NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out Feb. 6

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

Ratboys. Beverly Glenn-Copeland. Caribou's club alter-ego. Stephen Thompson from NPR Music chats with Erin Wolf from Radio Milwaukee about their favorite new albums out Friday, Feb. 6.The Starting 5(00:00) Introduction & J. Cole, 'The Fall Off'(02:11) Ratboys, 'Singin' To An Empty Chair'(08:27) Beverly Glenn-Copeland, 'Laughter In Summer'(16:27) Daphni, 'Butterfly'(21:22) Charlotte Day Wilson, 'Patchwork'(26:39) John Craigie, 'I Swam Here'(31:26) The Lightning Round- Melissa Carper & Theo Lawrence, 'Havin' a Talk'- Alice Costelloe, 'Move On With The Year'- vegas water taxi, 'long time caller, first time listener'- Ulrika Spacek, 'EXPO'- Music City, 'Welcome to Music City'Sample the albums via our New Music Friday playlist on NPR.org/allsongs.Credits:Host: Stephen ThompsonGuest: Erin Wolf, Radio MilwaukeeAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital Producer: Dora LeviteEditors: Otis Hart, Elle MannionExecutive 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

Yeah. Happy Friday, everyone from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Aaron Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee's 889. Welcome back to the show, Aaron. Thanks, Stephen. It's so good to be back with you. It is a pleasure to have you.

I always love getting back in touch with my beloved home state, where I'm sure the weather is just balmy and approachable and everybody's just out frolicing shirtless. Yeah, shorts, flip-flops, you name it. We are basking in the balmyness. Well, the music you're hearing is from the biggest album out this week. It is the new and purportedly final album from the rapper Jay Cole. It's called The Fall Off.

It is many years in the making. And he released dribs and drabs leading up to it, but we did not get the full record to be able to talk about it in depth. But what do you think so far? Well, I did see the promo video. And I am so intrigued based on the visual. Will's alone heightened excitement right now for this for this release. Thick fans are wondering if this is actually, as he is saying, the falloff where he is closing

the door and he's falling off. I don't know if I completely believe that this is it, but it is a very cinematic lead-up to what is purportedly this final record. I really love the poetry of the first song that was shared. The way he starts everything out, my life I see it in reverse. I first appeared in a hearse and the image of his grandkids carrying his coffin. I'm just like, dang, that is some deep stuff. I don't know if you've ever had the honor to carry a grandparents' coffin,

but that just like hit me real hard. I'm growing shorter peppers cover my hind quarters. I watch my father walk back in my life and it clears up a hurt. I couldn't explain. Mama gives me my name. It hands me over to the doctor and I watch as my spirit reverts. Then I'm no longer here on this earth. Well, let's talk about records we've heard all the way through and in-depth,

kicking off with Rat Boys. Rat Boys' new album is called Singin to an Empty Chair. So Rat Boys, yeah, it's the Chicago band's sixth album. It's their first album for new label home, New West Records. And they returned to working with producer and former member of Death Cab for QD, Chris Walla. They worked with him on 2023's The Window. and I just feel like the energy and emotion of this record just really balances everything out

and it's, I feel like the Rap Boys at their best. Yeah, it was interesting kind of reading about this record. The singer-gat-oist from Rap Boys is named Julia Steiner, and she wrote most of these songs after trying therapy for the first time. And one thing that, you know, people, if you haven't done a lot of therapy, as I have, you know, one thing that sometimes comes up is you're asking, to kind of simulate hard conversations, you know, with people with whom you've had conflict and as kind of a way of working through them, kind of having practice conversations, you know,

about difficult topics as a way of wrapping your head around them. And, you know, she's talked about kind of using that therapy technique of rehearsing conversations and kind of allowing that to inform her songwriting here. And I think that kind of gives this record an emotional openness that I think the band wears really well. And one thing that I've always loved about rap boys' music, you know, they're kind of this, you know, big, catchy, crunchy, indie rock band, but there's always this light twang under the surface that I think gives their songs a little bit of depth and heft. Oh, absolutely. I think doing a little reading up, you know, music writer Stephen Hayden describes it as a mix of

crunchy emo pop and punky, all country. And yeah, on this record, there's a delightful little circling around those sounds. And I also really loved, I don't know why I didn't hear it before, but I feel like there's a lot of Tom Petty in this rap voice sound, which, you know, there's these big guitar rock moments with that twang, Tom Petty, Neil Young, even. And I feel like guitarist Dave Sagan is a total beast on those solos. The added twang just really slaps in this really satisfying way.

