NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out March 7

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

Lady Gaga. Jason Isbell. Newcomer Annie DiRusso. NPR Music's Stephen Thompson welcomes Celia Gregory from Nashville public radio station WNXP to discuss these records and much more.Featured albums:• Annie DiRusso, 'Super Pedestrian' (Stream)• Jason Isbell, 'Foxes in the Snow' (Stream)• Sasami, 'Blood on the Silver Screen' (Stream)• Divorce, 'Drive To Goldenhammer' (Stream)• ASTROPICAL (Bomba Estéreo + Rawayana), 'ASTROPICAL' (Stream)Read our feature on 'ASTROPICAL' here.Check out our long list of albums out March 7 and stream our New Music Friday playlist at npr.org/music.Credits:• Host: Stephen Thompson• Guest: Celia Gregory, WNXP• Producer: Simon Rentner• Editor: Otis Hart• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed• Vice President, Music and Visuals: Keith JenkinsSee 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. I love my love of her mouth. I love the way she turns the lights off in her house. Happy Friday, everyone from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I am Stephen Thompson. I'm here with Celia Gregory from WNXP in Nashville. Hey, Celia.

Hey, it's so great to be with you, Stephen. Thanks for having me. It is such a pleasure. We've got several great national. Nashville records, top to bottom, all killer no filler this week. But first we wanted to acknowledge the biggest kind of commercial release of the week, Lady Gaga's Mayhem is out today. Dance or die.

We did not get advanced copies of it, though we have heard the singles, obviously Die with a Smile with Bruno Mars, Abercadabra. This is kind of back to Lady Gaga, you know, the big supercharged pop songs. These are not standards sung with Tony Bennett. These are not songs from that Joker movie nobody liked. This is supposed to be pure undistilled Gaga. We're going to have a full episode about mayhem on pop culture. Happy Hour next week.

So look for that in your podcast feed. But first up, we are going to talk about a terrific artist from Nashville. Her name's Annie DeRuso, and her album is called Super Pedestrian. Stephen, I am so grateful that you had me on specifically to talk about this artist. We're big fans at WNXP. and in fact she's our Nashville artist of the month, syncing up with this debut full-length. It's crazy because she feels like she's sort of been with us for a long time.

She's been dripping singles out for years since she was a college student here in Nashville, and she just sort of stuck around, and now she's got this awesome debut full-link, as we were saying offline, just no skips, really. I have, of course, some favorites on here, but I'm just so happy to highlight her on a bigger stage because she's finally getting this baby out in the world, and it's fantastic start to finish. I had changed my flood out of Chicago, just so I'd see you one more time.

I had never heard of Annie DeRousseau until I was prepping for this show. And I was really just bold over. This is your first top-down warm-weather record of the year. It is so my jam. The lyrics are just sort of bored and full of lung. The sounds are just big and blustery. You know, songs about terrible romantic partners and unmet needs, you know, just all packaged in these big, rich, hokey songs. You know, I got to talk to her when she released an EP a couple years ago, and she said the most vulnerable she'd been to date was talking about body image, not necessarily sex and love and getting messed up.

Like, she's not really shied away from those themes. But this package of songs in particular, she's really leaning into. to the fun. It's not just sassy and funny. It's like it's whimsical in a way. And yet it's still passages from her journal. The songwriting is so primo, stuff where you're like, did she lift that from my journal? Like, is that mine? Even though I have many years on Andy de Rousseau, you know, talking about loaning a book to someone and you're probably not going to read my notes in the margins in your room that I'll never be in. Like, p. to be I've met.

That song Back in Town is one of the songs of the year. Truly. It is just a perfect. You talk about relatability. This is an F-boy anthem. This is the, like, you are terrible. I know you're doing all these awful things. I know you are completely emotionally unavailable.

When are you coming back in town? When are you, I'll see you then. Yeah. First of all, F-boy anthems and summer anthems, the Venn diagram. Just really almost a circle. Yeah, exactly. Totally my brand. Back in town was an example of her experimenting with different open guitar tunings.

