NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out July 12

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

NPR Music's Ann Powers and Daoud Tyler-Ameen present the noteworthy albums out July 12, including new releases by Nashville iconoclast Sturgill Simpson, poignant lyricist Cassandra Jenkins, pop rebel Remi Wolf and more.Visit npr.org for the long list of albums out July 12 and playlists of their top songs.Read Ann Powers' review of Zach Bryan's The Great American Bar Scene here.See 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

You know, Anne, you try to take a week off. You look at the release calendar. You say, you know what? July 4th is on a Thursday this year. That Friday is going to be dead. People are going to be at the beach. They're going to be grilling in their backyards. Nobody would be bold enough to drop a major release into the middle of this media desert.

I think it's safe to look away from my screen for a minute. And then this guy. The nerve of him. Oh, Zach Bryan, what do you think you are? Just the most popular troubadour in the nation at this moment. Well, I guess that's true. Look, Diode, it was absolutely necessary for Zach Bryan to release his new album, The Great American Bar Scene on Independence Day, because he's that dude, you know?

I mean, he's that guy standing up for somewhat traditional, uh, countryish, folkish troubadour. sing-alongs and glorious rock-rooted authenticity. And he even has the man, Bruce Springsteen, Mr. Born in the USA is on this record, who I will note does have a song called Independence Day. So for me, this was completely appropriate. Shape, take when you lay like that reminds me of a love I've never had. If love is wrong, what's a boy to do?

I ain't scared in death, I'm scared of losing you. Yeah, let's talk about it. So, folks, it's New Music from NPR Music. I'm Dawood Tyler, Meen, here with Critic and Correspondent, Ann Powers. Hi, Ann. Hello. And we're here to talk about the albums out Friday, July 12th, new records from Remy Wolfe, Cassandra Jenkins,

and a sort of rebrand slash reboot from Sturgle Simpson. But before we can, we need to acknowledge what you're hearing right now, the latest album by country star Zach Bryan, which is called The Great American Bar scene and was literally born on the 4th of July. We did not have an episode last week, but you and Powers did write a great essay about both Zach Bryan and his duet partner on this song Sandpaper, a young up-and-comer named Bruce Springsteen. When I close my eyes, I think of times I could smell and hear that northern

sunda. And Zach Brian has had a pretty astounding rise, right? already had a fairly big following before 2003, and then his self-titled record kind of blew things open. It debuted at number one, it got him a Grammy. This record is kind of a doorstop of a follow-up. It is

over an hour, tons of features. It starts with a poem. I mean, do we think he pulled it off? Is he the new guy? It's not only a poem. It is a spoken word poem, which I think is a which is what an oxymoron or whatever. But anyway, listen, for me,

the Great American Bar scene is the opening of the door to greatness for Zach Bryan. Now that sounds a little, I don't know, stentorian, but we are talking about the Fourth of July, whatever. So let's go big on this. It is a very long record, as are all records now almost by major, major stars. And Brian is a major stadium-filling star at this point.

I mean, he's a huge artist. For me, this is the record where it all comes together for Brian. He's, you know, he started as a YouTuber releasing original songs that he was playing like in front of a campfire with his buddies around when he was on leave or after his day as a naval petty officer, became a viral sensation,

had a breakthrough hit with the song Something in the Orange, then just released a torrent of material. Like he cannot stop releasing material. But this album does feel, I don't know, it just hangs together really well for me, even at its length, and even, and despite what some people don't like about it, which is that it mostly is in the vein of these kind of tender and minimalist ballads that he makes about being a lost soul, you know, and trying to figure out his place in the world, in society, in love, in work. even despite the length, I really think this is a cohesive album and it's going to convince the critics who so far have mostly looked at Zach Bryan, I think, as a phenomenon, but not an artist. So here he is as an artist for us.

