D, 'God Does Like Ugly' (Stream)• Ethel Cain, 'Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You' (Stream)• Amaarae, 'BLACK STAR' (Stream)• Charley Crockett, 'Dollar a Day' (Stream)• Gordi, 'Like Plasticine' (Stream)The Lightning Round:• Hayes Carll, 'We're Only Human'• Big Freedia, 'Pressing Onward'• Ashley Monroe, 'Tennessee Lightning'• Bryson Tiller, 'The Vices'• Ada Lea, 'when i paint my masterpiece'See our long list of albums out Aug. 8 and sample more than 50 of them via our New Music Friday playlist on the All Songs Considered blog.CreditsHost: Stephen ThompsonGuest: DeShun Nance (WJSU's The Sipp)Audio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital Producer: Elle MannionProduction Assistant: Dora LeviteEditor: 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

A quick note before the show, this podcast contains explicit language. Happy Friday, everyone from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Deshawn Nance of WJSU's The SIP in Jackson, Mississippi. Hey, Deshawn, welcome to the show. Thank you. Glad to be here. It is a pleasure to have you.

You know, we're going to go right into some music this week with JID. The rapper JID has a new album called God Does Like Ugly. J. And walking to cross it. Still, geeking about your love, but about that time it got me weak. Shout out of the club last night and it did it took me on my feet. Took a dose up. Took a dose up.

But the toast up, but the toast up all on me. Hit my peak, she hit in my line, thought that I was tied up with a freak. It's a lie I was probably high shouting because the loud got me on the leash. Trying to call back, but you didn't respond to me. Let me know some. Let me know song while on Freddy. JID is a rapper from East Atlanta. This is his fifth studio album.

He's also collaborated with a ton of other artists. I have to say, for those who aren't familiar with him, check out his Tiny Desk concert. You really get a sense of this kind of explosive charisma. And when I think of J.I.D., I really think of, like, your favorite rapper's favorite rapper. If you just look at the list of features on this record, West Side Gun, Clips, Vince Staples, Earthgang,

who he's worked with a bunch before, Don Tolliver, Tiny Dollassine. Just the list goes on and on. The thing that I really like is that he makes me like people that I wouldn't listen to of my own free will. So guys like Don Tolliver, he's featured on my personal favorite. And, you know, something that I just wouldn't have thought that I could get out of Don Tolliver. Sometimes you can tell, you know, when you hear a record with a lot of features on it, sometimes you get a sense of the esteem that the artist is held in by how hard those guests bring it when they show up on the record. And you mentioned Don Tolliver.

He shows up on what we on. It's kind of this spare earworm that kind of burrows under your skin, but then keeps building and building. And I had a little bit of the same reaction where I was like, man, Don Tolliver is bringing it to this song. Rolled out another state that I made $100,000 in a day. As a half a million a week, kind of hard to speak to me from a plane. We are not the same.

She'd be trying to run me the brain. Number exchange, fluids ain't paying attention to it. I'm into it. Van Nuptuid and booty stain. Give me one of them, we didn't make it hard for a nigger to leave. You know, it ain't love, that's just what I need. I'm sipping a cup. I rinse and repeat.

I send and repeat. A fender with a trick of my sleeve of spender. On a bitch that I please is winter, so the rest I'm a freeze, a blizzard. You know, the flip side of a heavy featured project is your sound may get lost in a record that has a lot of features on it, and I don't think that that happens in this project at all. I agree completely. And then when he's kind of leading the charge, you know, a track like G's, the lyric sheet for that song,

I haven't seen it. It must be 15 pages long. Yeah, it's incredible, actually. I really, you know, they say you thud out. Gangster, gangsta, everybody bugged out. Armed in dangerous, drank den drugged out. Anxious ain't you. Banged up, banger.

