NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out June 5

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

Vince Staples. Zoh Amba. Death Cab for Cutie. Host Stephen Thompson chats with Laura Grant from WEXT in New York about their favorite albums out Friday, June 5. Plus, a handful of NPR Music writers and critics offer their personal picks in the lightning round.The Starting 5(00:00) Album No.1Death Cab for Cutie, 'I Built You a Tower' (ANTI-Records)(08:18) Album No. 2Vince Staples, 'Cry Baby' (Loma Vista Recordings)(15:43) Album No. 3Jalen Ngonda, 'Doctrine of Love' (Daptone Records)(20:41) Album No. 4Zoh Amba, 'Eyes Full' (Matador Records)(27:19) Album No. 5Laura Misch, 'Lithic' (One Little Independent Records)(32:39) Lightning Round Recommendations• Fightmaster, 'Tolerance' (Many Hats)• Red Clay Strays, 'Grateful' (RCA)• Slippers, 'Slippers 08' (Perennial)• Suzanne Ciani, Metropole Orkest, Simon Dobson, 'CIANI/ORKEST' (AKP Recordings)• Tara Clerkin Trio, 'Somewhere Good' (World of Echo)Sample the albums via our New Music Friday playlist and see our Long List of notable releases on NPR.org.Credits:Host: Stephen ThompsonGuest: Laura Grant, WEXTAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital Producer: Dora LeviteEditors: Otis Hart, Elle MannionExecutive Producer: Suraya MohamedSpecial thanks to Robin Hilton, Hazel Cills 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

Happy Friday, everyone from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Laura Grant from W.E.X.T. in New York. Welcome to the show, Laura. Thank you so much for having me, Stephen. I'm very excited to be joining. It is a pleasure to have you. I mean, before we start talking about records in depth, you know, I did want to acknowledge this is a very, very, very busy release date, June 5th, 2026th. A lot of kind of legacy artists, artists who've, you know, built up kind of long and successful careers. are back with new records, including Modest Mouse, Lizzo, Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk, of Montreal, Evanescence. We couldn't get to all of these records, but we wanted to acknowledge that there are just a lot of big names on this release schedule. Oh, 100%. And I did check out the Modest Mouse album. I know we're not talking about it later, but I checked it out and I loved it. Harsh words by mother, but it turned out they were nice. She said if you can. We're not the only one who dies.

A few weeks later, I was told that you're gone. Well, I still just can't remember of your eyes. We figured we'd kick off this show by talking about one of these legacy artists in depth. There's a new album from Death Cab for Cutie. Death Cab for Cutie is back with its 11th album. It's called I Built You a Tower. So as I said, this is Death Cab for Cutie's 11th album. Death Cap for Cutie is celebrating its 30th anniversary as a band next year,

and virtually that entire run has been full of beloved records. You know, some of my favorite albums of the early 2000s are from Death Cap for Cutie, transatlanticism. We have the facts and we're voting yes. Just a long string of great records. And this particular album kind of follows a series of, you know, kind of major events in the life of singer Ben Gibbard. You know, he got divorced. He was kind of going through that process and the process of writing this record while touring to support the 20th anniversaries of transatlanticism, of plans of a give up, the album that he put out with the postal service.

So he's doing a lot of looking back here. in an album that still like has a lot of kind of force and kick to it. I have to say I loved this album. It had that overall album feel of like a cohesive book. Like I felt all the songs, they felt like chapters to me and they flowed really well together. So I thought it was very cohesive. And that's something I really loved about the album.

And the lyrics of this album, I just felt were so relatable. There's a particular line, the title track, of the album that goes from the cradle to the hearse. And I loved that. And like I have a, you know, a small, cohesive, great group of friends. And it just popped in my head. It reminded me of two of them where we basically are like,

oh, no, we're cradle to grave friends. I built you a tower. A tower in a place than no one. Because I needed you. Run circles round. Circles around my brain. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, the title of the record, I Built You a Tower, is kind of referring to the idea of towers as silos and kind of ways that we compartmentalize grief and trauma and major change in our life. And so the record is really reflecting on a lot of those ideas. And there are definitely tracks here that are very clearly about divorce. And, you know, there's a song called Stone Over Water. And if you've ever been through a divorce, as I have, There's something so relatable and so universal about the ideas kind of explored in this song.

