NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out July 24

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

Charli xcx. Tyla. Shania Twain. Guest host Ann Powers chats with Nastia Voynovskaya of member station KQED in San Francisco about their favorite albums out Friday, July 24. Plus, some NPR Music writers and critics offer their personal picks in the lightning round.The Starting 5(02:06) Album No. 1- Charli xcx, 'Music, Fashion, Film'(08:16) Album No. 2- Willow, 'The Thread'(14:59) Album No. 3- Tyla, 'A*Pop'(20:39) Album No. 4- Shania Twain, 'Little Miss Twain'(27:50) Album No. 5- Portraits Of Tracy: 'Q: From Where Do Our Primal Instincts Originate? A: MTV!'(33:23) The Lightning Round- Creekbed Carter Hogan, 'PEASANTS REVOLT!'- Rico Nasty, 'RX'- Amy Shark, 'soft pop'- Josaleigh Pollett, 'If I Let It Quiet'Sample the albums via our New Music Friday playlist and see our Long List of notable releases on NPR.org.CreditsHost: Ann PowersGuest: Nastia Voynovskaya, KQEDAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital Producer: Dora LeviteEditors: Otis Hart, Elle Mannion, Suraya MohamedSpecial thanks to Stephen Thompson and Lars GotrichSee 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. It's Anne Powers. I'm here serving for Stephen Thompson, who is relaxing on a wonderful vacation. But lucky for me, I get to be here doing my favorite podcast. Every week on New Music Friday, we speak to a member of NPR Music Network. And today, July 24th, we are welcoming back Nassia Voinovskia from KQED in San Francisco. Hey, Nassia. Hi, Anne. It's such a joy to be on the show with you. So, Nassia, this is a particularly happening week for major releases.

We actually had tough time kind of narrowing down what we wanted to talk about today. One of those is the new record by the Strokes, Reality Awaits, which I know a lot of rock fans are going to be super excited about. Yeah, I think there are a lot of fans that have been waiting for this album. It's their first in six years. But it has been a little bit polarizing. I've been on all the strokes, Reddit threads, and fans are really debating their new singles that have been out from this record so far, falling out of love and going shopping because of the heavy auto-tune use. It's really splitting the fan base.

Well, the way I see it is these guys are enjoying, I don't know, could we call it a late career run? I don't want to age them prematurely, but they're really enjoying a great year. They had a huge show at Coachella. They seem to be so much back in the conversation. And I think they're just doing whatever the heck they want on this record. I mean, they recorded it in Costa Rica with Rick Rubin, so that must have been a vibe. There you go. Absolutely.

Like step outside your norm, go have a nice time with Rick, do a little meditation on the beach, and make a crazy record full of Auditune. So that's super fun. But the first record we really want to talk about is, I think, partly inspired by their example. The record is by Charlie X-E-X and it's called Music Fashion Film. I used to lick cranial strawberries in the summer. Maybe I fucked your dad. I'm just kidding.

I'm only saying that for a fact. But my point is I think people can change. I used to jump on trampolines with no underwear on. I know basically just wear trousers. You know, Charlie XX is kind of reminding me of Reneer a Targaryen from House of the Dragon right now. Like she is the ruling queen. She is tough, feisty, and she's riding a dragon back into our consciousness.

She's having a typically busy year. She's following up her 2024 massive world-defining hit album Brat with a bunch of projects, including the soundtrack to Emerald Fennell's Weathering Heights film, which came out earlier this year. her own semi-autobiographical film, The Moment, and her appearances in several other films, as well as her usual ubiquitous presence in the fashion world and on the club scene. And now she's returned with a proper studio album,

and, well, it's her dive into rock music, maybe? What do you think, Vassia? Yeah, maybe. It really does feel like with all these projects, they feel like side quests that Charlie has gone on. I think she threw all expectations out the window of how she would follow up with Brat. And that really freed her up to create this album music fashion film that feels like a meditation on the very act of creating itself. Well, that's a really interesting angle.

