NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out Jan. 16

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Ya Tseen. The Sha La Das. A mesmerizing collaboration between Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore. Stephen Thompson from NPR Music is joined by Alex Newman from KMHD in Portland to chat about the best albums out Friday, January 16.The Starting 5(00:00) Intro & A$AP Rocky, 'Don't Be Dumb'(02:36) Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore, 'Tragic Magic'(07:43) The Sha La Das, 'Your Picture'(15:33) Ya Tseen, 'Stand On My Shoulders'(21:53) Shaking Hand, 'Shaking Hand'(27:43) Tyler Ramsey & Carl Broemel, 'Celestun'The Lightning Round• Craig Taborn, Tomeka Reid & Ches Smith, 'Dream Archives'• Courtney Marie Andrews, 'Valentine'• Diogo Strausz, 'Dance Para Se'• Oxis, 'Oxis 8'• Nate Smith, 'LIVE-ACTION (Deluxe)'Sample the albums via our New Music Friday playlist on NPR.org.Credits: Host: Stephen ThompsonGuest: Alex Newman, KMHDAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital 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

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 Alex Newman of KMHD in Portland, Oregon. Welcome to the show, Alex. Stephen, thank you so much for having me. It's a real blast to be here. It is a pleasure to have you. So the music you are hearing up front is from the new album by ASAP Rocky. It's called Don't Be Dumb.

Asap Rocky having a huge cultural moment right now. Not only does he have this new album dropping, he is in two movies that are central to award season, highest to lowest, and if I had legs, I'd kick you. This dude's everywhere. He really is, and I love the album title. I couldn't imagine a better album title, especially in this day and age that we live in.

And, yeah, he's very ubiquitous. He was really great, I thought. If I had legs, I kick you. It's cool to see where he's going with the music. You know, the two singles have sort of very divergent ethos and points of view. But both sound exciting. It's, you know, he's not letting the fame and fortune slow down his creativity. We're talking about the two singles that were released prior to the record.

We were not given access to advanced copies of the full album. Just looking at those two singles, though, it's really hard to even tell, you know, what all the like common threads are that run through this record because they're so different. It seems to be very high energy though. That's the two commonality I sort of feel from both those tracks. It's always interesting when you see like somebody who might be considered a rap artist or a hip hop artist sort of veer into different genres like punk or emo or however you might describe it. But I was a little nervous as it started.

I was like, here we go. But I thought it was done very depthfully. And I think that he's really showing like a pretty broad range, at least in these two songs, it'll be interesting to see what the rest of the record entails and holds. Nice. Well, let's kick off the show for real with something very different. from ASAP Rocky, no matter what sound he's exploring, Juliana Barwick and Mary Latimore are back with a new album together.

It's called Tragic Magic. So for those who aren't familiar, Mary Latimore plays the harp. Juliana Barwick crafts these kind of dense, atmospheric, vocal, and synth pieces. Working together, you get a marriage of those two sensibilities. And for this particular project, the two of them were given access to the instrument collection at the Mouza de la Mouc in Paris. Mary Latimore picked like kind of three old harps, you know, made between like the 1720s and the 1870s. Juliana Barwick picked some analog synths that were used, you know, kind of in some seminal recordings. And together, you know, they make this beautiful, swooping, ambient music.

I really was blown away by this album. I feel like this whole record is just not in a rush. I feel like they are just occupying so much space and patience with every composition. It feels like very insular but sort of blasting outward, which is like a really tricky balance to hold. And I really feel like the whole album is sort of pushing towards this like really, really, you know, strong synth release on the track Stardust. Oh, Star Dust. And I was just like, you know, once the sense kick in, you're like, okay, you know, this is going somewhere interesting.

And then you start to hear like the drum, whatever it is, some sort of drum machine or or a pulsating synthesizer, whatever it is. And it just feels like the patience that the album requires is totally paid off in that moment. When I heard Stardust, I immediately thought, wow, this sounds like a, like a, like, you know, It's taken from the Blade Runner soundtrack. You know, it's kind of futuristic, but it's retro at the same time. And of course, elsewhere on this record, they cover a song from the Blade Runner soundtrack, Rachel's song.