There's also an epic quality to several of these songs. There are a couple songs kind of in the back half of this record that are sprawling out to like seven or even like in one case eight and a half minutes. The song just want you to know the truth. And you know, it's a song that kind of ambles along. There's kind of this shambling, jammy quality to it. But it's also like it's taking their sound to strange and epic places. I think part of that magic was, demoing these songs like they did. They went to a cabin and hung out and just really like isolated themselves,

but in a good way to like work on the skeletons of these songs. And then Walla, of course, I read that he brought a lot of emotion. He wanted to pull out the emotion in these songs and you can really hear it, I feel like. Yeah, he's a terrific producer. I mean, I've really loved everything that he's touched. Going back to his days in Death Cab for Cutie, his solo records are really charming and interesting and take a lot of different sonic directions. And he's somebody, if you've ever crossed paths with him, you can see how he is an extremely effective producer, because he has this kind of easygoing vibe that you can imagine kind of bringing out creativity in an artist. I tend, when he's listed as a producer on a record, I'm usually interested in hearing it, because there's just,

there's something about his aesthetic that I think translates really well to a lot of different sounds. I also wanted to call out a track called Strange Love. Kind of lands right in the middle of this record, kind of takes a little bit of a hairpin turn. We've said the word twang quite a bit, but there's a spareness to this song that to me, did you hear Jenny Lewis in this song? Yeah. Like, I definitely got like a big Jenny Lewis vibe, which I will always welcome a Jenny Lewis vibe in any setting. Absolutely. Now that you say that, yep. Okay, it's like Tom Petty and Jenny Lewis came together. That is Rat Boys. Rat Boys' new album is called Singin' to an Empty Chair.

Next up, very different sound, very beautiful. The artist Beverly Glenn Copeland, his new album is called Laughter in Summer. The wind blows over hillside. The day greets the dark sun. dances down beside this road we are on. Let us dance down the road. Let us dance down the road. Let us dance down the road. Let us dance down the road. So if you don't know the story of Beverly Glenn Copeland, he is a fascinating figure. He's a black trans man in his early 80s. He's been out as trans.

about 25 years, born in Philly, now in Canada, classically trained. His own music bands New Age and Folk and Jazz. He had a classic electronic album in 1986 called Keyboard Fantasies. And you want to take in the story of this record as you listen to it because he's had this long and fascinating life. He was an actor on a Canadian TV kids show called Mr. Dressup. He was a writer for Sesame Street. He's passionate about children's education. And he's made this beautiful music throughout his career. But this particular record is a collaboration with his wife, Elizabeth Copeland. She sings on a lot of these songs.

They're working together. And one additional piece of kind of background information on this record is that Beverly Glen Copeland has been diagnosed with dementia. And that hangs over a lot of these songs, which makes them feel that much. much more like works of radical joy. When I learned about Beverly Glenn Copeland and their life situation, it just felt like they are at this like precipice. This new body of work really to me comes across as a time capsule of stored experience.

You know, this life-altering moment. they're at the spring, but they're submitting to it and going in gracefully. They're offering both, you know, a look into the past and this final realized experience and leaving it as a gift because, from what I understand of dementia, you never know what exactly you'll remember, what you'll hold on to, you know what I mean? For how long? Yeah, and music has a way, you know, this has been documented over and over again, that music has a way of kind of opening some of the channels to lost memories.

And so that sense really permeates this record. But at the same time, like, this is not a record about grief or loss. It is a record about love and celebration. There's a theatricality to it. You know, like, these are people with theater backgrounds, and that really comes through in some of these pieces. But you take a track like Ever New. It's this gorgeous kind of theatrical piece,

It's just the epitome of kindness and welcoming grace. And it's so interesting to kind of hear this record in the context of our kind of current moment in life in the world and just take this record in as an antidote to cynicism, to nihilism, to doomerism. This is a deeply loving and optimistic record. And the sincerity of it kind of knocks you back at first. If you spend a lot of time online, if you spend a lot of time kind of feeling a sense of weariness and cynicism, being hit with this kind of flood of very earnest and heartfelt warmth and emotion is a little bit jarring. And so I think it's a record that deepens the more you know the story behind it.