There's a line, you know, while we're quoting lines from the record, there's a line from this song trying to take the first step into the arms of wherever. And that's such a great death cab for cutie line, but it's also just a great line about any kind of crossroads in your life, any kind of major change where you're like, you're taking that first step into whatever is next and you have no idea what that is. And so I think that kind of ambivalence and hope and grief that are all swirling together is very on brand for death cap for cutie. And it's very appropriate to this moment in Ben Gibbard's life and in the band's life. When I was listening to this, what kept repeating over and over in my head was such relatable lyrics, trying to hold it together, trying to sleep through the night. I keep telling my friends, I'm all right.

Who has not masked to their friends? Because it's like, nope, nope, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm good. Nope, I'm all good. And then, like, at night, you're like, you can't get the thing off your mind that you are thinking about. And this is why I feel this album is so human. It's such a humanist album. It's so relatable.

Absolutely. And I had very much the same reaction to it. But I also appreciate it. As somebody who has followed this band's career for a long time, one thing I really like about this record is that it has, like, instrumentally speaking, in terms of these arrangements, there's some real intensity here. There's a lot of these arrangements are punchier, more percussive, more aggressive, more rock-driven. You take a track like punching the flowers, which is one of the singles from the record. And like, a lot of times people think of Death Cab for Cutie almost as like, you know, like a Tweed sensitive indie band.

And at the same time, you listen to that song, and yes, there's that certain kind of soft contours that are in every Death Cab for Cutie song, but there's all. also rock energy, and you can get a sense that a lot of these songs are really going to sound great live. Next up, new album from Vince Staples. Vince Staples, new album is called Crybaby. another one. London Bridge, they're trying to cross you now. Don't crash out dirty, I got the hammer. I know it's polarizing.

Miss my nana. Another album that from the first song, I just enjoyed this whole album. I thought the message that was woven throughout the music was so strong. Like, I felt as though the music made me want to have a dance party, but the lyrics really made me listen and this feels like this is a socially conscious album. This strong political message,

that's something that speaks to me because I love when artists have something to say. And like, I dance through this whole thing and yet listening to the lyrics, I'm like, wow, it's so powerful. Absolutely. I mean, Vince Staples has a really interesting career trajectory, right? Broke through as a major voice in hip-hop. But this record is kind of hip-hop rock fusions. I very idiosyncratic, very forceful, very political, as you said. This record is right in the pocket of, you know, if you're a fan of childish Gambino, if you're a fan of outcast, the kind of mix of hip-hop and rock

just works together on this record so beautifully. The song Go Go Gorilla, you know, has this chanting chorus. It's so catchy. You can just imagine a big crowd of people chanting along with it. The verses, you know, on first and second listen, you're picking up like, okay, gentrification, redlining, aggressive policing. He is assessing the state of America and putting it in songs that are clearly serious but have this undercurrent of joy to them. And I think that works so effectively here. You know, I was really interested in, you know, I was reading his press statement about this record.

And his press statement in its entirety reads, As the world burns, I have decided to release this album. Thanks for listening. Red line, gentrified, they gave wrist flaps, and then sent to smiles. What from bread lines to picking lines to mainline prison time for the cons that we commit. But genocide, don't mean nana, Uncle Sam gets his dignified.

In America, probably the dream that they were selling this terrain on my parade, keep them, my brothers up. Got to dance with it like Mr. Bentley. If I get poured over, Lord be with me. A couple of the tracks in, Lord forgive me. I was 12 years old when they tried to sit me on the curtain in the rest from a grown man. I ain't even tell my mama what happened. A couple of the tracks on here, I mean, they all have powerful messages, but TV guide.

I mean, such a powerful message. Some of the lyrics in there, television you turned me on. I think the television is controlling me. I mean, it's such a fight anthem and such a justice anthem in there. Yeah, and like, it's such a perfect pairing of, instrumentation and lyrics because the lyrics are, as you acknowledge, they're very paranoid, they're distorted. It's this dark look at distraction. But at the same time, the song that's dispensing it is full of these fuzzed out guitars. And it feels like an anthem. You can,

you can interpret it and appreciate it on a number of different levels. I also wanted to call out the song Seven in the Morning, which closes this record with these kind of sinister spaghetti western vibes and you know and kind of building to this woozy chant of left right left and it's a song about war and about the curdling of the american dream but i love the way it's popping up kind of at the end of this record which breezes by pretty quickly um not a lot of not a lot of fat on this record but like right up to the end he's taking big lyrical and thematic swings and he's switching up his sound that's kind of like the first of like the first first track on the record where I'm picking up those spaghetti western vibes. It's like he still has