So, you know, that vibe kind of runs throughout. But you also have tracks like, you know, the very first song is called perpetual adoration. And as the song kind of unfolds, you get, you know, Mary Latimore's beautiful, you know, harp. And then, you know, Barwick kind of comes in with her vocals. since. And around the four-minute mark of the song, they just go full Enya together. And I am so here for it. First of all, it made me want to listen to a new Enya record. I want a new Enya record. It might happen now that they've heard all this speculation from you. I can't wait to see it live. I know that they're going to be hitting the road soon. And I just can't really, I'm excited to see

how it does manifest itself live and how these sensibilities, translate in a room full of people, because again, it has this sort of insular, like the two of them, are having this very intimate conversation. But it also has this very outward propulsion that I think will work really, really well live. Oh yeah, I'd love to see this live. Alex, I have to tell you, in my notes, I typed the words, I swear to you, I typed the words, Mary Latimore plucks harp strings and heartstrings. And reading this on my own notes, makes me want to walk into the seat. What is wrong with me, man?

You know, you know, it's okay sometimes to have a little bit of sap in your stew, so to speak. I feel like I'm pouring over my medical records and, like, tweeting out the most embarrassing thing I find. All right, that is Juliana Barwick and Mary Latimore. Their new album is called Tragic Magic. Next up, a group called The Shepard. Shaladas with a new album. It's called Your Picture. So the story behind the Shalada's is a big part of the appeal of this record. The Shaladaas are a family band. The leader of the band is kind of the patriarch of the family is a guy named Bill Shalda. He's in his late 70s and the three other

members of the Shalada's are his sons, Paul, Will, and Carmine. They put out a record in 2018 called Love in the Wind. They're back with a new one, and it is just a sweet throwback to classic Duwop and soul, performed with a bunch of kind of dapp tone adjacent players from groups like the Dap Kings and like Charles Bradley's band. Yeah, and Tommy Brennick from the Budo's band, also a big player sort of in the history of that whole scene. It's on his label, Diamond West, which put out Houchet recently. And it's, has that sound that you would expect. It's like a classic sound sort of updated for the modern era. And the song, do you remember when I feel like is so quintessential duop? It sparkles when it

starts and the way that they harmonize together. It really transports you to some sort of mystic street corner. And this picturing like a family doing the singing adds to the magic of it. You can almost see sepia-toned photographs of this family as you listen to this music. This is music that is trafficking in memory, right? They're singing music that evokes the doo-wop era, but it's also evoking, like, you know, images in your mind of these four, you know, kind of with the boys growing up on Staten Island, you know, performing doo-wop songs on their front stoop.

You know, the stories that this family tells about their connection to this music, are really heartfelt and sweet. And you get songs like, you know, in my dreams, you know, where you're just really leaning into dreamy falsettos, right? And there isn't any mention of sort of the modern world in it as well. Sometimes, you know, music in this day and age, those, you know, Adobe, a lyric about a cell phone or a lyric about, you know, an email or something awkward like that.

This is sort of the lyrics and the approach to it is errorless. You know, it could, the bones of it could have been back in the 50s or 60s. And to your point about how it is trading in this sort of memory industry, you know, there's like a song like your picture that leans again into that real classic doo-op sound and has, you know, what's interesting is a lot of those old doo-op songs were very technological. aware, you know, like call me up or, you know, and then like, here's your picture, you know, these things that were so modern but seems so quaint now. Yeah, absolutely.

And, you know, when you look at the history of Daptone records and the kind of music that is celebrated, you know, by this label, and as you said, this is not on Daptone, but a lot of the Daptone players are associated with these songs, you get a sense of, like, attempting to, you know, write historic wrongs. know, this musician was coming up in the 60s and 70s and didn't get the shine they deserve, so we're going to bring them back now. This group feels like that kind of project, but it could just as easily have been a lost treasure from some dusty archive, where, you know, we found this completely unreleased time capsule item, you know, from 70 years ago,

and here it is preserved intact. It's just newly recorded. That is the Shaladas. Their new album is called Your Picture. Got more records we're going to get to, but first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Alex Newman of KMHD in Portland, Oregon. Alex, tell me what's going on at the station. Well, for those who don't know, KMHD is a jazz station, but not your typical jazz station. Our tagline, our programming philosophy, is jazz without boundaries. and that means if you tune in, you are going to maybe hear some funk, you might hear some Afrobeat,