Welcome the spring, the summer rain litter. Welcome the summer. the first time that I listened to it, I had not read anything about Beverly Glenn Copeland. I just heard the voice, too, but the way that it made me feel, it felt like the first time I heard Anonni's voice in that respect, like kind of just that deep, emotional, timeless, compassionate voice. Beverly Glenn Copeland gives me those same feelings. And I feel like, you know, drawing on the sense of community and making something for the community, having a choir backing that up, that kind of brings in that appeal of community.

And from what I understand, these songs were all recorded in one take. So it just feels very genuine and just very all engrossing and just very community driven. That is Laughter in Summer, the new album by Beverly Glenn Copeland, a collaboration with his wife, Elizabeth Copeland. It is very beautiful. It is very sincere. It is an antidote to a lot of things. And I highly encourage people to check it out. We've got some more records 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 Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee's 88.9. Aaron, tell us what's going on at Radio Milwaukee. Well, we just had our very first

Studio Milwaukee session of 2026 with Runo Plum from Minneapolis. They released patching last year. They're in town to play a show at Cactus Club, a delightful club, and Lutalo, the indie artist, has been playing with her for like 10 years, was the drummer today. So Lutalo and Runo Plum, it was so nice to have them on our stage patching, such a understated record. I feel like, is perfect for the season right now. Which unfortunately in Milwaukee will go on for many more months. Yeah, that's... Groundhog says so.

Yeah, boy. So people can check that out at RadioMilwaukee.org? That's right, yeah. Excellent. I know you got some more studio sessions coming up. Did I hear you say that Say-She-She is coming? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we got Brother Wallace and then Say-Shi-She-she was with us two years ago,

and we're welcoming them back. They play Vivarium in Milwaukee. We're so excited to have them back. Nice. All right. Well, let's get to our next record. It's by Daphne. Daphne's new album is called Butterfly.

So I first became addicted to Canadian Dan Snaith's Wizardry of Sound in his psychop project, Caribou, and his 2007 release Andorra. And so I followed him through his electronic iterations in Caribou. 2010 Swim is a fave. Snaith is just so great at shining up sound. And he really hones this little, nuggets of each song and really maxes out all the sparkle. And so Daphne, the more club-centric alter ego, Snaith, sans, his vocals usually, is the stuff he makes for his DJ sets. It's a little more

tempo-driven, a little more trancy and even more escapist in this really bass, joyous way. Yeah, one thing I really like about this record and about Snaith's work in Daphne in general is, you know, a lot of techno music, a lot of house music, is really construct. around repetition and kind of glacial changes that unfold over the course of many minutes. And sometimes hooks can get lost in that, right? The listener's relationship to it is to kind of dip in and out of it. And sometimes it can feel kind of samey to me. And what I like about this record is it never feels samey.

There's certainly repetition. There's certainly patterns that are, you know, kind of hypnotizing you. but there's a lot of different feels kind of running through this record. It opens with a song called Sad Piano House, which is perfectly titled because it's taking this kind of spare melancholy piano line and giving the song its hooks and letting kind of fragments of vocals kind of come in to make the song feel less desolate but more mysterious. But from there, this record is kind of all over the map in a way that doesn't detract from

how cohesive it feels. it always feels like the same artist. I think what surprised me about this record was how so many songs were in the sub-five or four-minute mark, and there were all these, like, little interesting interludes. This record, to me, was, like, the equivalent of eating candy, but in, like, a highbrow kind of sweetish, sour raspberry candy kind of way. It was just, like, delightful to consume and just enjoy and groove with. You know, the candy being fancy does not stop me from wolfing it like I'm eating the cheapest Halloween candy imaginable.

There's also a track on this record called Waiting So Long, which, you know, my immediate reaction to it was it reminded me a little bit of like One More Night era daft punk, but with maybe a little bit kind of ghostlier vocals. And I was listening to the song, I was like, oh, this is so catchy, but it feels, you know, very familiar. And I realized the way that the song is billed is it's kind of billed as Daphne featuring Caribou. And Daphne and Caraboo, same guy. They're both Dan Snaith. But it is this melding of the two sensibilities. And, you know, one thing that Dan Snaith has kind of talked about is figuring out what is a Caribou project and what is a Daphne project. And as you mentioned, Daphne, it's a little more club-based. It's kind of a little bit more like DJ set oriented. Caribu, you know, is a little bit more organic. But I like the way this song kind of melds those two personas. And having like one

featuring the other, I thought was a witty way of doing that. That is Daphne. Daphne's new album is called Butterfly. Next up, a new EP from Charlotte Day Wilson. It's called Patchwork. No, it's not going to be simple bed. It's got to be a patchwork. Oh, for better, for better, for a bit of a bit. So Charlotte Day Wilson is this Andes Who's guested with artists like Bad Bad Not Good, Daniel Caesar, James Blake, Katranada And she first came onto my radar with her CDWEP in 2016