I mean, she's a really great, like, riffy power cord guitarist, but I didn't realize how much she's grown as a guitarist in terms of the different sounds on the record. I'm not as technical, right? I'm listening as, like, this is a hook. But she really experimented with some of the sounds, and it shows evolution of her growth as an artist. I want to talk about wearing pants again. It was another single we got before, you know, this full,

release and it shows the softer side of Annie DeRousseau. And it also features fellow Belmont University grad Rustin Kelly. They've worked together on one another's records. In fact, he has his Dirt Emo Volume 2 coming out later this month. So there's a lot of like Nashville overlap and just two really great songwriters working together and their voices really meld well on a song like this one. Start it peckist me in the kitchen. Drunkin I don't listen. Even some of the kind of lighter songs thematically, songs that might seem like throwaways, a track like good-ass movie.

Yeah. It's just full of these funny references to movies she thinks are great, movies that are bad but fun, movies that you love watching with your friends. There's just something so so playful and seemingly effortless. But only seemingly. Anytime something great sounds effortless, it was not effortless. This is a record, you know, obviously, you know, we do this show every week, and it can be a certain amount of a grind where you're always kind of focusing on the next thing and not necessarily going back.

This is a record I'm saving. This is a record I'm going to keep coming back to. I'm putting it on Spotify playlist that I crank in my car. If you have not heard Annie DeRuso, do not sleep on her. This is one of my favorite albums of the year so far. Number two in your scorecard, number one in your heart. Home run hit, November 1st. is Annie DeRuso. Her new album is

super pedestrian. I think it goes without saying, highly highly recommended. Next up, also very highly recommended. A fantastic new album from Jason Isbell. It is called Foxes in the Snow. Bury me where the wind don't blow

where the dust won't cover me where the tall grass grows. Or bury me right where I fall, Tokyo to Tennessee, I love them all. See, the windmills turn up 55, still got so much to learn, still feel life. Lonely girl is all I need to tie me to this world, make me believe. Well, I ain't no cowboy that I can ride

And I ain't no outlaw But I've been inside And there are bars of steel And there are bars we're swinging doors For all the time between Stephen, obviously, a voice of Nashville, Everybody knows him, a voice of a generation in Americana, really. I mean, people, it's a household name, Jason Isbell,

But this is his first solo acoustic recording. Kind of hard to believe. Of course, he's done so much with his band, The 400 Unit, and nary a drum on this record, nary a guitar solo, really, to hide behind. This is not blistering rock and roll, which we know he can do. This is, here's my heart,

and here's every word enunciated. There's no mincing words here. And so it's a great display of his songwriting, of course, this many years into his career. You're like sleep. Take what I can get. As I've got to make some sense of this, so here the fuck I said. At 3 a.m. trying way too hard to find the words to slow my sweet addicted heart.

You're like to sleep. Can't get near enough. And I pretend that I don't need you and I'm out doing stuff. As just about any fan of Jason Isbell knows, it's following in the wake of his divorce from the also fantastic singer-songwriter Amanda Shires, who not only was his longtime life partner, but a member of the 400 unit and an extremely important aspect of his sound as an artist for many, many years now. And this record speaks directly to that. There are songs that are directly reflecting on the dissolution of that relationship. There's also, I think, some of the best songwriting of his

career. Don't be tough until you have to. Take your heartbreak on the chin. I've been a fan of this guy for at least 25 years now, going back to his time in drive-by truckers. He wrote one of my favorite songs of the 21st century, a song called Outfit. And there's a track on this record called Don't Be Tough that for me feels like a perfect counterpart to the song outfit more than 20 years.

later, advice to his kid about how to live life and be a good person. And it is a truly fantastic track. Don't be shitty to the waiter. He's had a harder day than you. Don't make babies stay up later just because they're so damn cute. Don't say love unless you mean it. But don't say sorry less you're wrong. Tell a story like you've seen and tell yourself that you belong. I earmarked that one too, Stephen. I think it's sweet. I mean, like, it could be cheesy and like platitudes except every line delivers, right?