you might hear some reggae, you might hear some hip-hop. We really try to show the connective tissue from jazz to all these different genres of music that have been influenced by jazz or grown from jazz. And hopefully in doing that, we also highlight the sort of communication that's been happening between these genres throughout all these years. We really also try to focus on modern music trying to show that jazz is a living, breathing, art form. We also take a pretty deep dive into some stuff that you won't find on streaming. You won't find digitally. A lot of the DJs play records on the station. And we are really lucky in Portland. We have more record stores per capita than any other city in America. So we have all these great outlets to find different music to share

with our audience. And we also try to highlight these different record stores. We do once a month. Yeah, once a month we highlight a local store. We do a little video about the owner and the neighborhood that the shop is in. We also get a box of records from that shop to play throughout that month, sort of showing what, like, kind of music you will find there. So it's a good resource. If you're ever coming out to Portland and want to go record shopping, bring a lot of cash. And you can utilize You can utilize our website. We actually have a map of all the record stores in Portland up on KMHD.org. And my show in particular, I'm on the air Monday through Friday 11 to 1.

And every day at noon, I play something brand new. I call it the newness at noon. And really focus on new releases in that hour of sound. Beautiful. That sounds fantastic. Well, new releases are why you and I are here right now. Let's kick off our next segment with Yassine. Yassine's new album is called Stand on My Shoulders.

So Yatine is a continually evolving collaboration that's guided by multi-disciplinary artists, incredible visual artists as well as musical artists, Nicholas Golan. And he has been collaborating with a group of musicians on several different projects, including Silver Jackson, Indian agent, and those include, but are not limited to Tunea, Sackedi was and a personal favorite of mine, O.C. Nose. Portugal, the Man, has also appeared on both Yatine records. And on this one, there's also collaborations with Michelle and De Geicello and Pink Sifu. And it's a really interesting evolution from their previous record that was called Indian Yard.

Both records feature a lot of collaborations. And I feel like there's just a real compression of like how to utilize the collaborator on this record. where on the previous it sort of felt like, okay, now it's this guest turn, and now it's that guest turn. Whereas now it seems like there's almost this like shape-shifting between the voices and the sensibilities and it just like works really, really well for me.

Yeah, there are so many sensibilities woven into this sound and that really makes this record feel extremely expansive. I mean, the story behind this guy and this music is so interesting. You know, he was born into the Sitka tribe of Alaska. You know, he was in a serious boat accident, broke his back and ribs, and that kind of helped feed this artistic awakening. You know, he's toured and performed with Portugal the man, Samantha Crane, other artists, you know, and so like, like picking out a track to, to signify what this artist sounds like is really tricky because there's so much variation throughout.

You know, a song like Twilight, you know, it's kind of gauzy, washed out synth pop, but the song, you know, over at the course of its runtime, it's blooming into these kind of increasingly frenetic places. It's growing busier and busier. And then you have like pink seafood comes in and like rap has entered the chat, right? And, you know, and I just think that sense of anything goes, I think is really, really interesting, but at the same time, it hangs together. It's not wildly all over the map. There's just a lot of variation within it. I get the that there isn't too much concern about what kind of music

this is while they're making it. They kind of seem to throw whatever elements are handy into each song. Like, kind of trying to make like a delicious dinner with just whatever's in the pantry. My eight-year-old daughter, Paloma, has become sort of

aware of genres for better or for worse. And we were driving in the car and listening to this. And she said, what kind of music is this? And my reaction was like, I think, yes. That's your genre right there. What kind of music is this?

But at the same time, you know, there are familiar signposts along the way. You take a track like, Taste on My Lips. And that's, you know, certainly one of the standouts. It's one that features Portugal the Man and Michelle and Degeocello. You know, they pop up throughout that song. And you get this kind of wild, funky, danceable freak out that, is very, very approachable, very accessible and identifiable as like funk slash disco slash indie pop slash, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

We're going to need more slashes. We're going to need more slashes. I really feel like this song that sort of breeze out what they're trying to do so exquisitely is actually the first song. Once it came on, I was like, okay, I'm ready. I'm ready for whatever they have. And it's called Ershenrott, which is these mythical creatures that are almost, I read on the internet, it's almost like an Alaskan leprechaun, you know, so who are very mindful of the land.

Sort of if you mistreat the land, they will sort of find you and lead you astray. It's avenging angel. Yeah, but it's just a beautiful song that has like a real drive to it. it that I really dig. That is Yatine. Their new album is called Stand on My Shoulders. Next up, the band Shaking Hand has a new self-titled album. As implied by the words, self-titled, it is called Shaking Hand.