I mean, to me, it is a meditation on the act of creating, but it's also like a dissertation on rock music. Like Charlie has said, this isn't a rock album. But what I hear is really like almost like an argument about the history of rock and what's important or cool about rock music. And I wonder if you hear that too. Yeah, the main one that came through to me was really the 2000s indie rock boom with bands like the Yayas. On the intro song, rock music, you hear that kind of distortion heavy guitar riff that really reminds me of that era. And that intro song really feels like a throat clearing, like almost like a disclaimer.

that she's going in a completely different direction than what brat fans might have expected. I can see that from that first track, but then on Card Declined, which is one of my favorites, I think she goes back all the way to the early 80s. And then what the song's about, too, like consumerism and her love of consumerism, but also her understanding that it messes you up, you know,

being a product and also being a master consumer. which I guess you kind of is. Card declined. There's always something self-aware and ironic about Charlie X-TX, but then there's also these moments of vulnerability as well. And I think on this album, she's really wrestling with what it means to be an artist in 2026. In SS 26, SS stands for spring, summer 26. It's almost like a new fashion collection.

She's wrestling with these questions that I think all artists are asking themselves right now, which is when there's so much going on in the world, so much suffering, you know, what's the point of all this? And there's a great line in there where she says we're going down a runway straight to hell, which I think a lot of people will identify with that. That's Charlie X-EX.X. Her new album is called Music Fashion Film. Well, let's go on to another woman O'Tour who is really stretching the boundaries of sound and genre and playing with the history of rock in a very different way than Charlie XX's. And that is Willow. Willow's new album is called The Thread.

Willow is another prolific young artist with a devoted following, and she's giving us her second album of the year, just like Charming. This seems like some kind of trend, Nasty. I don't know what that's about. We're getting so much music from these artists. It's kind of crazy. Yeah, Willow is on a very prolific streak right now. And with this album, The Thread, she's deepening in exploration of jazz that she's had on her past few records.

The influences I'm hearing are artists like Esperanza Spalding, Thundercat, maybe a little Fiona Apple. And Willow co-produced and played many of the instruments on this album and also edited the tracks herself. So there's this real sense of intentionality and how she's taking the time to really hone these skills. And you can really hear that and how she uses her voice so purposefully on tracks like she's my religion.

I love the way the backing vocals in that song just like enter. It feels like breathing. It feels like the, I mean, honestly, it feels like the kind of breathing. that happens in your body when you see someone you desire who you love, you know, that kind of like, ah, that's sighing. It's gorgeous. It becomes, desire becomes musical in that song. It definitely feels like a record you want to play from front to back. And Willow creates this very distinct sonic world. It's very airy. It's very warm. And I love tracks, like

unconditional. It has this, um, syncopated percussion, also played by Willow. and this very plucky jazz guitar and Willow has these beautiful harmonies with the instruments, and that's a technique she uses throughout the album that I really, really loved. It creates this really unique sonic signature. She collaborated with Chris Greedy on this album,

and he has worked with a lot of artists who kind of have a similar sensibility, I think. Like, edgy artists who also care about pop, about that kind of legibility, someone like Poppy or Youngblood or Grimes, you know, he's collaborated with all of them. And I wonder if, did you listen to her other album that she put out this year? It's called Petal Rock Black. I did, yeah.

And I think there is a continuity between the two albums, especially how they both lean into jazz. But I think with Petal Rock Black, there was a lot of tonal variety among the tracks. There are songs where she's singing more quietly. There are different tempos. Whereas with this, she really honed in on a sound and really deepened that exploration. That is exactly what I was going to say. I'm so glad you said that because I feel like Petal Rock Black is this sort of beautiful walk out into a big field, you know. And here, working with her collaborator, Chris, it's not that she narrows the scope, but she focuses.

And it just hits a little bit harder. Yeah, and I love all the explorations of spirituality, the other world. that you don't always get in pop music. It's Willow exploring this inner cosmic world that she's built. We've been talking about the thread by Willow. Now we're going to take a break and then we'll be back with more albums on this very, very, very busy New Music Friday. Welcome back to New Music Friday. I'm Anne Powers and I'm here with Nastia Voinaskaya from KQED in San Francisco. Nostia, what's happening with you out there in the Bay Area? I think you recently had an encounter with our very favorite, Felix, Felix from Alt Latino. Tell us all about it.

Yes, so Felix Guantaros was just in San Francisco last week, and we co-hosted a concert at the chapel, great venue in the Mission District of San Francisco. It was a night of alternative Latin music, headlined by La Donia, who is a great singer-songwriter from San Francisco that pulls in all kinds of Latin American influences like cumbia, reggaeton, bachata, and has this incredible danceable sound. So highly suggests everyone checking her out if they haven't yet. Awesome. Let's get back into the music. Our next release is a huge one. It's from the South African global pop star, Tyler, and it's called A-pop. Tila has had a meteoric rise after her huge global hit water in 2023.