not only new things to say lyrically, but new things to say musically. That is Vince Staples. His new album is Crybaby. We've got some more records we're going to talk about in depth, as well as a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today, June 5th. But first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Laura Grant from W.EXT in New York. Laura, tell us what's going on with the station. Well, you know, we are a public radio station. We're located in the capital district. We are in Troy, New York. We're small but mighty. We did not come out of last year's federal funding unscathed. We did lose all of the federal funding. So we are now fully funded by our listeners, who are the most amazing listeners. We are doing this on a lick and a prayer and

for the love of music. What we say about W-E-X-T is we play the tracks left behind by regular radio. So we play those eight-minute tracks. We play, we've played 16-minute live sessions of, you know, the Grateful Dead. We, that's, that's our station and we do it for the love of music and for the love of community. And I think that is something that we need in our world today is community. Absolutely. And, you know, as important as public media are to communities, they're also incredibly important to anybody trying to make it in music. They're such a huge. huge part of how people discover new music, you know, obviously way beyond this show, beyond the tiny desk, beyond, you know, everything else. These stations are really making it

possible for local music scenes to flourish. And that, that, you know, the future of the music industry also depends, I think, on the future of public media. And so, so glad to have you on the show. Let's move on to our next album. It's by Jalen and Gonda. It's called Doctrine of of love. So Jalen and Gondah was born in Wheaton, Maryland, just down the street from where I am recording this podcast. He is now based in England. He moved to Liverpool when he was 19 to attend the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts,

only to drop out pretty quickly. This is his second album. put out a record in 2023 called Come Around and Love Me. He records for Daptone records, which gives you a sense that this is, as you might have sensed, from the music clip we heard, this is pure vintage soul. This wouldn't have sounded out of place in a playlist from 1955. Jalen and Gonda was inspired to pursue music after he heard the song My Girl by The Temptations in his dad's record collection.

And you can really tell listening to this record that it is made with great love of classic soul. Absolutely. I fell in love with this album. From the very beginning of that first track, anyone in love, I just the instrumental in the beginning. And oh my gosh, come on, Jalen's vocals are just chef's kiss. R&B and soul is just like, that's my jam. I love it.

You know, woven throughout this album, what I heard was Motown. I heard some stacks. I heard even a little bit of that, you know, Philadelphia sound. it is what I call a no-skip album. Yeah, and I mean, I was really struck listening to these songs, like, how are these not covers? Or how are these not, you know, like lost treasures

that have been unearthed after 60 years in a vault somewhere? You hear a song like Mr. Train Conductor. And my immediate thought was, how has the song not already been written? Or the title track from the record, Doctrine of Lunduct. It's just this big, grand belter of an anthem. You could imagine James Brown singing this song, you know, with this big, glowing chorus behind it. Each of these tracks feels vintage and classic, but also very present.

It doesn't feel dusty, right? Like, you don't listen to it and think, like, this has a modern sensibility, but at the same time, it doesn't just feel like a museum piece either. It's so clearly made with love. and craft and care. No, it doesn't feel dusty. It doesn't feel like, oh, this feels like a little dated. Not at all. But it feels so much like an ode and a love letter to music of, I heard some 50s in there,

I heard some 60s, and I heard some 70s. Like, I heard all of that in there, and it's just, I just loved it. And you alluded to Jalen and Gonda's voice, which is just this such an expressive instrument. And there are times on this record, you take the song Good Good Love. And at one point listening to that song, I was just like knocked backward a little bit by just how expressive and potent an instrument his voice is. So if you are in any way, you know, a disciple of classic soul, if you were looking for who is keeping the torch lit for, you know, kind of classic timeless soul music, this guy's doing it. That is Jalen Anganda. his new record is called Doctrine of Love.

Next up, something very different. The artist Zo Amba is back with a new record called Eyes Full. So, Zo Amba has a fascinating story. They're primarily known as like an up-and-coming New York City free jazz saxophonist. They studied under David Murray. They released their first record on John Zorn. label, which should give you a sense that this is somebody who has made some wild music. This is a return, though, kind of spiritually speaking, to their hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee.

And so what you get is music that is tapping into a lot of Appalachian roots folk traditions, a lot of rambles. You have blues arrangements and forms here. But I would say with a free jazz spirit. And at times, there is a freeness to this music. It's a wild, untamed thing where emotions are just seeping out of every moment. And at times, their voice just has this intensity that tips over into something that I haven't heard very much of. I agree. This album, the entirety of it, felt so full of like almost this raw desperation. It had real emotional vulnerability. And at times, it was, almost uncomfortable to listen to.

