NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out June 28

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

NPR Music's Stephen Thompson and Anamaria Sayre give you the lowdown on Omar Apollo's new LP, Lil Yachty's collaboration with James Blake, and the fourth album by Hiatus Kaiyote.Featured albums:- Omar Apollo, 'God Said No'- Lil Yachty & James Blake, 'Bad Cameo'- Hiatus Kaiyote, 'Love Heart Cheat Code'Visit npr.org/music to see the entire list of albums out June 28 and stream our New Music Friday playlist.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

All right, Anna Maria Sayre, before we even get started talking about new albums out today, we should note up front, we do not have the Megan the Stallion record. Oh, I was like, what are we about to note? I'm really intrigued. What do we have to tell? Why are we warning the audience already? I think with the two of us here, there's probably a lot of things we should warn people about. That's true. Yeah, you're right. Megan the Stallion.

Yes, but Megan the Stallion's new album is out today. it is called Megan. There will be more discussions of this record on the NPR airwaves soon enough. But if you're listening to this show and you're just thinking like, where's Megan? How could they not? Just know. Do they hate Megan? Absolutely not.

Just know that we do not hate Megan the Stallion. We are merely ignorant of her album because we have not heard it yet. We cannot speak to what we do not know. We cannot speak to what we do not know. It is, however, New Music from NPR Music and All Songs Considered. We are talking about some of the best new albums out today, June 28th.

I'm Stephen Thompson here with the wonderful Anna Maria Sayer. Hello, Anna. Oh, hey, Stephen. You might remember, Anna, from such NPR music podcasts as Alt-Latino. We are going to kick off the show with a wonderful new album from Omar Apollo. It's called God Said No, and this song is called Spite. You know back on purpose

Never said that I acted perfect I'm too far I'm across the boat now Ain't been the same since I left my hometown I've been thinking about moving by you It's been nice Every summer to fly to I like your clothes

And the way they draping It's pretty nice Because I know that you like You like Like I know That you like You like You like

You like You know You know So, Stephen, I have so much to say about this record. I mean, this is something that, you know, I think a lot of us have been really looking forward to what is Omar Apollo's next move? Because he's been on this, like, incredible upward trajectory, right? Where he like started out strong.

And then his last record was really something special, is dynamic. It was versatile. He was pulling from a lot of kind of like R&B sounds, like a Daniel Caesar kind of vibe, a Frank Ocean kind of vibe. So I was like, okay, is he staying in the same vein? I know he's been working with a lot of different producers in London mostly for the past, I don't know, year or two since that last record. And I have to say, I was blown away. I mean, someone broke this man's heart, heart.

That is what I will say first and foremost. I mean, thematically, he is really doing the most honest. I think I've heard him the most authentic. He really makes you feel as though you're getting a window into the experiences he's had. But at the same time, there's a lot of fun. upbeat, you know, classic Omar moments, more techno moments. He really does a lot of things that make it feel like it could be a summer album as well, but summer with a lot of heartbreak. Yeah, I loved this record. Like you, I've been following Omar Apollo's career since he kind of

emerged as like a bedroom pop songwriter, somebody who was working by himself and kind of exploring vulnerable themes, but still kind of finding himself as an artist. And you listen to this record, and you really hear someone who feels so much more fully formed. He took the foundation of those bedroom pop songs that he was writing early in his career, and he's just found different ways to tell stories. He's found, you know, you mentioned a techno vibe. There's, there are like little moments of like trap music. There are some interesting samples on this record. There are soft, quiet ballads where if you listen to it through headphones, you find yourself almost cocking your head to one side to get a little bit closer to what he's saying. He is so in command

of his sound here. I mentioned quiet moments. Listen to a track called Plain Trees, which is a duet with Mustafa, who is also great. And just hear yourself pulling closer to this song as it plays. to with the leaves. Oh, Stephen, this has to be my favorite track on this record. I think it's the only feature I noticed, Mustafa, which, what an excellent choice in a feature. I mean, that voice, I am not going to lie to you the second he came in singing, I tears, it was over. I just, the level of emotion that he carries in the execution of Omar and him together and the harmony It was just such a beautiful ballad of a song.