And now she's back with her second album. She's saying this is much more her own vision, representing her as a full-grown adult. She's still grounding a lot of her sound in that rolling South African beat of Amapiano music. But she expands here to try different paths. You know, she incorporates rap and reggaeton and even a little of that like, genre-busting, rockish feeling that we've heard on the other records we've been talking about this week. So what do you think? Were you a Tyler fan going into this? And do you think her expanded approach works? You know, I came into this as more of a casual Tyler fan. I loved

water, but I wasn't fully sold on her debut album, if I'm being completely honest. And you do hear that on this new record, A-pop, she comes into her own much more. I really like how this project leans into on a piano, the South African dance music genre, and also House, which South Africa really, really excels at. Really love the track Fairy Tale, so collaboration with the South African House music duo Liquid Deep. And it's a sweet duet where she's confessing her love to someone, and it has this very club-ready beat. I could imagine it going off in a huge crowd at something like EDC or Coachella. And I think a lot of the other tracks on this album are also prime for some great DJ remixes.

That's one that really caught my ear, too, as being very different than her usual sound, very quintessentially South African sound. And this one goes to a very, very different place. I do like some of the ones that are still grounded in that traditional beat, though, too. Yeah, same here. Like, is it? that was another one of my favorites. A thread throughout this album is really the art of the tease.

There's this very Britney Spears-like coquettishness that Tyler channels, but also a confidence that reminded me a lot of Rihanna with these big anthemic pop vocals, but with production elements that pay homage to her heritage and her home country. I think it's absolutely indisputable that Rihanna is a big influence on Tila, probably one that she almost, I don't know, maybe it might consider a burden, you know what I mean, just because as an artist whose home base is not the U.S. or London, but South Africa, similar to Rihano being from Barbados, you know, she could get slotted into a kind of like category of exotica, which would be very unfair to her.

I think she kind of fights that on this record in interesting ways by being more wider reaching in her production choices and also in her vocal style, which is indebted to Rihanna, but also a little bit to Beyonce. I have to shout out my favorite song on the album, which is Double Blind. It has a slight dance hall vibe as well and a slower beat and this big course that you can imagine,

a whole club singing along to with, drinks raised in the air. That's A-pop from Tila. So Nasty and now we're going to talk about a record from another global pop superstar, but from a very different part of the world. This is the new one from the Queen of Crossover Country, Shania Twain, who at 60 is really claiming her power and telling the story she wants to tell on the record, Little Miss Twain.

Open it up at the mile of mute saloon When a kid walks up to the music box and he's hit my jackdown tune I saw him there in a buckskin shirt was flooded with a smirk like down your Oh, midnight sun Feeling can't be run underneath the midnight sun But strange things of having underneath Fresh off her gig opening the 15 nights of Harry Styles' Wembley Stadium Run in London, Shania Twain, who is, as I said, the Queen of Country Pop and of every playlist ever labeled 90s

Mom Jams, gives us the album that she's always wanted to make. The sound is kind of like bar room country rock, and she has assists from kind of surprising guess, well, at least one very surprising guest, Josh Am from, Queens of the Stone Age, who joins her on one song. Also, the country soul duo, the Warren Treaty, are on here, and a fellow country queen, Tanya Tucker. This album really allows Shania to tell her own story and the story of her youth before she became a superstar. And it's a tribute to her parents, and particularly her mother, who was a great champion of her career, her potential, before dying tragically in a car crash when Shania was only 22 years old. So what do you think? Do you like

this new kind of rougher, down and dirty sound for our queen? I do. I think Shania sounds very liberated and relaxed on this record, but she also lets us into some very personal moments. And the title track, Little Miss Twain, really hit me in the heart. So this is, I feel like, the emotional core of the entire album. And it really takes us back to her growing up in a small town in Canada. And her family hanging their hopes on a very young Shania, who's maybe eight years old, going to bars to sing, there's a line where she says that she's smaller than her guitar. And it really broke my heart thinking about this little girl whose family has hung their hopes of her getting them out of poverty onto her.

And I think the Tanya Tucker feature and reference on this track really fits with that theme. This is another country legend that was adultified at a very young age and very hypersexualized by the music industry as a young teenager, you know, and I had some very negative repercussions on her life. So for both of these women to join on this chorus, I thought it was very beautiful. And I think it represents something everyone has to go through. which is when they look back at their childhood now from an adult vantage point and then have this sense of empathy for their young self.