There was so much angst in this album. I felt like you could have thrown these vocals in with Bob Dylan or Joan Baez or something like that. And it would have been like, oh, yeah, this feels very, just angsty. But I absolutely, I appreciated what they're doing. Absolutely. And at the same time, yes, you have these moments. There's a track called Southern Soil, where Zohamba is like, pushing their voice into extremes.

And this is a very loaded word, and I don't mean it as a pejorative, but they're taking their voice to an ugly place. The voice is almost taking the song out of control. I can't be what I can't see, but Lord, I'll be. Tears from down your cheek, come on, to the creek of home. Your baby is going to look for lifetimes. But at the same time, you also have songs, this is a textured record. There's also a song called Emma Hoy, which is this gentle, really lovely meditation where the acoustic guitars are doing something really pretty but also off-kilter.

It's a record that is covering a ton of emotional terrain. Those two songs that you just mentioned, those two tracks with Southern Soil, I always like to say, give me a banjo and a twangy singer and I'm happy. So I described Zoe's vocals on that one as like Hillbilly Janice Joplin. And personally, I was all about it. And then the juxtaposition of Emma Hoy, I loved the change in energy and vocals on that track. It was very breathy and a theory. and I loved that one.

Absolutely. And, you know, this is a record that is about their hometown. And it's about people they grew up with and feeling like there are all these people in America and in the world who are, you know, who are not necessarily seen, who get left behind and forgotten and marginalized. And this record is about seeing people.

And it's about kind of presenting this place and the people who occupy it. and viewing them in this very open-hearted way. And so, you know, the album is called Eyes Full. It's about seeing people. And when you view it kind of through that prism, you realize how heartfelt it is and how much it's about Appalachia.

It's about looking at the music of Appalachia and it's country and it's eccentric. And I really appreciate that this is Roots music that is unafraid to be human and unafraid to be eccentric. And I think that's a really, really welcome direction to take Roots music in 2026. Agreed. And what you said about this album is about seeing another person or another people.

The final track on that album, Smile with Your Eyes, that lyric in there, if you're going to stare, then smile with your eyes. And I thought to myself, we all know what smiling eyes look like. And it's very special when you find them on you. That is so on the sun I tried to burn Oran drive wasn't wrong If you're going to stare Throw us a dime

Smile with your eyes That is Zohamba Their new record is called Eyes Full We've got one more album We want to talk about in depth As well as a lightning round Of some of our other favorite records out today

June 5th But first, let's take a quick break From NPR Music It's New Music Friday I'm Stephen Thompson here with Laura Grant from W.E.X.T. in New York. Before we get to our lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today, June 5th, we want to talk about one more record in depth. It's by Laura Mish, and it's called Lithic. So Laura Mish is a London-born saxophonist, producer, singer-songwriter. Her first record came out in 2023. It was called Sample the Sky.

It got kind of an acoustic counterpart the next year. And listening to Lithwick, you get a mix of these kind of beautiful, stylish, soulful meditations, as well as kind of questioning about our place in the world, about our connection to the ancient, about our connection to nature. This is a record that asks a lot of questions. Sometimes literally, you take the song soften, and it has this refrain that comes up again and again,

are you tender with yourself? These are songs of reflection. These are songs of, There are songs of relaxation, but they still have edges to them. I listen to this album and I'm thinking, okay, this is kind of something I would do some yoga to. But comprehensively, the whole album in and of itself, it gives me otherworldly vibes.

Like, it's very ethereal. It's very, there's a mystic feel to it. And I particularly loved the second half of the album. The final track feels very otherworldly. It kind of ties the album into a nice little bow. It feels very much like very cohesive from the start to the finish. It comes full circle for me. I agree with you, son

I agree with you, I think that in the back half of the song, I'm really loved the song Siren, you know, which is built around kind of persistent, kind of clicking percussion, and then these like swooping layered voices that kind of recalled like Juliana Barwick, you know, these songs that kind of billow out like smoke. But then, as you said, late on this record, there are some really gorgeous highlights. I also wanted to mention the song Shell, which is these spare strings and her gorgeous voice kind of unfurling around them. And there's so much air in that song. that it's just kind of hanging there and making the air around you more inviting.