Tell them bitches stop playing with us. I really, you know, came away from this record, and I've had this reaction to past JID records as well, where it's like he specializes in these kind of dense, twisty, reference-packed bars, you know, songs that are weaving in samples and busy beats and still find room for all these guests. And it's so funny, if you just were to, like, jot down, you know, a list of the references. And, you know, as I think back on listening to this record, there's a reference to Bob the Builder. There's a reference to Crash Bandicoot. You know, there are these

just kind of like funny references to pop culture and video games and just the larger world. And I think that that's because J.I.D., he blew up as an older rapper. I think he was about 27 when he was first getting the mainstream appeal that he has now. So the experiences that he had were that of the prior generation. So it's like he's the old guy and the new generation. And that's probably why he's able to mesh the two so well. That's probably why you get to have a clips and a non-tolerable feature on your project because he knows about the old and knows how to maneuver the new. Yeah, and when you're a rapper, when you're just like filling the lyric sheet, right, you want somebody who's been around for a little while and has kind of processed the

world and collaborated with a lot of different artists. That's kind of how you build up the number of things to say that he has here. So he feels like he is just in that perfect sweet spot between young and old. Yeah, he sounds inspired. He doesn't sound like he's trying to put out an album for the sake of putting out an album. J.I.D. is one of those people who can make you think that he's not saying anything, but if you really listen to him, he's saying a lot. He sounds like a newer rapper, but he speaks like an older rapper.

That is J.I.D. His new album is God Does Like Ugly. Next up, we've got a new album from Ethel Cain. It is more than 73 minutes long, and it is called Willoughby Tucker. I'll always love you. Ethel Cain is kind of the artistic persona of a Florida-raised artist named Hayden Anadonia. Ethel Cain put out this amazing record in 2022 called Preacher's Daughter, which was kind of this concept album about growing up trans in Florida in a deeply religious environment.

And, you know, her music is expansive and experimental. She put out an album of guitar drones earlier this year called Pratt. perverts. She really puts, you know, a lot of thought into albums that are kind of speaking to larger concepts. And Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You, is kind of the story of this deeply fraught first love, you know, kind of growing up in Florida. And this record, 10 songs, more than 73 minutes long. Yeah, I saw the runtime and the tracklist before I actually heard a single note from it. I was like, jazz? Because you know, in jazz, some things can go from a minute and a half all the way to 25 minutes and we can call it one song. So I was very intrigued. When I actually

heard the project, three words, one phrase came to mind and that was alone at prom. So it felt like it felt like the end of a of a of a rom-com that didn't end too great. You know, it's raining, and our female protagonist is alone at the end of prom. Her date is gone. And, you know, it was super melancholy and dramatic. Even if she wasn't saying anything, you felt everything that she had said, you know, at the eight-minute moment of the 10-minute song, after she's been done speaking for four of those minutes, you still feel the angst and anxiety and sadness.

It's a beautiful record, and my three-word phrase that I kept coming back to was room to breathe. This is a record that takes its time. There's a track on this record called Willoughby's Interlude. Often when I think of interludes, you know, when you're listening to like a long record and it says interlude, it'll be like this kind of quick interstitial instrumental moment. And Willoughby's theme is like that, but it is seven and a half minute. long. And it's one of three instrumentals out of 10 songs. And so it's a record that requires and I think rewards quite a bit of patience. But when you get into kind of the meat of the record and songs that have a

little bit more lyrical content, instead of just kind of taking a moment to breathe instrumentally, you get these just knockout, beautiful songs. You know, a song like Nettles that unfolds over the course of eight minutes is so, so beautiful. And it close. with the song Waco, Texas, which is 15 minutes long. But it actually earns that runtime. It doesn't kind of roll along so much as it wafts like smoke. One thing that I try to do when I listen to music is I listen to things in different places and in different ways. And when I turned on Ethel Cane, I tried to focus on something else,

but it was so good at any point that, you know, you can't afford to not be living. listening because it's going to grab you back. It's going to say, hey, I'm still on. There's a phenomenal track on this record called Dust Bowl that's just kind of this warped and woozy dirge. You almost feel like the song is melting in the summer sun as it's playing, even as it's building to something that feels really grand and epic.