Like, it is actually not just father to child. It's sort of stuff I've learned over time. And he has, in the last couple years, I mean, gosh, just two years ago is when the documentary about him so much focused on his marriage and making it through COVID was released. and this is evidence of like so much can happen in two years' time. I feel almost a little awkward and icky talking about it. So important are Jason and Amanda as a power couple in Nashville. This feels almost personal to the audience here that have watched both of them

and now are having to see where they go creatively and personally post-divorce. I will say a couple of the tracks like you mentioned that place us there in the wake of this long-term relationship ending where the absolutely gutting true believer, Also was absolutely gutting to me, gravel weed. Drink a fifth of cheap whiskey. Let's hear a part of gravel weed here, the segment that just really says a lot. Is it, I'm sorry, the love songs all made different things today?

Yep. It's in my notes. And even he introduces it, the concept of a gravel weed. I needed training up. I don't need that anymore. Like, basically thank you for your service. I was a gravel weed and I needed you to raise. That's the day came when I felt like I was rain.

Live to see my melodies betray me. I'm sorry the love songs all mean different things today. That's like a weird double-edged lyric of like, dude, you owe her a lot. Yeah, I feel icky, like I said. But we can cut this. But, yeah, so much of this, I mean, the true believer stuff, right? I was a true believer about love, about music, about, you know, loving and losing, but staying in the city. It is so real in these songs, as I said, because it was just recorded in five days on one guitar.

There's no hiding here. It is all out, and he chose to talk not just about where he's come from, but where he's off to, which is falling in love again. I can't wait to hear more of his music. I can't wait to hear more of Amanda Shire's music. They have been such treasures for so long, and I'm always hoping for the best. For the musicians I love, I am not somebody who roots for my favorite musicians to have hard times so that they can write devastating music about it. I want you to write music about the wonderful times you're having. And if you're writing about hard times, I want you to fake it.

You know, I want my favorite musicians to be happy. I love my love, her mouth. She turns the lights off in her house. That's Foxes in the Snow from Jason Isbel. We've got some more great records to talk about on. this wonderful release day. But first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Celia Gregory from WNXP in Nashville. Celia, I hear tell WNXP started during the pandemic.

Yeah, really great time to start a radio station when everybody's working from home and not listening in their car where radio still thrives. No, but in all reality, yeah, end of 2020. What a great time to have a new passion project, which a few of us did. starting this station. And now we've just grown and been able to meet people where they are actually out, seeing live music and connecting the music makers with the radio listeners. It's been really, really fun over the last four years. And we celebrate our fifth this year. I know you host a morning show, but you're also doing stuff in that Sonic Cathedral space with live sessions. Yes, yes. It has been the most fun to have touring bands and local artists

alike come through and in some cases do really unique like strip back sessions, right? Like Fontaine's DC, just two of them singing these songs. We've never heard them like that and it lives on the internet forever. So I get to have really short discussions and timely discussions alongside those performances and that's one of my favorite roles here at WNXP. I forget the thrill of lies. The truth escaping through the eyes. You use voices on the phone that once were spent on...

If you have not checked out those Sonic Cathedral sessions on WNXP, I strongly encourage you to do so as somebody who sees a lot of tiny desk concerts. Well, next up, we've got a new record from Sasami. Sasami has a new album called Blood on the Silver Screen. So Sasami Ashworth got her start in the band Cherry Glazer, Fantastic pop band in LA. But Sasami ended up going solo a few years ago. This is her third album, and she is just kind of a musical polymath.

She is a conservatory-trained French horn player. Her records have touched on everything from kind of classic indie pop. to industrial and metal. She loves to kind of take pop sounds and scuff them up in really interesting ways. This is kind of meant as her big pop swing. And at the same time, that creativity, that cultural omnivorousness, is still feeding these songs. Yeah, I have turned into such a pop girl in recent years. I think it's because there's so many really, truly great indie pop female

artist right now, much like you have the Annie de Rousseau in the Wednesday and the horse girl, like riffy female fronted bands. Sasami, this record is kind of flawless in terms of sing-alongs, pop bangers, and yet, as you said, that classical training shines through. These aren't just boops and beeps, right, like strangers' things sounding synths. But then also the French horn, right? You get all of the training and the pop sensibility in one. This is a standout for me this year.