Shaking Hand, a trio of musicians from Manchester. George Hunter is on the guitar and vocals. Frederick Hunter on the drums and Ellis Hodgis on the bass and backing vocals. this record is somehow so aware of like post rock and 90s alternative rock. But even in that awareness, they're sort of out here creating their own expression, which is always really interesting to me when musicians are able to have such clear influences but sort of sound like their own band. It's such a fulfilling thing to enjoy. I had no idea about this band at all before listening to it. And I immediately was all-end.

I was like, oh, my gosh, this is like slint with vocals or like Fugazi with Ian Brown. Like I was really. Pavement. Pavement, yeah. I feel like there's a moment in italics where I feel like it turns into some like, and I mean this in the most enduring way, almost like a competent pavement song. Like, it just, it just like... A pavement song that is trying.

Right. Or like a pavement song that didn't, like, smoke weed out of a pop can, you know? My wife is probably tired of me talking about this record because I was like, who are these? I just assumed that they were like aging rockers, you know, who were trying to relive some glory days. But it was so amazing to, like, see their press photos. I was like, oh, my gosh, I don't think their parents were alive when this music. it was popular. Yeah, I mean, I definitely had that experience of like reading up on them and looking at

their picture and stuff and just being like, did this band like listen to my college radio station in 1993? And they're babies. And I think what you get, you know, first of all, you're getting kind of interpolations of these influences, but you're also getting them with this kind of youthful try anything energy. And I think that combination is very, very effective. You take a song like in for a pound, you know, which sounds so much like just a distillation of so much 90s indie rock and a certain vein of kind of jagged post-rock influenced 90s guitar bands, but there's an energy

to it. It gets bigger and chunkier and more jagged and sharp. And there's almost like a meanness to the sound that comes through as this song is progressing. And so I appreciate, you know, not only just like kind of bringing back these influences that were really big in my life, you know, in the 90s, but, you know, finding ways to make them sound fresh and kind of reaching new audiences. I love the disco hi-hats, sort of like post-punk, like 23 skadoo, certain ratio kind of energy that is in that song, In for a Pound. I was really blown away.

They have a sound, you know, they have a sensibility, which I think is just challenging in general for young musicians. But they found something. Yeah, and it feels like they're building off this great, sturdy foundation of kick-ass weapons grade 90s guitars. You take the song up the antelope. It's up the ante, parentheses lope. So up the antelope. And, like, man, those guitars just crush. That is Shaking Hand.

Their new album is called Shaking Hand. We've got one more record we're going to talk about in-depth, as well as a lightning round of some of the other best records out today, January 16th. But first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Alex Newman of KMHD in Portland, Oregon. Before we get to our lightning round, we want to talk about one more record. It's just gorgeous.

It is a collaborative record by Tyler Ramsey and Carl, Bramel. It is called Celestun. So, Tyler Ramsey is from North Carolina. He's a guitarist and songwriter in the band, Band of Horses, Carl Bramels from Louisville, Kentucky. He's a guitarist in My Morning Jacket. met in 2012 when those two bands were, you know, touring together. And, you know, they've made this record as kind of a long-distance collaboration where they were kind of sending tracks back and forth. These beautiful songs, many of them instrumental, performed on acoustic guitars, but with

voices that pop up at opportune moments. I don't know, you just get this kind of gorgeous, easy-going vibe throughout this record. It's like a big, wet kiss to John Fahey, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It is really easy. I was really surprised to hear that some of those recordings were done distant. Yeah, it doesn't feel like it at all. At all. It seems like they're, you know, staring at each other in like an old wood cabin somewhere, just trading licks. But it's interesting how long it took from sort of having this mutual admiration to actually getting together. It sounded like they did a whole tour before they even recorded. So there's a real familiarity with each other's styles and each other's sensibilities,

and it really, really translates in the record. Yeah, and many of these songs, as I said, are instrumentals. But boy, I just think anytime they incorporate vocals, it's even better. And I think that's really rare with a lot of instrumental guitar music. You have a collaboration between two guitarists who are not known for their vocals. But I think the vocals just add this kind of lived-in quality to these recordings. There's a track I just love called Flying Things. There you go, Stephen.