And I'm particularly interested in him as an inheritor of other greats, including Bruce Springsteen. And that's what I wrote about, you know, how does Zach Bryan fulfill the role that Springsteen played at the height of of his fame back in the 80s. And I think there are some pretty strong parallel. So that's what I've explored in my review of the record. Yeah. Well, for more where that came from, go read Anne's piece on Zach Bryan and Bruce Springsteen. We'll drop a link to that in the show notes. Moving on, though, speaking of anniversaries, a decade ago on the dot, we were witnessing a similar breakthrough from another country iconoclass, Sturgle Simpson, who shook up Nashville pretty good in 2014 with his album

Meta Modern Sounds in country music. Sturgle has a new album out, although not under his name. Instead, he has a new project called Johnny Blue Skies, which debuts today with the very French-sounding album called Passage du Desire.

I've been long and long as I can remember who you can... The world was as cold as the wind in December And what's the deal? It's Sturgel, but it's not. He sounds a little different.

He's going all over the place. What's going on with this? What is he doing with this reset, do you think? I understand your confusion, Dajoude. For those who live outside of Sturgle's world, his universe, the guy seems like a wild card, you know? He's always changing since he basically invented the contemporary alternative approach, I guess, to country music with Metamodern sounds. But since then, he's done everything.

He's made a record that was like a rock record based on his love of anime. He made a couple of bluegrass records. He's done a concept record about becoming a father. He also made a concept record that was sort of this wet-end. Western lore epic called the Ballad of Duden Juanita. So we never know what we're getting from Sturgle. I was not shocked when I heard he'd gone for the name change, nor was I concerned. Because honestly, I think there's really no particular necessary reason for him to do this,

except for several years ago he announced he was only going to make five albums under the name Sturgle Simpson and as wild as Sturgle is, he is a man of his word. So that's it. Now, I think we technically got about seven, something like that. Okay, okay, he cheated a little bit. He cheated with like the bluegrass records and everything. He did a volume one and a volume two. Yeah.

Yeah, but that's fair. You could call him out. And Johnny Blue Skies is, it's not, I mean, I might have come up with a different nom de plume. I don't know what it would have been, but his first name is actually John. So I think that was the motivation behind the Johnny. The blue skies I can't speak to because this record is anything but blue skies. Yeah.

Well, so let's get into that because I was a little puzzled over the first couple of tracks on this record. And the place where I clicked in was a track called Jupers Ferry. It's this little orchestral suite. It's the second longest track. It's like something like seven minutes. And it has this kind of fire and rain like story where he says, Today I read the news that you were gone. You left a year ago, chose to check out and move on.

So what do you think is going on here? Well, to answer that specific question, I'm going to go a little meta or mega or whatever and talk about the whole meta modern, meta, meta desir. I want to talk about the whole concept of this record. It's not officially a concept album, I guess, but I think Sturgle is basically unable to function in any way but conceptually. So here's what I hear. Thematically, this really is an album about desire, about intimate connections, about lost and found loves, forgotten loves, salvaged loves. I have no idea and have no reason to suspect this reflects on Sturgel Simpson's personal

life. He is a happily married man with several children, but it definitely runs through the whole record, this story. It's like, here are all my stories of heartbreak. Here are all the ways in which trying to be a good lover mess me up or messed other people's up. And that's this fire and rain theme on this song, I think, goes perfectly with that. It's like a song of regret. And there's a lot of regret on this record, honestly.

And I guess that connects with how the record sounds because the record is based in a kind of a country soul sound. Yeah. That brings me back to like late 70s, early 80s. I'm hearing like J.D. when you're only lonely or Ronnie Millsaps hits from that era. And this song, Jupiter's Ferry, might lean a little bit more toward the L.A. kind of singer-songwriter side of that. But definitely, even Dusty Springfield, I think there's a bit of like Dusty Springfield on this record as well. Right kind of dream is the one that sort of made me sit up in my chair. That's probably my favorite

on the record, but it's sort of a weird standout. It's a faster tempo than the rest of them. It's in straighter time. It's a lot more driving. It has the most extreme application on the record of this weird sort of phaser slash chorus effect on his voice which I totally know what that's about but I don't know.