And as you said, it's the kind of thing where you could, especially with these instrumentals, you could let them kind of meander into the background. But a song like that, the sound is always changing. It's always kind of warping as it goes along. So you can really get lost in it. Right. So many times I found myself listening and I was like, did the song change?

And no, it's one of those things that it's going to draw you in because you are going to find something that interests you at every twist and turn. Yeah. And I just think, you know, often we'll kind of throw out. reference points over the course of these conversations like if you like this try this you know and i was listening particularly to that 15-minute waco texas song that closes the record i really just thought like man this is just right of a piece with like what lana del rei has been trying to do with her career of like telling these tales of doomed romance telling these these big grand cinematic songs that move

kind of glacially. And I just thought, like, what a perfect companion piece to what Lana Del Rey has kind of tried to do with her records, including records that sprawl out to, you know, 70, 80 minutes long. At no moment did I find myself bored with the length of a piece. Like I said, I listen to jazz. So, you know, 15 minutes doesn't scare me for a record. You know, I know that it does for a lot of people who aren't able to hear music with no words. But it's one of those projects where you really feel the subject matter despite whether you can hear someone speaking or not.

That's Willoughby Tucker. I'll always love you. The new album from Ethel Cain. We've got a few more records coming out today, August 8th. We're going to talk about those. But first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Deshaun Nance of the SIP in Jackson, Mississippi. Deshaun, tell me about the station. Well, what we do at the SIPFM is we bring hip hop and urban alternative music together. So very focused on artist discovery. So we want you to come for the people that you know, the names that you know and you like,

and we want you to stay for the people that you learn about. Nice. You want Sonic Gateways. Yeah. There's new music every week at the station and, you know, it's a good time over there. I want every hour to sound like a set that you can't turn off. Nice. Well, we like to carry a little piece of.

of Jackson State University with us at NPR Music, our man, Bobby Carter, who helps run the Tiny Desk, is a very proud Jackson State alum. I don't doubt it, you know, from a technical perspective, when I watch a tiny desk and I see those microphones, and I'm like, how are you getting that type of sound from those microphones? I think it's black magic. I don't know the secret. You know, I will find out one day. I will tell you it takes a village.

It is a lot of very, very, very brilliant tech professionals who go to make it sound as effortless as it sounds. Y'all do an amazing job. Thank you, Deshaun. All right, next up, Amorei. Amaray has a new album called Black Star. You know, I'm still up. We can talk a night or should I wake you up? I still get excited when you text me.

Hey, yeah. I won't fall asleep, you know, I'm always head. So, Amory, love me, love of me, loving, love of me, loving, love of me, love of me, no one feels the same. Kiss me through this mobile phone, baby, what are you wearing? Screenshots of your camera roll, baby, what do you share it? So Amore is an Afro-pop star. She's Ghanayan American.

and, you know, listening to this record and kind of listening to her career up to this point, she manages to capture that high-pitched breeziness of a lot of, like, really TikTok-friendly artists with R&B pop, indie pop, Afrobeat music, she just kind of swirls it all together and kind of like the J-I-D record we talked about at the top of this episode. She works in a lot of guest artists, including fellow TikTok innovators like Pink Pantheras, pops up, but also Naomi Campbell pops up on this record. So you get a lot of different voices and in a record that's really easy to break down an excerpt, like this record for me feels made for TikTok. You get that at every turn in this project. That Pink Panther's piece kissed me through the

phone. I know that a lot of people my age listen to that title and think Soldier Boy, no, this is not what that is. But it's a very high energy driven project. If you look from top to bottom, it has some fantastic pieces. Track 5, B2B, she's my drug, which is an amazing piece, actually. Yeah, I mean, her voice is like Spun Sugar. It's just such a frothy, sweet, catchy mix.