I mean, there's so much emotion in it. I can't even, I was amazing. I don't think I've heard him execute emotion to this level before. Well, he's really finding ways to get to universal and relatable truths in his songwriting. In recent years, Omar Apollo has kind of been more open about the fact that he's been coming out as a queer person. And some of the songs here are reflecting on that. there's a vulnerability and a relatability in his vocals, where some of these songs, it's like his voice almost feels like it's being like,

it's like transmissions from a distant satellite, where he feels, sometimes he feels extremely close, sometimes he feels like he's coming in from really far away. And for me, it just has the effect of, I find myself hanging on his every word. I think that one of the things that I've always, always noticed about him as an artist is just like the dynamism and the versatility of his vocals has been there since day one right like the production has elevated the musicality has elevated

but always at his core he has been just dynamic he sounds so many different ways and communicates so many different feelings across all of his music and I think that really has a lot to do with if you think about who he is you know he's openly queer he's you know has a Mexican-American background, he's dealt with a lot of experiences of, I think, traipsing between different identities and different worlds. And he's able to do that so effectively in his music, but not in a way that feels in authentic. I think in a way that really speaks to what a lot of us do in our lives in different ways. And I think he was able to do that so perfectly on this record, especially. And as versatile as he is here, there's still an artistic coherence to this record.

It still all sounds like him. And if you're looking at... looking for common threads that pull together these different sounds that he's working with. Some of these tracks are bilingual. Some of them in corporate trap and hip-hop. Some of them are kind of acoustic confessionals. What tie them together is this sense of almost like emotions that are like pressing against his chest from the inside. There's a there's like a full to bursting emotionalism to this record. If we can hear a track called While You Can, I, I, I, I, I had this reaction to it like there's something swelling inside him that he needs to get out. And I think that sense of purpose is part of what makes this such an outstanding record.

This is not a pop star going through the motions because he has to. This is somebody who is writing songs because they're important for him to get out into the world. Absolutely, and I think that, you know, there is that sense of urgency. And that's, I mentioned earlier, the authenticity of how he delivers emotion and the way he makes you feel as a listener, like you're right there with him. And he's letting you in on his most intimate, vulnerable secrets. And I think it's because it's explosive almost, how he expresses in every way, right? Because there's some happier, dancier, fun tracks on this record. And he does happy, heartbreak.

so easily. Like it just makes sense with him in a way that I think a lot of artists try to capture because, you know, you want to make a fun song but you still want to let it out. And he's actually able to do that in a way that's pretty ingenious. I think this is his most

intentional record, if anything, yet, like you said, it's cohesive. So that is God Said No by Omar Apollo. I think we can agree. It is fantastic. We are going to take a quick break. and when we come back, we're going to talk about new albums from Lil Yadi and James Blake, as well as the band Hiatus Coyote. We will be right back. Welcome back. Next up is an album-length collaboration between James Blake and Lil Yadi.

It is called Bad Cameo, and this song is called Twice. So, Anna, at the very beginning of this year, I did not have James Blake and Lil Yadi make a record together on my 2024 bingo car. I wish I had and I would be so excited if I had known. When I heard about this record, I was like, oh, the James Blake or Little Yadi record. That's what we're talking about, right? There's two different albums out on the same day that are two independent, unrelated artists. And to be fair, I would listen to them both. Oh, absolutely.

I'm huge fans of both artists independently. And actually, Lil Yadi, I think literally said when he announced this record, he said, I don't think people know that we know each other exists. So it's going to be a what the F when they do see that this exists. And yet, I love that you pick this track because this track makes it sound like their voices were like created for each other. Like to me, the way, the synergy, the way that they move together, the way that they harmonize. I'm like, oh, but of course. Little Yati and James Blake have been singing together since they were in the fifth.

Great, obviously. They haven't for the record. Yeah, they have not. And to back people up for people who aren't necessarily familiar with both of them, I mean, James Blake makes these very emotive electropop records, but is certainly like a very willing collaborator and willing to stretch artistically. Lill Yadi started out as one thing and has morphed into about 75 other things. He is a rapper and a singer. His last album from the beginning of 2023, let's start here, was this kind of meandering psych rock record where he was like exploring psychedelic pop sounds with a band and really kind of stretching beyond anything that you might associate with his sound. So you have two artists who are starting from a place of exploration, experimentation, willingness to stretch their personal boundaries and their artistic boundaries,

and who clearly, if interviews are any indication, clearly greatly enjoy working together and really greatly enjoyed meeting kind of in the middle between them. Yeah, I mean, James Blake, too, you know, obviously has been an engagement. incredible collaborator on a whole wide variety of tracks. I mean, he is the guy that you bring in, right? But he had said before this project, like he was done doing collaborations. It took someone as special and as fun as little Yadi to be able to be interested enough to do this again.