There you go. That is a Tyler Ramsey song, you know, because they kind of take turns with the songwriting. He wrote it for his daughter. It's about kind of imagination and dreams. They bring in the secret sisters to provide extra vocals. And it is so beautiful. That's one my partner kind of called from the next room, like, what is this? Send it to me now.

It's all right We've traveled through the darkest clouds to reach the other side Now we're all here together and there are wings for us to ride I was surprised that it was an original song. It just felt so lived in and it felt so familiar and had this real Sweetness to it that I'm like is this a children's song I never came across or is this some like old folk song that I've never heard? It's really really pretty and And easy. Yeah, it's easy.

And I think that's one of the highest compliments you can pay to a piece of new music, right? If it feels like it's sort of plucked out of the universe where it's been living for 80 years, but it's new, that's really a remarkable feat to pull off. That's probably my favorite song on this record. But there's a ton of great stuff. There's a song called Nevermind, spelled like the kind of punctuated and spelled, however you want to put it like the Nirvana record. It's a Bramele song. about taking breaks from social media, about giving yourself permission to unplug from the world

in order to recharge your battery. And let me tell you something. I don't know when he wrote that song, but he could have written that song this past weekend for how timely it feels. That song has that ease as well. It feels very lived in. The songs don't feel rushed or hurried.

they feel very worn in in all the best ways. Yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful record. That is called Celestun from Tyler Ramsey and Carl Bramel. Now, Alex, we could not get to every great record out today, January 16th. So we are going to do a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today. Why don't you kick us off? Let's start with Craig Taborne, a great piano player, Tomika Reed, an excellent cellist, and Cheth Smith, a very, very great drummer, percussionist.

They have teamed up for a trio record on ECM called Dream Archives. It is a beautiful melding of these acoustic masters, and they find a really intricate and spellbinding level of interaction. The recording has that pristine fidelity of an ECM record, and Craig just drops in some nice electronics throughout it. But it really is interesting how I feel it culminates in a cover of the Jerry Allen tune when Kabuya dances. It sits very organically in the midst of this trio's explorations.

That's Craig Taybourne, Tamika Reed, and Chess Smith from their album that's out today. Dream Archives. Courtney Marie Andrews has been an NPR music staple for about a decade now. Her songs mix folk, Americana, soul, and gospel, always held together by a timeless voice that sings about shared humanity, grief, and hard-won love. She wrote her new record while experiencing major upheaval in her life, and she digs deep in her reflections. It's gorgeous, probably the most sonically inventive album of her career so far.

Courtney Marie Andrews' new record is titled Valentine. Next up is a Brazilian artist living out in Paris. The name is Diago Strauss. The name of the album is Dance Parace. It is a beautiful and healthy slice of disco heaven that acknowledges kind of the underground bliss of disco pioneer like Patrick Adams and also the sublime sheen of somebody like Nile Rogers. That is Diago Strauss from Dance Parase out today.

The music of the singer-songwriter called Oxus can be hard to describe. It's sort of mysterious, dreamy electro-pop, but with aquatic themes and lots of songs about fish, which is to say like creatures of the sea and not the band from Vermont. So imagine catchy, low-key bedroom pop, but the bedroom in question is a dark and distant seabed. If that sounds intriguing, it is. Oxus's new album is called Oxus 8. And finally, I want to highlight Nate Smith, probably your favorite drummer's favorite drummer, has played with everybody from Britney Howard to the fearless flyers in the Vulteck universe. You put out an album last year called Live Action.

The deluxe edition is coming out today. And sometimes the deluxe edition can be a little lackluster, but all the tracks that are included on it really sort of broaden the palette of the album, including a great collaboration with Melanie Charles. But the one that really hooked me is the song Hop, Skip, Jump, featuring saxophonist Braxton Cook. That is our show for this week. Thank you, Alex Newman, for taking time out of your week at KMHD in Portland.

Oh my gosh, Stevens. Thank you so much for hanging out and talking music. It has been a pleasure. Before I go, I want to mention that our 2026 Tiny Desk Contest is now accepting entries. To submit, unsigned artists just need to record themselves performing one original song behind a desk, upload that video to YouTube and enter at npr.org slash tiny desk contest. The winner will play their very own Tiny Desk concert and go on tour with NPR Music. 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 Jesse Scott of WMOT in Nashville. Until then, take a moment to be well, take a weekend off of social media, and treat yourself to lots of great music. I'm