Oh, no, you had a theory about this. I have a little bit of a theory about that. I think, I mean Sturgle's always been interested in playing around in the studio, you know, he's also noted as a producer of people like Tyler Childers and Margot Price and he is a bit of a studio rat But I think there's a practical reason for what's going on with his voice here.

A few years back, when he started the hiatus that would leave us without Sturgle music for several years, it was because he had a vocal cord injury. He ruptured his vocal cords. And you can come back from that. And I think throughout this record, he sounds good. Like this record, maybe more than any other, brings me back to the Meta Modern Sturgel and the country crooner Sturgel. But he definitely is trying to figure out how to use his voice in a different way. And some of that comes through him singing in a more trained or kind of like modulated way.

And then maybe some of it is this what you're talking about, like how technology can help. Can you leave all your bottles in tea? I want to say that you're all words of often to better. Can you tell me what you hear in Scooter Blues? That was one that you said jumped out to you right away. It's a, like, that is a, I guess would you call that genre pastiche? I don't know what to say about this one. I don't know.

I felt your cringe from across the miles when I said that was my favorite early song on the record. I don't know if it's cringe. I was just surprised. Well, you know, down here in Nashville, we're Jimmy Buffett fans. And we view the late Mr. Buffett as a poet of the shore and the sea. And I think this is like the great Jimmy Buffett song that Jimmy Buffett never wrote. So, yeah, it's really fun. Instead of being set in the Florida Keys, it's set in Thailand.

And it's Sturgle's little escape fantasy, you know. It's a bright spot on this mostly pretty dark record. Yeah. Throughout the paddle of my heart up to the break in the sway Wake up every day in the sun Throughout this record I'll just say This show's Sturgel leading a great band with people like Jake Buggins here a hole in it hull in it, showing his mastery of the form of country music writing, and getting into some

deep stuff in a very easy and welcoming way. So I think if you're an old school Sturgyl fan, this is a record for you. Yeah. I mean, the thing that I think about more and more as I listen to this record is when you become the sort of figurehead or the representation of a kind of new era in your field, you then have to sort of coexist with that. And it may be that, you know, 10 years after MetaModern Sounds, Sturgel decided that he maybe didn't want to live in the same world as the Sturgel Simpson, you know, from 2014

and decided to try being, you know, a couple other people. Which he has in his acting career too. I can't wait for the next season of Righteous Gemstones. But anyway, love you, Sturge. That's Passage du Desire, either the first album by Johnny Blue Skies or the eighth album by Sturgle Simpson, depending how you choose to look at it.

Lots more great music out today right after this. It's New Music Friday from NPR Music. I'm Daoud Tyler Rameen here with Anne Powers, who I know is extremely psyched about our next album, so she might be doing a lot of the talking here. It's the new LP from Cassandra Jenkins, titled My Light, My Destroyer. I kind of want to kick off with the song Clams Casino

just because it's got one of my favorite lines on the whole record. Such a great song. I heard someone order the Clams Casino. I said, hey, what's that? They said, I don't know. This is it. It's like existentialism in a lyric right there. You've been banging the drum for Cassandra for a minute now, Anne.

I'm a little newer to her, so I kind of want to know what's drawn you so strongly to her as a songwriter and where you hear her sort of particular talents coming through in this record. Yeah, I'm very excited to have a chance to talk this through with you, David, because I do love Cassandra Jenkins. And I fell in love with her on her last release, which is called An Overview of Phenomen, which she recorded not long after the great poet and singer-songwriter David Berman died by suicide. She was about to go on tour with him. That record really explores grief and kind of very like this kind of amorphous grief,

because she didn't know him all that well. It explores the displacement of grief in a really beautiful way. So I was super excited when I heard this record was coming out. was not disappointed. I think I feel about Cassandra Jenkins the way a lot of people this year are feeling about Jessica Pratt. I really like Jessica Pratt.