Somewhere. But five days drive some was New Yorksville, Tennessee. I'm up to my mother, I'm the next, Jan, you Tucker. She drives me to sing in the bar. Start the Chevy. It's old and it's a little. Another track I'm still smaller than my guitar chimney Another track I really liked is quit my life

And yeah, yeah, and it's about on the surface, you know, it's Shania taking the day off to go have fun, but it also, I think, represents something a lot of women have to go through, you know, as we go older, which is the realization that you've been putting everyone else's needs first before yourself and actually prioritizing yourself for once. And there's a line on that track where she says it's me making the money. So she can do whatever she wants.

And there's this harmonica solo, this horn section that just makes the song sound like a big party. What do you think about the track with Josh Om, faded blue jeans? I mean, should I really like gets her rock on in that track? Yeah, so that's a sweet look back at Teenage Love. And also I think she's shaking off some shame maybe that her mom placed on her for kind of coming into her sexuality as a teenager. And there's this slide guitar solo. It made me imagine this song being played in a divey blues club as opposed to a big stadium. I'm sure it'll sound great in both.

But this record really does have that intimate feel where Shanaa is not trying to replicate her biggest hits from the 90s. She's just trying to make a statement on who she is now and where she's been throughout her life. Red, blue jeans, big holes in the knees had them ever since. I was in the teeth, rolling in the crowd in a... That's Shania Twain. Little Miss Twain. Now we've got to take a break. But we're going to come back.

We're going to talk about one last album. And we're going to actually then invite in some of our favorite people to share their picks for this week. Welcome back to New Music Friday. I'm Anne Powers. And I'm here with Nastia Voinovskia from K-QED in San Francisco. We're having so much fun going through the records of the week. We've been talking about huge releases by megastars, household names, but we definitely wanted to get one in, you know,

that was kind of a newcomer, one that we both really connected with and wanted to champion. So our last pick is Portraits of Tracy, and here's the kind of crazy title of this record, Q, colon, from where do our primal instincts originate? A, colon, MTV, exclamation point. Nassia, tell us a little bit about who portraits of Tracy is. Yeah, so she's a 21-year-old singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

She came onto the scene as sort of a teen prodigy. This is her fourth album. And I think she's been exploring a ton of different genres. You can tell that she's a true student of music history. I mean, she's named after a Jaco Pastorius song from 1976 called Portrait of Tracy. And this project really envelops the listener in this very cartoonish, whimsical world where punk, classic rock, and hyperpop all come out to play. Yeah, that's well put.

You know, Tracy Amare, which is Portraits of Tracy's Outside the Project name, she started her career as a YouTuber covering songs by her favorite artists, like Madlib and Steve Lacey. But I got onto her when she released this really poignant and very quirkily adventurous, I guess, album called Drive Home that was a way for her to explore her identity as a trans woman. And, you know, her work is very autobiographical in a way, Nostia. It always reflects back on her own musical and personal journey. And this one really pays tribute to some of the music that,

shaped her sensibility. Not contemporary artists, but this record is kind of inspired by 80s, synth pop, and also hardcore punk. It's an interesting mix. Yes, I really did enjoy that hardcore punk element. There's one song that embodies that. It's called This Song May or May Not Be About an All-Right Influencer. I love that one, my favorite. Yes, me too. It's really a disc track to, I don't know who the person is, but she said that she found out that a prominent neo-Nazi was a fan of her work. So this, to me, continues the lineage of the Dead Kennedys, Nazi punks F off. Right on.

She also, what's the song she has on here where she's like, I'm an animal, like, really releasing her primal energy? I love that one. Yeah, so that one's Hallie Stepp Raider Clan shit, and Raider Klan is a rap collective helmed by Space Ghost Purp that blew up in the 2000s. So that was an interesting reference in the title, too, because there's actually no rapping on this album. album, unlike some of her past work. Yeah, it's, it's, the sound is more kind of straight up punk meets, I don't know, like twisty soul, R&B. It's, it's a very idiosyncratic and individual mix.