And she's extremely quotable, right? Like, you mentioned Kiss Me Through the Phone. I mean, Pink Panther is so good at making songs that bridge the gap between pop radio and TikTok. But she's also extremely quotable, and she knows when to hit a little. line and let it repeat, let it burrow into your head. You mentioned the song, She is My Drug. You know,

that song is interpolating shares believe, but having it read as, do you believe in life after drugs? And you can just imagine these turns of phrase, these choruses, these repetitious, little sugary moments. You can just imagine them playing over looped video on TikTok. This, This record feels extremely current that way. You know, when I listen to projects, I try to place them in environments. When I close my eyes and I turn on, I'm a ray. I'm in a weird, futuristic, a little bit dystopian nightclub that has these upbeat, harsh, techno, afro beats. And, you know, not my personal environment as an introvert, but, you know, if I watched it on TV,

I don't think that I could get up and turn something else on. Yeah, and like so many artists who have that eye toward the future, dispensing music via TikTok, dispensing music in kind of unconventional ways, she also has a real gift for knowing how to deploy nostalgia. There's a track called SMO, which kind of blows out her sound over the course of four and a half minutes, which for an artist like this is an epic, you know, compared to somebody like Ethel Cain. But you're hearing kind of strewn throughout this song, these drum machine patterns and keyboards that scream 80s pop.

Right. So she's got one foot in the future and one foot in the past in ways that feel of the moment. Stephen, you literally read my mind. I'm sitting here listening to you and thinking this project pushes Afro beats

and the house pop genre forward in so many ways. But if 40 years ago it came on, you would think that this was 80s pop, 80s house. That's Amore. Her new album is called Black Star. Deshawn, we're going to give people a complete 180. We're going to go to our next record.

It's by Charlie Crockett. Charlie Crockett has a new album called Dollar a Day. Can somebody tell me what's going on? Stuck in the saddle from the first light of dawn. Worried if dying, one of them homes. Stuck in my belly is worth being pulled. Stuck in the saddle For founding a dollar a day I'll never be rich I found out too soon Never could seem to get past the saloon

Cowboys and money Mix can't you see Mean only briefly than part company Stuck in the saddle For founding a dollar a day Charlie Crockett is probably the most left field listen for me personally, but it was one of those projects where I was like, hold on, you know, it was a project that stood out for me from its dynamics in contrast to what traditional country music sounds like and what we think that it sounds like today.

Yeah, I mean, Charlie Crockett kind of above all else, he is a very prolific kind of old school slash new school country singer. And I think part of what makes him feel truly old school is just how prolific he is. You know, we talked about a record that he put out, you know, back in March called Lonesome Drifter. And we're five months later talking about another new Charlie Crockett record. You know, he's just, he cranks out records kind of in the spirit of a lot of old school country singers and kind of rootsy singer songwriters. And he's able to kind of tap. into these classic sounds and kind of crank them out in a way that a lot of these vintage artists were doing. My favorite piece, Crucified Son, I believe that's the second track. It's amazing. I turned it on

and I put it on repeat for about four times. And, you know, I did go back and do my research on Charlie Crockett, considering that I hadn't heard of him. Being able to put out that volume of music and retain your type of quality is very hard because when you find your formula, it's a difficult to break from that to push yourself forward, and I think that he did that very well in this project. Got a pain out of Austin, this morning in the bed and rain. Blue bullets lie in the highway sign,

let me know it's spring. They want to put me in a TV show. I don't know if it's right, but I said yes because I can't refuse those crystal city lights I was born the lucky one they can't tell me what I've done I'm a crucified son Well and it's really interesting how he's able to kind of create throwbacks that are still contemporary So there's a track on this record called Tennessee Quick Cash that is updating kind of the 16 tons model, right?