I like her a lot. But I don't have this like total lifted up, you know, into the clouds. Like gravity has ceased to function when I listen to Jessica Pratt, but I have that effect when I listen to Cassandra Jenkins. I think it's a combination of elements. One, it's how she can,

poses and works with her team and her producer to use found sound and various synth elements to create this like sound field that's not at all flashy. It's very airy. It's very cumulus clouds. But there's a lot happening in every song, even though it's quiet and soft. And then her lyrics they tend toward the mystical and the uncanny. But they're very very, emotional as well and there's a lot of like grounding in the body and in nature but always these sort of surprising turns like the one you mentioned you know I I don't know and you know in that same song the hook is uh is this character she's invented in the song saying I don't want to laugh alone anymore and you know that's such a great turn on the idea of like I don't want to cry alone

which would be the more heartbreak way to say that and that that she's just such a a great writer in this way. And then the third thing is her voice because she has one of those recessive voices that you have to come to it. That's a great word. Yeah. You know, and so it demands like attentive listening. And it really has a feeling of kind of like a lullaby effect as well, I think. So those are some of the reasons I love this woman and this record. I mean, a lot of the sounds on this record, to your point about her invocation of the natural world, a lot of of the sounds feel sort of more channeled than created, as though she was able to sort of divine something that was already there, that 90% of people would never be able to sense.

She's sort of like tuned into its resonant frequency, I guess. Perfect. Perfectly said. It's the stranger things kind of vibe we were getting here. And I don't know. For me, it matches up with a lot of the contemporary film and literature that I enjoy in that that kind of uncanniness. I haven't quite figured out how to write about it yet, but like Yorgos Lantamos is film Kinds of Kindness or Miranda July's new novel, all fours. Like they all have this quality of like, we're in ordinary space. We're just in the ordinary world, but really weird shit is happening. But we're not going to act like it's a catastrophe. We're just going to move through it. And I feel like that's the vibe of

of Cassandra Jenkins' songs as well. There's a theme that I started tracking through the lyrics, beginning with the first song, Devotion, which is a hell of an opening salvo, but there's this line, Don't confuse my breaking open for broken. Right, right. And it feels like this kind of, you know, title card,

one of those mysterious things that you see, you know, in the opening credits and the meaning is only going to be paid off later. And then in Omakase, I hope I'm saying that, right? It feels like we get a follow-up where she says, pull me apart, put me back together again. And that song is talking about the sort of revelatory possibilities of being broken open. There's this image of, you know, a lover or just a loved one as a meteorite smashing you apart to kind of show you who you really are. Which sounds like it could be like this big, violent song. you know, a giant chaparone-style pop song. Oh, I don't know, like red wine supernova or something like that. But in fact,

it's that gentleness. It always happens in this gentle way. And, you know, the counterpoint to that image is a little bit of found sound that she put on the record of her and her mom, who's a science teacher, watching the sky. And her mom is sort of explaining the night sky to her. And I read somewhere, Cassandra talking about that and saying, I realize in that moment you could take your whole life to learn the night sky. That's Mars. Do you see where it's really

reddish? Yeah. Yeah. Venus. Look at it. It's crazy how bright that is. What about that one? That's Betel juice.

That's part of Orion. I don't know. That's a kind of slightly corny thing that's so profound as well. And that's what I hear in this music. And all the space imagery factors into that. But again, we have all this beautiful, fanciful imagery, but then always back to the, like, what's the one song where she's like washing the windows in the shop she works in?

It's, you know, take the cash out of the till. We're always back in the regular world, even as we're having these flashes of supernatural phenomenon kind of. Yeah, there's another song that I want to get to before we move on because I found it kind of devastating, and I'm not sure why. It's this song, Petco. Something about the images in this one. I mean, the central image is walking alone and ducking into a pet store

in order to feel less alone. A lizard. The lizard. The lizard pressing its face. against the plastic or glass of the container that the lizard is in, which, uh, it's, first of all, I think, I think it's a, it's just a poet's image. Like, she does write like a poet, you know, there's so much in that. But also, I don't know if you have pets, but I go to pet stores a fair amount. And I just was there. I was just there. I can see that, I can see that lizard, you know.