I'm really obsessed with this record. When you talk about young pop, singer-songwriters who are doing kind of fascinating, cool, beautiful, intimate work. One of the people I would name is Clero. And Clero pops up on a song here called In Love With a Memory. Where We could talk all night, alone till the latter day. In Love With a Memory, there's a gentler vibe to it. And coming off of her album from 2022,

Wees, which incorporated all these sounds of like industrial and metal music, where she actually toured that record with a metal band. It just speaks to her versatility and how comfortable she is bouncing around among wildly disparate genres while still always sounding like herself. I love that song with Clero for sure and a huge, you know, radio hit for us because anything Clero touches everybody's gobbling up, right? But it's a great collab between the two of them. The song I can't get enough of, Stephen, and is so in my head, is Honey Crash. Oh, yeah. It has a really extra music video to it, too.

It's very theatrical. But what I love about Honey Crash is what you kind of just said, coming out of the metal, it starts, like, lower, darker, and then she gets in that upper register, and it's a pop banger, and it's both and in one song. So it's a little bit of a statement of how the record's going to sound, because it bobs and weaves throughout different genres. Thematically, she's talked a little bit about, you know, having grown up in kind of a repressive environment and finding ways as an adult to kind of reclaim pleasure and reclaim who she is and who she wants to be

and just how she wants to move through the world. And these are songs that are channeling those ideas and putting them in packages that are just extremely pleasing to the ear. When she emerged, she felt fully formed, but she is still finding ways to expand. on what she was doing with her first couple records. Yeah, I think she said this was supposed to be romanticism to the point of self-destruction. And I'm with that. I'm with it.

Just throw your whole body and self into it. Also, not lost on me, that Honey Crash is actually Honey Crash into me. She's reclaiming Crash into me from Dave Matthews. It's a new generation. It's not copywritten. Like, you know, you can use that especially to go into this power ballads. Also, the very swiftly sounding, just be friends. Did you get that? Stephen, like the impression of like, this is a sing-along that the profundity and how simple the lyrics are, which I think Taylor does very well, is at play here too. So she seems to be a great pop songwriter as well.

I hadn't made the Taylor Swift connection, though so many pop records definitely echo some of the things she's doing. And it's just wild to see Sasami, who is such a polymath. who is so willing to draw from anything, that on this record that is kind of tapping into some more mainstream sounds, that of course that would be in her toolkit as well. That's Blood on the Silver Screen from Sasami. Next up, we've got a band called Divorce. And Divorce has a new album called Drive to Goldenhammer. Love that. Love it so much, Stephen.

You know, Twist My Arm, I play a British band on the radio in America. This has been a real fun thing to get these singles from divorce. I feel like they're from Nottingham in England, and actually our midday host happens to be from Britain. So we've got a lot of things that maybe we wouldn't have had our eyes and ears on from Jude. So shout out to Jude Mason. Now, this band, though, it's tickling all the same senses as like last dinner party and riding that wave of somewhat theatrical, but not too, theatric.

It's like flirting with the line of overwrought. It's like just rot enough. You know? It is acceptably rot. Acceptably rot. And I mean that lyrically, but also musically. Yeah, hook this one to my veins.

I had never heard of this band. I feel like my Google algorithm when I'm Googling divorce is probably like, oh no, buddy. Oh, buddy. And you're like, no, I don't need that anymore. Exactly. Divorce band, Divorce Nottingham.

I really love that it's the co-lead Vogue. So you got the male and the female lead, which had a moment in the sort of bulk Americana, you know, you know the bands I'm referring to a time ago. But now you have this like sassy, like the bug club out of Wales and a bodega, I'm thinking, where it feels fun. It feels fun to have them trade off and then have close harmonies. And I think that's one of my favorite things about this band. It's so simple. But each song might have a different lead vocalist and then they mesh really well, like on Hangman, which I think is my favorite track on the record.