And the fact that they were able to come together and it didn't feel like one or the other was pooling them as two people who have been great collaborators. Like it feels really authentically what they both were interested. in exploring. And I feel like a perfect example of a moment where they did this so beautifully together is Save the Savior. I mean, this track to me, it is Liliati being the closest to his most characteristic self besides Transport Me. But there's this gorgeous simplicity with that base. And then James comes in and it just, the way they work together on communicating really difficult issues and things that they've had to work through. I mean, it feels as though they are

quite literally mentally aligned in so many ways here. Well, I think there are some really interesting through lines between this record and the Omar Apollo record that we talked about at the top of this discussion, where you have artists who are willing to lay themselves bare while pulling listeners closer and still reaching for for artistic moments that they haven't already tread upon. So to me, listening to this record, I'm hearing artists who are willing to let you in on what their search is like, who are willing to kind of reach beyond what they've already done

and kind of let you feel like you're listening in on their exploration in real time. There's a song in this record that I wanted to mention, missing man, where near the end of the song, their voices are kind of aligning and combining in ways that it's actually kind of hard to tell them apart. And it really feels as much like a Lilliatty song as it does like a James Blake song. And I just think that is, that's the kind of album-length collaboration that really excites me. You get a lot of these things where it's like, there's a producer who wants to work with a rapper or a singer, and they work together. But it feels a little bit like one or the other, or they're kind of taking turns holding the spotlight.

And to me, with this record all the way through, it feels like both of them. I think it's so important and true that you bring up that Omar alignment, because one, I mean, just sonically, there is kind of a funny synergy. Like in both of the quieter moments on each of these records, it does feel as though they could almost be their own project, Maybe we're suggesting that out into the ether. They all three can collaborate one day. But I could not mention this record without mentioning to red carpet. As much as, yeah, they're laying themselves bare and there's clearly brokenness. And in this record, as there was in the Omar record, there's also this almost delightful optimism or still, like, belief in the romance of things.

Despite the pain that is so clearly present and comes back again and again and again, this opening line just sent me. He says, don't go away. I want to be here for the first gray hairs. And when they arrive, we'll roll out the red carpet. Like just this really, like, beautiful, and the vocals on it and the sound. And there's just something about it with the synth and the live instrumentation and it's R&B and it's jazzy and it's electronic.

And they just like, they didn't say no to any beautiful. things. They just put them all together. Well put. Yeah, it's a sense of playfulness that is really, really welcome. That is James Blake and Lil Yachty. Their new album is called Bad Cameo. Next up, the band Hiatus Coyote. Their new album is called Love Heart Cheat Code,

and this song is Dimitri. Stephen, I come back again and again. I was like it when the first word of a commentary is... I don't know how else to describe it. It is one of those records where I'm like, there is so much to say, but there's more to be listened to. You know, because they are that kind of band where they're so ethereal, they're so visual.

They're just like it's feeling, it's experience, it's color, it's less thought in that specific way. But this is their fourth album. and they, I really like what they did here. I mean, they historically can be so jazzy, they can be so light, they can be so groovy, but this is like a really amazing expansion on that to me. The way they described this record is so interesting to me. They said that they kind of thought of it in this visual way where they started creating visual elements

and then eventually that evolved into them literally envisioning like these actual physical elements that the members of the bands would be selling in a supermarket called Love Heart Cheats. beat code. I don't know, but I love it. We love a concept. We love a concept that goes along with the whole record and it somehow works. But they were really, I think, like, they pushed themselves on this record, which I was excited to hear. Yeah, I mean, this hiatus coyote is a really interesting band. You know, they've been around since 2011. Their songs have been sampled by Kendrick Lamar, by Drake, by Beyonce and Jay-Z and Anderson Pack. They've been embedded in the music industry for a bunch of years, what I really love about this record and what jumped out at me from the beginning

is that as jazzy and vibey and kind of genre fusion as it is, there is also a tension that builds over the course of this record, where as the record goes along, it starts out as one thing, this kind of breezy, wandering through genres, this kind of utopian vibe. And as it goes along, it gets a little weirder, a little darker, a little more jangled. And eventually it builds like from song to song, not just within a song. But to the last couple of tracks on this record, which are these, I would describe them as like electric freakouts. Absolutely. These kind of grinding, unusual, a little bit scary songs.

Let's hear a little bit of the song, Cinema. Temple. If you didn't throw to it, I was about to. That energy is so different from the energy at the top of this segment. And then from there, the album closes with a cover of Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit that is kind of picking up on that intensity. Instead of just kind of settling back into the familiar, it takes a familiar sound and tilts it sideways in ways that are consistent with everything you've heard before it. So the funny thing about Cinnamon Temple, Stephen, is they've been playing this song at shows

since 2015. So it's something that's been a bubbling hyena sound for a while. They just, like, hadn't been ready to release it to the rest of the world, I suppose. But the moment feels right. I mean, it's so fun for them to me. Like, I love Napalm's vocals on this. She gets testy. She gets loud.