Which featured the single work Her voice is often described as satin that drapes around arrangements, and she creates these quiet storm moments. Yeah, she's definitely all that those descriptors are spot on. She's got like this polished drama, and I find her voice really grounding. I think that's why I always returned to her again and again, so I was excited to see that she had a new EP. Yeah, and the songs here are really, really striking. There's something so kind of haunting and haunted about these songs. You're also hearing this kind of contemporary indie R&B vibe.

If you listen to that Bonnie Vera record from last year, you get some of those vibes, the occasional little saxophone might kick in. You know, that kind of chopped up loopy quality feels very, very of the moment. But at the same time, the bones of these songs are so, so sturdy. You know, the songs, High Road and Selfish to, you know, big, standouts on this record were both co-written by another musician from Toronto, Saya Gray, who put out a really, really terrific record from last year. High Road kind of kicks off this record and for me, like immediately gets you into that kind of Dijon, Bonne Verre, very, very present R&B style. I mean, I heard speaking of Bonne Verre, like little elements of the Bonne Verre's song

from. It just kind of was like, not a twin, but like maybe a cousin. It just felt like, oh, okay, we're going on this journey. I've been here recently, and I am here for it. Let me sit down, get comfy. And, yeah, Sia Gray, I think, is a revelatory companion to Charlotte Day Wilson. I really enjoy Sia Gray's artistry on our own. But having them together really felt, yeah, like I said, revelatory. I've really enjoyed Lean as a song, too.

I think that little tempo change that Saya instigates is really kind of what makes the song go somewhere. She's so playful that I think that one was a standout for me as well. Yeah, Lean stood out to me too. I mean, it's as woozy and blunted as that title kind of suggests. But there's this kind of wobbly, trippy vibe to it that, as you say, you know, you feel like it's kind of in one place. place, and then the song takes that pivot where there's this kind of skittish little breakdown late. And I think that kind of sense of creativity and surprise runs through this whole record. I also wanted to shout out the song Selfish, which is so sleek and intriguing.

And just the way that it's kind of setting this slithery vocal against these echoy, gauzy beats, there's a sense of kind of sonic adventure going on here that really portends well. I'm really interested to hear where she goes next. That's Charlotte Day Wilson. Her new EP is called Patchwork. 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, February 6th. But first, let's take a quick break.

From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Aaron Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee. Before we get to our lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today, February 6th. There's one more record we wanted to talk about from the artist John Craigie. John Craigie's new album is called I Swam Here. Follow your spoons. Follow your spree. So John Craigie was born in L.A.

He's now based in Portland, Oregon, but he's kind of an itinerant rambler. This is his 10th album. And his songs, you know, particularly here, have this kind of mellow, laurel-canion vibe to them, kind of singer-songwriterly folk pop. But there's also one of the things that anyone who's a fan of John Craigie, our colleague Anne Powers, is a huge John Craigie fan.

And one thing his fans will tell you is this guy just has a wonderful sense of humor, kind of a deadpan sense of humor. And I think that kind of edges its way into these songs, but at the same time, there's something so breezy and vibe to these songs. They kind of wrap around you like a blanket. I heard of John Craigie many times,

but I've never actually listened to his music. So this one was such a pleasant surprise for me. I kind of felt just magnetized to his reedy voice, his narration and he admits that on one of his songs called Edna Strange that he is emulating Marty Robbins and lucky for him. I totally know who that is. 50s classic Gunfighter ballads and trail songs is just baked into my memory and it's also baked into that song and I was just like, oh, this is funny and he's doing a thing. He sings a tale of a fling gone wrong where a wife and husband end up dead