I have met that lizard. No, it's, it's really, really, really, astoundingly relatable. That, and the one other line that I clocked is there's this bit about a drum machine that she's had for years that she bartered for. She, like, made somebody a duct tape wallet. And she's got this thing, and she has basically never played it, and it's just sitting around, and there's, like, probably battery acid, like, eating away at it now. It's like, God, doesn't even work anymore. And it's just one of those things that sort of makes you think of the times in your life when you've had to stop and say, like, what does my life even amount to? Like, what have I been doing with all of my time and potential?

I don't know why that image puts me there, but it really does. But that's what, see, this is what I want from, I guess, music in general, but particularly from singer-songwriteries, like narratively-based music. I want those moments where my mind leaps through the story, the songwriter's telling into my own questions about my own life and situation. And it's, it really, it is like a philosophical text in a way. An album can be a philosophical text. And I feel like that's what this album is for me.

Yeah. Well, that's Cassandra Jenkins, My Light, My Destroyer. One more record before we hit the lightning round. But boy, is it a fun one. Remy Wolf is back with a record whose title kind of encapsulates a lot of her career up to this point. Her new album is called Big Ideas. And why don't we start with Cinderella? So, Anne, there's a kind of.

false binary about pop music that I'm going to indulge anyway because it feels useful here. There is a temptation a lot of the time to sort of sort kinds of pop music into like head music and hips music. Is it, you know, cerebral and intellectual or is it concerned with sort of the movement of the body? And this is a record for me that is a little bit of both. It's obviously trending more to one side of that spectrum. It's very committed to groove. There's tons here about like sex and pleasure and desire, which we'll get into. But it is also very heady. It, to me, explores these things through these very internal languages of like fantasy and nostalgia and insecurity. And I think part of it is that Remi Wolf is this still very young artist

who only really broke out a couple of years ago with this record, Juno, that, uh, that, uh, that turned a lot of heads. I think she is processing a lot of this stuff through her real-life experience of being thrust into, like, constant travel and hustling as an artist in a way that's, like, maybe not always compatible with, like, a stable, intimate life or just, like, mental health in general.

So did you relate to it as a musician yourself? Because I know you're, like, hanging on the rooftops and, you know, doing bumps in the bathroom at the Miami. Oh man I never I never got to live this life but it's a there's part of me that's glad because like I feel like

everybody who does winds up writing a song about how it left them spiritually broken in Miami I love that song alone in Miami and I think that it does exactly what you're talking about because it's it is such a fun one hilarious account of pleasure and leisure and decadence, but then she's alone.

You know, and she's like, you left me here to eat oysters or whatever, you know, which leads to a gossipy question I have about this record. So I want to get back to the head and heart idea or head and hips idea because I wanted to ask about what's in the middle. It's nothing like the head and the heart. It doesn't sound anything like the head in the heart thing. You got to check out Zach Bryan if you like the head and the head. head in the heart. Try him instead. But I wanted to ask about that song alone in Miami and this idea of her as an artist, like in the world of entertainment, which I think aligns this record with a

very big album of the summer. Brat by Charlie X-C-X. I think there's a lot. Or Brat Girl Summer? Yeah, yes. I guess Remy's having her own Brat Girl Summer. But do you catch a thread of like a particular kind of relationship that she's going through on this. Maybe with like somebody who has a little money, a complicated, maybe an older person, just a complicated situation that's inspired these songs. Could be. My gossip radar is garbage and has been since high school. That's probably good for good when you're talking to me because mine is a little bit too well-home. But I do, I do sense a through line because song Alod in Miami is preceded. by the song Toro, which is a hookup song.

It's one of several pretty vivid sex bops on this record. It's such a fun song. It's a hilarious. It's such a fun song. But the thing, part of what makes it so funny is that it's clear that this is two people hooking up in a hotel and they both have places to be. She keeps mentioning that there are people waiting for her in the lobby and she keeps choosing to not go.