Yeah, Hangman is a great song. You know, you're mentioning. all these new bands that are incorporating that kind of busy multi-vocalist sound. I was also getting echoes of the band Los Campesinos, which is a favorite band of mine, you know, where it's like wordy and clever, and sometimes it's shoddy. And sometimes a song will feel like three different songs kind of like laid over each other, where hooks give way to other hooks. The opening track on this record, Antarctica, is such a stunning song where you've got these, little tinny drum machines all of a sudden giving away to voices that are just sparkling. These interlocking hooks, that is such a winning hook it back, but that is a really longer each time I get free.

These interlocking hooks, that is such a winning formula, but that is a really hard formula. Because it can sound like a giant clattering mess that is hurtling off the rails, and yet they're always able to keep these songs together. And so, you know, I just was, I kept being pulled back into this record. I was listening to it while I was kind of doing other things, and I kept having to stop and like, let's hear that song again, because I think I missed how great that song was. I think that's awesome.

You cited that about Antarctica. I thought the same thing about Pill, where it's like multiple movements in the song. And it shows to me, and I know this is a music appreciation show, but it can be really simple that you like a song for something, you know, very straightforward. And there are songs on this like that, just like kind of, you know, more direct riffy rock and roll. But on a song like Pill, they sound so darn musical. It's interesting that you mentioned Pill because several of these songs have a little bit of a formula. They start in kind of a fragile way or a jazz.

mental way and then build up to something really stormy. Pill moves in the opposite direction where it starts out big and stormy and bombastic and then finds this kind of stately side of the band. Either way, as a listener, you're staying locked in and being kind of dragged willingly through these different phases and shapes that these songs take. Yeah, I thought the same thing. We could geek out about just that one song for 20 more minutes because I thought it was a different song, right?

I had to look and make sure, oh, this is a second part. And I just love when artists do that and stitch together different sounds so that you're taken on a journey within three and a half minutes. That's Divorce. Their new album is Drive to Goldenhammer. We have yet another great record to talk about as well as a lightning round of some of the other albums we couldn't get to this week. But first, let's take a quick break.

From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Celia Gregory from WNXP in Nashville. We want to talk about one more record. by a band called Estrupical, a supergroup containing members of Bomba Estereo and Rwayana. The album is called Estropical. Estrupical contains members of Bomba Estereo, the Colombian party band, and Rawa Yama, the Venezuelan kind of beachy, wonderful genre-straddling band. Check out their tiny desk if you've never seen it.

Together, Estrupical is just putting out this wave after wave of big, summary, just friendly vibes. I felt the temperature in the room rise 10 degrees listening to the story. record. It's funny you said that because my very first note was the very first sound we hear is waves, and it's hard to consume a record in the winter that starts with the tropical vibes and not just feel so much lust for the beach. But what a great tone setter, right, at the top? The last couple weeks I've referred to records this way where I'm like, this record

feels like spring. I feel like this is spring. It's spring. Spring is happening. And it's like February 5th. Wishful thinking, yeah. But now it's March. You and I both live in cities that, you know, they have seasons.

But, you know, I grew up in Wisconsin. Spring started in May. You know, here in the D.C. area, they're in Nashville. March, you're starting to get some spring. And this to me, like, I was like, should I put on shorts? Thanks, guys, for making us wear shorts too early. No, I mean, this is, it is a super group, right? And I know for, as a DJ, as a host, I can add Bomba stereo to almost any set.

and uplift and it fits. I mean, they just have it. And this other artist is new to me, but you're right, like to weave them together, it's all good vibes is what it is. Raw Wayana is really, really fun. And together you've got electro pop and cumbia, you know, kind of coming together with other genres,

all just kind of fed into this big, shimmering swirl of joy. This kind of insistent dance pop throb in songs like Diego El Verano, which is so dancing. Am I wrong that they're also this sort of a concept record

where every song has sort of an astrological sign? I think that that's clever and I think it's fun. And One Noche on Caracas is really truly about having a great live music experience in meeting somebody and having this whirlwind evening. What could be more fun to explore in song than that very thing

that's about musical connection? Just a little bit of a connection that's a big bright world out there. And for those of us who spend a lot of time in our houses, but we're all waiting for us, but no going to do to dream. Oh, how ferte is. I want to be a big, bright world out there.