There's just something so soothing about it. Trying to slow down in a life that is short still climbing. Yes, so soothing. Also, her vocals on this one are beautiful. And that violin, the strings at the end, just it's a beautiful. It's a beautiful album. It really is. It's peaceful and yet impactful. That is Laura Mish. Her new album is called Lithic. So Laura, we could not possibly get to every terrific record out today, June 5th. It's a very busy release date. And so we wanted to do a

lightning round, kind of highlighting some of the other records we really liked this week. And I'm going to kick us off with the singer, songwriter, and actor, are Fightmaster, who's maybe best known as an actor on Gray's Anatomy, on Shrill, in the movie Sorry Baby. As a musician, they record under the name Fightmaster. That is their real last name. And their first full-length record is just a heartfelt, thoughtful set of songs with these big, catchy, booming choruses that'll ring in your head for days. I really love this record. Fightmaster's debut album is called Tollel. So the album that I chose for the album that I chose for the Lightning Round was the Red Clay Strait's album,

grateful. For me, this whole album, I will, I'm a church kid, so I came from a very interesting upbringing. This whole album felt sort of like a spiritual experience for me. It felt like I was at church. I was at a revival. It has this rockabilly honky tonk feel to it. For me, this is another one of those no-skip albums. The very first track is called Demons in Your Choir.

And it's almost like a warning track and also a trying to save you track, you know, people in your circle that you might have some demons in your choir. And I loved that message. 10 out of 10. this album. That is the Red Clay Strays. Their new album is called Grateful. All right, let's bring in Robin Hilton. Robin Hilton, host of All Songs Considered. What do you got for us, Robin? All right, Stephen, the album that I hope everyone checks out this week is from a singer that goes by the name slippers. This is the project of Madeline Beebe. She's originally from Atlanta, but based out of

Los Angeles now. I've heard her compared to Karen Carpenter and the music described as straight-up pop music. But to me, there's just a lot more to it than that. The songs, they can definitely get really infectious and they're super catchy. The whole album is really fresh and breezy, but there's just a hint of mystery in her voice, I think. It's not really of any specific time or place. And I think that's true of the music, too. There's just a touch of melancholy in the songs, a little bit of wonder, a little bit of uncertainty. But the whole thing just keeps your full attention from start to finish. Again, the band is Slippers, and the album is Slippers 08.

Let's bring in Lars Gottrich. Lars Gottrich. What do you got? I think one of the most fascinating composers of our time is Suzanne Chiani. In the 1970s, she made jingles. for Coca-Cola and General Electric. She created the sound design of the pinball machine Xenon, and she has released several albums of ambient new age

and avant-garde music. And she's done all this with just one instrument, the modular synthesizer. You see, so few musicians understand the versatility and the playfulness of the synth like her. There's a new album out now called Chiani Orchestra, which was made entirely with Metro Paul Orchast, an orchestra that regularly takes on daring and unexpected collaborations.

And across 76 minutes, you experience the colorful mastery of Chiani and this instrument. There's symphonic funk, cinematic disco, orchestral techno. Sometimes the synth is gurgling the bass line or trickling like a babbling brook, and in others, its percussion sweeps across the strings. Find somebody with a great sound system. This one deserves it. That's the album, Chiani, Orcast by Suzanne Chiani and Metropal Orkest, conducted by Simon Dobson. And finally, NPR Music Editor, Hazel Sills, Hazel, give us your pick.

So I want to shout out an album by the group Tara Clerkin Trio. The album is titled Somewhere Good. And they are a band out of Bristol. They're not quite a jazz trio, although their name kind of suggests that. but their music is jazzy and very psychedelic and this kind of hard to pin down almost like alternative pop music. This album is such a playful release. It's so easygoing. I kind of think about this album as being perfect for like your Sunday morning routine. So I highly, highly recommend it. That was Somewhere Good by Territory.

Ehrlich and Trillo. And that is our show for this week. Thank you so much, Laura Grant, for taking time out of your week at W.E.X.T. in New York. Thank you so much for having me. This has been such a pleasure. It has been a pleasure to have you. If you enjoyed this week's show, we always appreciate a positive review on Apple or Spotify or whatever app you are listening to right now. This episode was produced by Noah Caldwell and El Manion and edited by Otis Hart. Our production assistant is Dora Levitt, the executive producer of NPR music is Saraya Mohamed. We'll be back next week to discuss more new music with Nastia Voinovskaya of KQED in San Francisco. Until then, take a moment to be well,

go see the movie Power Ballad, it's really fun and good, and treat yourself to lots of great music.