I feel like she is just really herself on this record. That's Portraits of Tracy, and her latest project is called Q from where do our primal instincts originate, A, MTV. Okay, well, we've made. made it through our main records of the week here on New Music Friday, and now it's time for our lightning round. I'm going to kick us off with Peasants Revolt by the folk singer, Creekbed Carter Hogan. So I first witnessed the genius of Creekbed Carter Hogan when he was playing with another troubadour I love, Willie Carlyle. But Creekbed Carter has a lot of releases on his own,

and this is just, I don't know, a new level for him. He's a great singer and a great guitarist and a big thinker whose songs range from very personal meditations on life as a trans man to political rallying cries, to retellings of historic and mythic tales. This is an album for the people. It's inspired by Hogan's explorations of union songs and revolutionary uprisings and the resistance movements of his current home, the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. But all that backstory wouldn't mean anything if these songs weren't so rich in detail and insight, and their renderings weren't so beautiful.

The music is a cross-pollination of Appalachian folk, country twang, and singer-songwriter's stylishness. That's the album, Peasants Revolt, by Creek Bed Carter Hogan. Like scarring up your own back, like turning down the pretty lover, without giving them a chance to try. And my lightning round pick is a new album by Rico Nasty called R.X. This is a solid new project from the Washington, D.C.

MC. It reminded me of being at a rap show inside an arcade and a Mosh pit breaks out. It has the DIY feel of a Trappaholics mixtape from the 2000s that you'd find on the streaming site DAPIF, RAPE. This album has some of that menacing rage rap that you can expect from RICO, especially on tracks like Frenzy, which has this heavy bass that reminded me of your trunk rattling on a ride straight to the pits of hill. And songs like Cupcake Show more whimsical side It reminded me of a rave in a vintage video game Very fun project

That's RX by Rico Nasty She don't got fans She just got bots My bombs is itch You pick it your crotch Play your potato turn you to a tie Ain't making no mood You wake up and rock

Mike with our horse But you do not truck It came with some bees Don't cover the sock He's gonna get me hat This niga a pot Yeah I'm out the picture I'm not scared to cross

Let's hear from Let's hear from some of our favorite people On the Empire Music team We're going to start off with Stephen Thompson's pick. Stephen's on vacation, but he recorded a little homage to his favorite record of the week before he left. So Amy Shark is a big pop star in Australia. I'm probably not the first person to refer to her as Australor Swift, but she hasn't been as big as she deserves to be in the U.S. She's been putting out terrific pop records for many years now, and I still pull up some of her best old songs like Ador and this devastating song she released a few years.

back called Amy Shark. Now Amy Shark is back with her fourth record and it's all her. No co-writers, no features, just Amy Shark. And like her other fantastic records, this is full of sharp, catchy, personal songs. And once again, Amy Shark's songs are deeply self-aware as evidenced by the new one's title, Soft Pop. It's early days, but I bring you up in every conversation and it's kind of hard. We're on the plane and you give me the window. simple but it's kind of hard. And now we stand out in the crowd.

I want you talk to people and I realize that I like you a lot. My walls come down. I'm saying things out loud. I got a toothbrush of your house now. It's kind of hard. And now we're going to hear from Lars Gottrich, editor and producer and NPR Music. Josalie Pala is someone that I've kept my eye on.

They have such an elliptical yet intimate approach to songwriting that leaves spaces for you to fill in. Their fourth album is called If I Let It Quiet and it's a transcontinental collaboration between Josalie, who lives in Salt Lake City and their longtime producer, Jordan Watko, who had moved to Japan. That distance informs two crucial aspects of this record. There is a thoughtful preoccupation with maps throughout, both emotional and geographical. Josaliy navigates their direction in life of how we hide away from ourselves and others and how to find our way back. You can tell these songs start from an acoustic guitar,

But then there's the other side of this album. Rich electronic textures act as sonic diversions and suggestions, plunging us into uncertainty, but then emerging somewhere new, perhaps even revelatory. With DIY production that sounds expensive and songs that shift with feeling, this is best experienced as a full album. That's If I Let It Quiet by Josie Pollitt. directions where I am going. It's off the mile.

So it's hard to know. And that's our show for the week. Thank you, Nastia, Wynoskaya, for taking the time out of your week and rolling with me through this heady journey through all of the big pop records and some of our personal favorites. Thanks, Anne. I had a blast

listening to all this music with you. 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 Al Mannion and edited by Otis Hart. Our production assistant is Dora Levitt. The executive producer of NPR Music is Soraya Mohamed.

Stephen Thompson will be back next week to discuss new music with Olive Komodo of KCRW in Los Angeles. Until then, just fill your ears with music. I'm Ann Powers. Have an excellent weekend. I think that I am gonna be, I think that I am gonna be a world.