Like, you know, you're going through life and life is just kind of pushing you down. In the spirit of a song like 16 tons. But it's about payday lenders. And so it manages to sound current at the same time that it's throwing back to country songs from decades ago. There's a track called Santa Fe Ring that has like Ghost Riders. in the sky vibes. You know, what kind of noirish early rock and roll? There's a track called Alamosa,

which has these soulful strings, and it almost sounds like the theme to a 70s cop show. And you listen to that song, and you just think, you know, that's the last track on this record. This is a guy who's, you know, umpteen albums into his career, likes to release several albums a year,

and you hear that song and you realize, his sound is still expanding. His sound is still evolving. I'm going to Alamo. and so back in the saddle once again. By the blue roll, Henry Adosa, because my true love wanted her one. And, you know, to that point,

relatability is one thing that I really got out of this project. When I hear country music, I'm not listening for necessarily, you know, a specific sound or instrumentation. I'm listening for that, that relatability in subject matter. And I think that he delivered that very well. Yeah, and it really feels like the work of somebody who has lived in the world. And I think, you know, we were talking about that with J.I.D. at the top of this episode.

Like, if you're going to write as many songs as Charlie Crockett writes and perform as many songs as Charlie Crockett performs, you want to have some life experiences that go along with that. And this is a guy who's, you know, busked on the subways in New York City. He's worked in L.A. bars. He's lived on the streets of Paris. He's worked on farms in California. So he's traveled the world, and those experiences are seeping into these songs. And I think that's part of what makes him as vital as he is.

Yeah, I completely agree. It's one of those projects where, again, if you are not a country listener, you know, there are some pieces on here that will have you like, maybe I need to go back and do some research. We love to talk about gateways here. For sure. That is Charlie Crockett. His new album is called Dollar a Day. We've got one more record we want to talk about in depth,

as well as a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today, August 8th. But first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Deshawn Nance of the SIP in Jackson, Mississippi. Next up, new album from Gordy. It's called Like Plasticine. I'm in your backstage. She is an artist named Sophie Payton.

She's a singer-songwriter from Australia. She's also a doctor. She took a break from releasing new music during the pandemic to work as a doctor. And she may be the only person where I'd be like, you know, you need to get your priorities in order. Because I just always want new music from Gordy. This record is, I just love this album. It's so hauntingly beautiful and so catchy at the same time. And like several of the other records that we've talked about this week,

it's rooted in her experiences. You know, there's a track on this album called PVC Divide, and it's about being a doctor during COVID. This is my first time actually hearing. hearing of her, I was very pleased. I'm always nervous and excited when I get new artists. So in hearing

Gordy and Mr. Crockett, I was very excited. This project is one of those things that if you can't relate from a personal place, she will allow you to relate from her perspective. Yeah, and these songs are coming from a number of

wildly different sonic perspectives. There's a track called Alien Cowboy where the whole sound of the song is really strange and warped, and it's pretty, but in a disturbing way. And then it sweeps into a track called Cutting Room Floor, which is just effervescently infectious. It's got this huge, spangly chorus, and it works brilliantly in either perspective, kind of in either mode. Yeah, that song specifically also one of my favorite on that project. I got a sense of angst and exhilaration at the same time.

You know, this project was very fun to listen to. Yeah, she's a wonderful artist. She's been a favorite of mine for a long time. Go back and watch her Tiny Desk concert, too. And one theme that's come up with a lot of the records we're talking about this week is sometimes you really get a sense of who an artist is from the company they keep. You know, and just like all those amazing features on that J.I.D. record. You look at the collaborations on this Gordy record.