And he's asking who brings a gun to a one-night stand and he finds out I saw it in a purse when she laid it on the floor Sawed in her eyes when she'd double-lock the door But I wasn't scared just a little on guard Because I barely knew in the street But I'm also really drawn to his more sincere moments. I don't know if you've ever heard of Cotton Jones. Oh, sure. Michael Nowes Project Cotton Jones released this album called Tall Hours in the Glow Stream

about 15 years ago, and I was absolutely obsessed with that record, and it's got like this shimmering but dusty sound to its songs, and I feel like John Craigie is really capturing that kind of same moment there with these songs. Yeah, I think he is kind of, kind of, conversant in so many sounds and eras. You know, I mentioned Laurel Canyon as kind of shorthand for some of those kind of mellow California vibes that seep in here. But you also get a sense, you know, you mentioned the music of 15 years ago. I was writing down in my notes like the Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Lord Huron, bands that kind of let this cavernousness into their sound where the, where the vocals are kind of shimmering over the music like a like a, like a

vapor, you know, where the voice is allowed to kind of soar. I think part of it is there's something very Western about this music. This is a guy who, you know, was born in L.A. He's based in Portland. And this music, to me, really felt like Pacific Northwest coded in a way. And I think some of that is just the sense of sweep that's going on. But one thing that I also really like about it is that Every once in a while, he brings in a little bit of a sense of instrumental heft, right? These songs aren't just vibes. There's a track called Fire Season, where, you know, the arrangement is kind of breezy and viby at first, but a little bit of force.

Kind of a storm comes in as the song goes on. That is John Craigie. His new album is called I Swam Here. Aaron Wolf from Radio Milwaukee. Aaron, you and I, we couldn't possibly get to every album that is out today. February 6th, we are starting to get into kind of the meat of, believe it or not, the spring music calendar. I know it doesn't feel like spring where you are or where I am, but we couldn't get to everything. We wanted to do a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums that are out today.

I'm going to kick us off. Melissa Carper is a singer-songwriter from Arkansas. Theo Lawrence is a singer-songwriter from France. Now they are both based in Austin. Together they sing some of the most charming, classic kind of vintage-sounding country and western duets. We just mentioned Western music that you'll hear in the year 2026, Melissa Carper and Theo Lawrence's new album together is called Having a Talk. Alice Costello, formerly of the band, Big Deal, releases her debut solo, move on with the year. If you're into the beguiling qualities of artie, psyche, sometimes pastoral folk rock from artists like Julia Jacqueline, Andy Schauff, Kate Lebon, and more. You'll dig this one,

especially if you're into singer-songwriters that don't just dabble in guitar-flavored things. She also adds in recorders, flutes, synths, and pianos. That's move on with the year from Alice Costello out on Moshi-Moshi Records. The jangly London alt-country band Vegas Water Taxi is led by a guy named Ben Hambro, whose songs are packed with strange and wonderful pop culture references and commentary about the surreal, chronically online world in which we live. These are songs about weight loss drugs. They're songs about bad breakups and a world where not getting into Brat Summer is a punishable offense.

Vegas Water Taxi's new album is called Longtime Caller, First Time Listen. Another release that's speaking to our increasingly online world is Ulrica SpaceX's new album called Expo. They're in England-based electronic-infused post-rock slash art rock quintet who really captured my ears with their sound. There's threads of television, women, sonic youth, and even like Daniel Rosson adjacent projects like grizzly bear and Department of Eagles. There's a lot of brooding on Expo, and although it's not a comfortable listen, it's comforting because it feels real right about now. Expo is their third full length, and its lyrical focus is isolation and alienation in an online-centric world, hyper-focused on individuality. That's Expo from Ulrica Spaceic on full-time hobby records. Finally, the punky, spiky, poppy, Irish band Music City has a new record full of soaring,

timeless songs that occasionally recall bands like Superchunk or bad moves, but with an undercurrent of kind of rollicking bar band vibes, if that makes sense. Their new record features guest appearances by members of Gillaband and Shearmag. It's called Welcome to Music City. That is our show for this week. Thank you, Erin Wolf for taking time out of your week at Radio Milwaukee's 88.9. It's always great to have you. Ah, it's always great to be talking music with you, especially at the beginning of a year. There's so much to look forward. too. Yeah, it fills me with this weird sense of an emotion I've never felt before. Optimism. 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 Elmanian and edited by Otis Hart. Our production assistant is Dora Levitt. The executive producer of NPR Music is Soraya Mohamed. We'll be back next week to discuss new music with Nastia Voinovskyi from KQED in San Francisco. Until then, take a moment to be well. Root for the Seahawks and Bad Bunny to win the Super Bowl and treat yourself to lots of great music.