She gets wild. And then there's that spacey breakdown. at the end. The reason they called it Cinnamon Temple, Stephen, so interesting. In Mali, they have these mud brick mosques that apparently helped inspire the song, which was also

inspired by Mali and Rhythms. So they really, it's just like a testament to the versatility and the interesting, just like everywhere in the world and universe, let's pull from everything sound that they have. Well, and it's also genuinely strange and idiosyncratic

in spots too. I mean, there's a song called long cat that kind of winds down with them meowing. Oh, but of course. As you do. And it's strange and it's kind of a hairpin turn from the rest of the record. But it's also kind of sonically and thematically and in terms of adventurousness, it's of a piece with the rest of the record. It is because it's the requirement that the price of entry here for this

record is just like a little bit cookie. Yeah. And that felt exactly in line with what was right and what is the energy that they're trying to communicate on this record. All right, that's Hiatus Coyote. Their new album is Love Heart Cheat Code. As we mentioned at the top of this episode, it is a very, very, very busy week for new albums.

We're going to do a lightning round with some of our favorites. But first, we're going to take a quick break. It's New Music Friday from All Songs Considered. We are back with a lightning round of some of the big albums out today, June 28th. Anna Maria, kick us off. Okay, Stephen, I don't know. I think you've maybe heard me talk about this one, but Mabe Frati, our favorite Guatemalan cellist, is out with a new record this week. The album is called Sintir que no saves, and I was really intrigued by this.

She is leading this avant-garde experimental Mexico City scene, and she went a little bit poppier. Check this out. Well, I want to kick off the lightning round with a couple of really major archival releases. One is by Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash, if you remember in the 90s, put out a string of incredible, deeply intimate albums for American recordings. And from that same era, he recorded a bunch of demos in 1993, all written by Cash himself. Those are being resurfaced with kind of new arrangements. around them. That album is called Songwriter.

I met her at the laundromat. She was washing extra hot. I said, don't you need a little help with that big load you got? She said, no, but did a double take, and then she smiled and said, I might. As I rolled up my sleeves, I said to myself,

well, all right, well, all right. So also from the archives, there's a record called Early Day, It's a collection of early unreleased recordings from 1969 by Neil Young and Crazy Horse. And if that is the era of Neil Young and Crazy Horse that you are excited about, do not sleep on this record. Okay, so pivoting a little bit to an amazing new band I recently discovered. They're called Combo da Guerre, and they are doing this really interesting boleros,

Cumbia, 60s, rock fusion. This is their debut record, and it's called Fracasines. Well, it's been about 30 years since I first fell in love with an Australian instrumental rock band called Dirty Three. Their songs are built around guitar, these kind of scattershot drum patterns, and the violin of Warren Ellis, who has gone on to make a lot of really great music with Nick Cave. Now Dirty Three is releasing its first album in 20. 12 years, it's called Love Changes Everything, and it's full of so much of what I love about this band. It's stormy and strange and beautiful, and also really, the perfect word for it, it's gnarly. Let's hear a little bit of the gnarly opening track. It's called Love Changes Everything at One.

Okay, Stephen, our favorite R&B star, Lucky Day, is out with an album today. It fuses all the interesting things he likes to play with rock, R&B, alternative, and it's called Outgris. Oh my God. Oh my mind. Curious. Just hope you see you see me. Spilling is killing so I fight online when you enter in my mind. Oh my God, Anna Maria.

I only get one more pick. There are so many directions I could go. I mean, Imagine Dragons has a new album. Nathaniel Raitliff has a new album. There's a new live album by Moona. So many directions I could go, but I'm going to dip back like I did with 33 into my 90s memories and no that there is a new record by the Folk Implosion. That is the duo of Lou Barlow and John Davis.

It's called Walk Through Me. It is the Folk Implosion's first, full-length album of new music in 25 years. That is more than twice as long as it took Dirty Three to release a new record. Again, the Folk Implosion's new album is called Walk Through Me. It's to me out of a cave with that morning and feeling. See if I'm here. Okay, Stephen, drum roll. And on this New Music Friday, we have one more record to talk about.

This is Camila Cabello's fourth studio album. I feel like she's really been on this journey of finding her own sound, discovering herself, you know, since her early days of being in Fifth Harmony and creating her own experience for people. So really excited about this record. It's called CXOXO.X.X. All right. Well, that will do it for New Music Friday.

Anna Maria Sayer, thank you so much for joining me. Oh my God, anytime, Stephen. That is such a pleasure. If you want to hear all the music we've featured on this week's show, along with a bunch of other great new music out today, we've got expanded playlists in Apple Music and on Spotify. Search for NPR's New Music Friday playlist in either of those apps. You'll also want to sign up for NPR Music's weekly newsletter.

It is written by the magnificent Anne Powers as well as the considerably less magnificent Stephen Thompson. To subscribe, go to Instagram. NPR.org slash music newsletter. This week's show has been produced by Noah Caldwell with editorial support from Otis Hart and Saria Mohamed. From NPR Music and All Songs Considered, I'm Stephen Thompson encouraging you to be well, take a break, and treat yourself to lots of great music.