And then she says that she's got to fly to Miami. So it may be that, like, you know, once the folks on Genius get a chance to pick this apart, I think we might see a little bit more of how all the pieces fit together. I don't know. She's definitely polymorphous. She enjoys all kinds of fun, let's just say. And that's the thing I love about it. And actually, that's the other artist besides Charlie XX that this invoked for me was actually Lizzo,

in that there is just this like body pleasure. and audacity and humor that the best of Lizzo back when everyone loved Lizzo, that's what we loved her for. And I feel like Remy is bringing that back, maybe even in a more, I don't want to say, more intelligent way at all, but I don't know, like in a different way, let's just say. She's bringing that back. But I have to throw one thing in, which is you mentioned Remy's earlier record. Well, I don't know if you mentioned it by name, Juno.

But I adored that record, and that made me feel disappointed when I first put on this record. I wonder if you had that experience. Because I was like, I want that. That was a very chaotic. It was like chaotic good record. Uh-huh. Just wild, wild record. Yeah.

And I felt like this. I'm like, oh, man, she's just, you know, we're top, we're pop girlying out. I'm not excited about that. But you made me listen again. Your enthusiasm made me listen again. and I'm so glad I did. But did you find that at first? At first were you like,

it's a little smoothed over. I think she is evolving at a rapid rate. Juno is a record that I, there are parts of it that I adore. The song, Grumpy Old Man is just going to be like a forever playlist to pick for me. But I think, you know, an issue with that record for me, issue isn't maybe even the right word.

It's just, it is doing a lot. Like, it's doing everything. Yes. that goofball energy maybe doesn't square with a desire to sort of channel all of her ambition in a focused way. And I think some of the things that we've seen in between that record and this one have given me a hint as to where she might be going. If folks haven't seen the Kenny Beats Tiny Desk from last year, she is the star of that. She is there to sing a song that she performs on his album,

Louis. And man, when she hits the first high note, you can see Kenny in the background at the drum kit suddenly like grimace and look up. And you can tell it is because that man is crying and he's trying not to show it. Because her voice sounds incredible. It's, you know, she's, she's really like inhabiting something that feels not divorced from, but distinct from the kind of, you know, hippie goofball that she was introduced to the world as. If Juno was where you hopped on board. Maybe you saw her, you know, like American Idol audition years ago. No, no, Juno was where I hopped on board. But I do feel like this is a moment and she made the right record where she could walk through the door to a bigger audience, you know, because it's good that she's releasing this record in

the summer of Chapel Rhone and the summer of Charlie X, CX, the summer of Sabrina Carpenter, because there's room for a woman like this on the big stages now. Yeah. And just a few years ago, that didn't feel true. So I don't know, Chaparone. If you're listening, I've mentioned you three times in this podcast, and I think you should look at Remy Wolf for an opening slot on your next tour. Yeah, take homegrown tour. There we go. Before we leave this record, I just want to, I just want to shout out the song Frog Rock, because it was the biggest surprise to me. This is a song, I would say, possessed by the spirit of Sugar Ray's Fly. If you listen to them back to back. It's got that squiggly guitar line. It's got the like DJed scratches and the weird ad libs and

stuff. But lyrically, it is bracingly honest in a very funny way about the sort of petty places that your mind goes when your ex is doing better than you are. She says, if you see me around, can you seem a little down? I know it's evil to say, I wish you well, but I don't want you to be okay, which man, when was the last time you heard that in a pop song? I mean, you hear it a lot of time in a more sort of, you know, vindictive way or in a more sort of like self-empowering, you know, since you've been gone kind of way. But just like flat out like, no, you're doing better than me and it sucks. Yeah, I mean, we're always looking at alternatives to Morrissey these days. So maybe maybe this can replace the Morrissey classic. We hate it when our friends become

successful. Yep. Well, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be thinking about a few of these songs at the end of the year. She's just really locked into what makes an effective hook. That is Big Ideas by Remy Wolf. Keep it here for our Lightning Round. That's coming right after the break. Welcome back to New Music Friday.