And for those of us who spend a lot of time in our houses, it's all waiting for us. That is the self-titled album from Estropical. It is a delight. If you'd like to know more about this ray of sunshine of a record, my dear colleague Isabella Gomez Sarmiento interviewed the lead singers of both Bomba Estereo and Rawaiana for a feature on their collaboration on NPR.org.

There's a link waiting for you in this episode's show notes. There are a bunch of records out today. We could not possibly get to them all. So we wanted to do a lightning round, and kind of summing up some of the other stuff that is exciting us. I'm going to kick us off with Jenny from Black Pink. All four members of Black Pink, the K-pop, I guess now you'd call it a supergroup, have major solo presences.

Jissu scored a huge global hit with the song Flower. Rose has that song Apate with Bruton Mars that's all over the top 10. Lisa put out an album called Alter Ego just last week. And now Jenny has a new solo record called Ruby. It's a mix of pop, dance music, and hip hop that certainly seems highly likely to extend Black Pink's massive collective winning streak. My Pick, Stephen, is a record I've been highly anticipating. Spades is one of my favorite songs of the year so far from the Boston band Vunda Bar. And first of all, fun to say, surgery and pleasure is the record.

And it really also covers a lot of sonic ground. But they are a rock band through and through. We're actually doing a session with them at a record store, and I can't wait to see how they bring. that to a small stage. But I just can't say enough about this band and the way they excite me, because they're not new, but they're new to me with this batch of songs, including I Got Cracked, which is a great fun one to play on the radio. This is one of my picks of the week for sure. Bob Mold was the lead singer of the legendary rock band's Husker Doe and Sugar. He's been putting out terrific solo records for more than 35 years now, dating back to the 1989 classic workbook,

which was big for me as a mopey teen. Along the way, he even recorded the theme song for the Daily Show, and now more than a dozen solo albums later, he's got a new one. It's called Here We Go Crazy. Also being at it for decades and still pumping out the jams, swerve driver. I did not know until I looked at the full list, Stephen, that they had a new EP coming out. It's called The World's Fair. And I think it rips. And I just want to point out, the blind spot for me is a lot of this Brit rock that was earlier than Oasis, but not of my parents' generation, British invasion either, right? So just kind of. I love Swerve Driver. That hurts.

That's what I mean is like this was just sort of when I came up, I didn't know about these bands unless you had a cool older sister or whatever. So I missed the ride, the slow dive, even in My Bloody Valentine, and you have to go back in history and learn about these bands. But not if they're making great new records. The entry point can be now is my point. And I'm so grateful that we still have Swera Driver making music because I think this rips. Finally, we're going to close out with something completely different, but also really lovely. The young British classical pianist, Jenna Bacani Mason,

just released her first solo album. It's drawing from household name composers like WC and Chopin, but also shining a light on people like Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still. Do yourself a favor and file this one away for your Sunday morning cup of coffee. The album is called Fantasy

that's spelled with an IE. And that is our show for this week. Thank you, Celia Gregory. Oh my gosh. For taking time out from your morning duties at WNXP, I am not jealous of your schedule to join us. You can hear Celia's excellent show every weekday morning in that NPR app.

Just search for WNXP. Thank you, Stephen. I would love to go hard in the paint on five albums every week with you. As much prep as it was, wow, what a fun time to get so nerdy about music. Thanks for having me. It is such a pleasure, Celia. We will have you back. ASAP.

You have been fantastic. 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 Simon Rentner and edited by Otis Hart. The executive producer of NPR music is Soraya Mohamed, and her boss is Keith Jenkins, NPR's vice president of music and visuals. We'll be back next week to talk about new albums from Charlie Crockett and many more with Matt Riley of Austin, Texas Public Radio Station, KUTX. Until then, take a moment to be well, take a walk, and treat yourself to lots of great music.