There's a song called Lunch at Dune where she's working with this. wonderful Irish singer named Soak, you know, this beautiful ethereal ballad, you know, two really inventive singers. PVC. Defied, which I mentioned at the top of this segment, has Anais Mitchell, you know, who wrote Hades Town and is a wonderful, wonderful singer-songwriter in her own right. That is Gordy. Her new album is called Like Plast Scene. Highly, highly, highly recommended. Deshawn, we could not get to every single record that we want to talk about that's out today, August 8th. So we want to do a quick lightning round of some of the other albums that we're excited about. You've got a couple that I'm excited about. But I'm going to kick us off by talking about

Hayes Carl. He's a roots rock singer-songwriter. He's been cranking out smart, funny, witty records that invite, I would say, kind of ballpark comparisons to all-time greats like La Lovett and Randy Newman. Hayes-carl's new record is full of rollicking and commentary-packed songs about the state of humanity in the modern world. It's called we're only human. Whether you give up or you give it your best, it's hard not to be a like you're failing as tragedies happen. Mistakes will get made with love and we cry, we storm all and try and I feel so afraid. So Big Freitas pressing onward, a phenomenal problem. project, you get that very heavy gospel influence with features like Tamar Braxton and

K. Michelle. It is one of those projects that you have to love it if you're going to love it. Big Freedah's new album is called Pressing Onward. Love Big Frida. The country singer Ashley Monroe wrote her new album in the aftermath of a successful battle with a rare form of cancer, so it makes sense that the record feels like a hard-earned victory lap. It's an epic. sonically expansive 17-song collection with guest appearances from Brittany Spencer, T-Bone Burnett, and Marty Stewart, among others, Ashley Monroe's new album is called Tennessee Lightning. Full up in the parking line roll a window stand.

Full moon dead and night in a horn horse town. Nothing to do but turn up the base. Nothing to do but spend the rest of the weekend waste. Bryce and Tiller's new album, it's an upturn from what I have heard from him in the past. He has, you know, stepped up some production, got some cool features on there. It's one of those projects where he is leaning into the hip-hop space, but he still wants you to know that at the core, he is an R&B singer. Bryson-Tillers' new album is called The Vices.

I'm on edge, hanging on barely, just don't push me now. Hang on threads, baby, just let me drop, don't cut me down. Finally, yeah, I tell I flay the country now. Yeah, we're out the motherfucking country with it. We're out in the Amsterdam. Cross the globe, you. We're trying to make way to Germany one time. I heard they love a nigga up in the UK.

We back in Lone and back. Galchester, yeah. Finally, the Canadian singer-songwriter Alexandra Levy records under the name Ada Lee, and she's so prolific she chose the 15 songs on her new third album from among more than 200 she'd written. She's also a visual artist who painted her own album cover and has been teaching college classes on songwriting, which she is certainly qualified to do. Her new album is clearly the work of a lively mind that's always forward thinking, but also richly aware of the folk music legacy that precedes her.

Ada Leah's new album is called When I Paint My Masterpiece. Now, Deshawn, you and I have listened to a lot of new music to get to this point. This is the part of the show where we like to look back, have each one of us pick one song. That's our favorite song of everything we heard. What do you got? Stephen. It's a tough one. That's a very tough one.

At the end of everything I had to just have one, I probably pick Big Freitas. Never forget. It is everything you think that a gospel-inspired bounce project sounds like. Again, very tough decision, but I think that that's my final answer. This one was a really tough one for me too because I could pull something from each and every one of these records and feel very comfortable. Man, I just love, I love Gordy,

and I just have been banging this Gordy drum for years and years now. Otis Hart, our editor, was like, well, I know we have to talk about Gordy this week because of how I've been about her for so many years. I'd have to go with this song called Cutting Room Floor. It's just such a mile-wide, summer jam. I love the way her voice sounds. I love the way this song soars. And I just, yeah, I'm going to come back to this one. Last night I woke up on the cutting room. And that is our show for

this week. Thank you so much to Sean Nance for joining us from the SIP at member station WJSU in Jackson, Mississippi. Thank you for having me. It has been a pleasure. 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 Noah Caldwell and edited by Otis Hart. The executive producer of NPR music is Soraya Mohamed. We'll be back next week to discuss new music with Amelia Mason from Boston Public Radio Station, WBUR. Until then, take a moment to be well, take long breaks from the internet, and treat yourself to lots of great music.