It's time for our Lightning Round through some of the other releases coming at you on July 12th. And this is one of the more nuts Lightning Rounds we've had in a while. There are so many records by such an incongruous spread of artists at such different points in their career. So let's get right to it. First up, his name is what? Eminem is back, and Love and Merhaden, the dude, is nothing if not persistent in his vision.

Four years after 2020's music to be murdered by, Eminem's latest album is The Death of Slim Shady, parentheses, food across. Over a pair of albums, Clero has carved out a distinctive voice among a huge wave of young female singer-songwriters. Her new album, her third, is called Charm. It's inspired by 70s folk rock. It's warm and intimate with a serious analog vibe. Maybe thanks to her co-producer on the album, Leon Michaels, of the Dap Kings and El Michael's Affair. They're Vermont's favorite sons. They got their own Ben and Jerry's flavor.

and legend says they never play the same set twice. Fish adds to their sprawling discography today with a new album called Eval. I've paused the moment once in time to shine. Joyce I fell in love with Odie Lee on TikTok. She's just a hilarious presence there. She's a folk singer from Louisiana and her rollicking songs about adventure and misadventure as a young woman

Make me think of a combo of Lucinda Williams and Cheryl Crowe. I don't use those references lightly. Odie Lee has that much potential. Her debut album is out this week, and it's called Carrier Pitchin. Next up, two hip-hop veterans, rapper Common and the legendary producer Pete Rock have teamed up for a full album collab, and from the sound of the title, it maybe won't be the last time. Common and Pete Rock's new joint release is The Auditorium, Volume 1. I was hearing melodies and rhythms through the night.

This was a dream that felt real like a fight. What made it real of Jay Dilla was there in a light. A movement was happening. Aits Brown was rapping and Kooji and Polo talking about, they back again. I've seen Prince. He was time traveling through the Morris days and Gladys Nights. Sheila, he reminded me about the glamorous life. Ali was telling me why you.

The Georgia-born singer and songwriter Megan Maroney is one of the sharpest young talents in Nashville right now. Her debut album Lucky made a real sensation, and she's now returned with her second release called M-I-O-K. It's full of insightful and fearless lyrics about the emotional carnage of dating in your 20s in a musical setting that manages to be classic and contemporary at the same time. Vibes on Vives on Vives is the M.O of Cigarettes After Sex, a band name that has always made me feel weird to say, but you can't. say this band doesn't know how to set a mood or find their crowd. Their streaming audience is tremendous and just keeps growing. The latest from the indie trio is simply titled X's. That's Big X, Apostrophe Little X. And I'm taking us out with a folk threefer here. First, actually jumping over to Bluegrass, y'all will be very excited to know that the young Bluegrass superstar Billy

String has his first live album out this week. And it's just called Live Volume 1. If you've ever been to a Billy String show, you know that that's what he is all about, and it's going to be really exciting to see how he captures that in recordings. There's also a new one by Jake Zerxes Fussell, the great young traditional folk singer, who continues to stretch the genre's boundaries. It's called When I'm Called. I will answer when I'm called. I will not break dance in the hall. I will not laugh. I will not laugh when the teacher calls my name. I won't laugh when the teacher calls my name.

And finally, West of Rhone is a duo consisting of Channing, Showalter, and Annie Skirmer. They invent a whole imaginary world on their exquisite new album, Queen of Eyes. And that is today's show. And if there was ever a release date that hammers home, how hard it is. is to keep up with the amount of new music that can drop in a single day. This is why we give the advice. Listen widely. Listen well. Yeah. And hopefully this was a good start. As always, send us your feedback at all songs at npr.org. Leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to our newsletter at npr.org slash music newsletter. And remember, you can get this show sponsor free and also support our work by joining NPR Music Plus. Go to plus.npr.org NPR Music or search for NPR music in Apple Podcasts to sign up. Today's episode was produced by Alejandra Marquez Hansa. We had editorial support from Jacob Gans, Saria Mohamed, and Linnea Anderson.

I'm Daiud Tyler Amin. And I'm Am Powers. Happy listening, everyone. See you next week.