NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out May 29

Episode Date: May 29, 2026

Boards of Canada. Kurt Vile. Iceage. Host Stephen Thompson chats with Andrew Brown of KUTX in Austin about their favorite albums out Friday, May 29. Plus, a handful of NPR Music writers and critics offer their personal picks in the lightning round.The Starting 5(00:00) Paul McCartney(02:00) Boards of Canada(09:22) Kurt Vile(17:01) Iceage(22:18) feeble little horse(27:45) Greg Mendez(33:46) Lightning Round Recommendations- The Greenberry Woods- obli- RaiNao- ear- Brian JacksonSample the albums via our New Music Friday playlist and see our Long List of notable releases on NPR.org.Credits:Host: Stephen ThompsonGuest: Andrew Brown, KUTXAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital Producer: Dora LeviteEditors: Otis Hart, Elle MannionExecutive Producer: Suraya MohamedSpecial thanks to Ann Powers, Robin Hilton and Anamaria SayreSee 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 Andrew P. Brown of KU.T.X. In Austin, Texas, welcome to the show, Andrew. Happy to be here. It is a pleasure to have you. So the music that you are hearing right now is by Paul McCartney. Might have heard of him. He was from a band called Wings. And to a lesser extent, The Beatles. His new album is called The Boys of Dungeon Lane. Do not email me. I know that the Beatles are bigger than wings. The Boys of Dungeon Lane is Paul McCartney's 20th solo album. You might have seen him performing on the last ever late show with Stephen Colbert. You might have seen him as I did on the last episode of the season of Saturday Night Live. I did, yeah. And it's great. You know, I'm of the belief that he can keep going and putting out music as long as he's able.

He's earned as many victory laps as he wants to take. Yeah, and I think, I mean, victory lap at 83 years old, soon to be 84, like obviously Paul McCartney has absolutely nothing left to prove, but I did appreciate with this record that it's not just, it doesn't feel like a placeholder record. It feels like he still has stuff to say, stuff that he's still processing. The album title is a reference to a street in Liverpool. This record is full of nostalgia and childhood memories

and, you know, kind of a deep notes of wistfulness, clearly somebody who's looking back at not only a long career but a long life. That is Paul McCartney. The boys of Dungeon Lane is out today. Let's kick off our more in-depth discussion of albums that are out today, May 29th, starting with Boards of Canada. Boards of Canada are back with their first album in 13 years. It's called Inferno. Boards of Canada, I think... You really need context around their music to fully grasp it. They're a Scottish electronic music duo. They are brothers, even though they go by different last names.

That kind of gives you a hint at how kind of mysterious and confusing they like to be. To give you an idea of their kind of cult following, I've been in a Facebook group that is solely focused on boards of Canada, and it has been dismal in there for 10 years because they haven't put out an album in 13 years. But still, people find things to post about. People dig through the earth to find some kind of relics, little pieces of an interview they did eight years ago or something. Legendary in the world of kind of bringing a warm analog feel to electronic music that was really, I feel like, needed in the late 90s. There was so much kind of argument between like, is electronic music too mechanical and not human enough?

And Boards of Canada came and presented this album that's just undeniably warm and deep and psyched. And it definitely feels like it was made by human beings, I guess you could say. That's absolutely, yeah, that's absolutely right. I mean, it's really interesting. You know, I listen to a lot of ambient music. I listen to a lot of electronic music. I often will listen to kind of instrumental ambient music to kind of fill my head when I'm doing other things. I'm definitely somebody who I'm often a multi-screen guy.

I like a lot of different stimuli in my life. And I listen to a lot of electronic music as background music. This is not background music. This is the kind of record you zone into, not out of. And I love the fact that in kind of announcing this record, the way they announced to this album, and I would imagine that Facebook group you're in lit up when this started happening, they started mailing VHS tapes to addresses where people had recorded Boards of Canada music in the past. And that's how they started to kind of let.

word trickle out. And I think that that speaks, as you said, to the analog nature and kind of some of the vintage tones that are running through here, but also that that air of mystery. We can't talk about this album without talking about the rollout like you were saying, because I remember the day the first VHS tape arrived in somebody's mailbox. It was VHS tapes with nothing but hexagon shapes on them. It looks very boards of Canada. And you put it in a VCR, and it's a bunch of imagery and ambient tones and just but no text no explanation nothing and so of course this got everybody talking are they about to announce something you know a band disappears for 13 years and you hear not one peep not one interview no singles released they did one or two random remixes right so yeah the excitement

is huge for this record massive and i wanted to touch on something you said because i really it really resonated with me i was thinking the exact same thing this is not a passive listening situation If you put it on at a house party or in the background while you're grilling by the pool or something, you're probably not going to get the full experience. When we're talking about the different sounds that are running through this record, you take a track like memory death and it's making space for sort of, you know, like spacey ambient music. There's a sweeping quality to it. You get these little pings like it's like a satellite.

But then there are like boards of Canada is really interested in like, like cults and the occult. And sometimes that seeps in. They love to implant subliminal messaging in their records. And I just imagine, like you said, listening to this in a barbecue. You've got your friends come over and they just feel vaguely unsettled.

One of the tracks I wanted to bring up was the track Father and Son. And that was one of the first moments that hit me where I was like, okay, this feels different. To have the verbal samples come in and be like kind of the main thing listen to the track is pretty rare for them, I think. It sounds like people debating each other about religion or going to church or something,

but it's all, it's chopped so that the conversation lands on the rhythm in a really strange and interesting way. So it's really cool to see, even though this feels very, very much like a classic Bords of Canada album, there's still some curveballs in there that were surprising me, someone who's been obsessing over their music for two and a half decades, you know. I won't be a blah. Ragulay, which is the dog is doing. No, I never get it, that was a typical.

What makes you think you can do it? Now are your doctor, but... Well, he's sin. The man's fellows will be there of his own household. Oh, I hardly believe that your own father or mother, a brother, or sister would be your enemy. You're gonna call him a liar? No, I'm not. not calling him a wire.

All I can do all there is that is Boards of Canada, their new album is called Inferno. Next up, Kurt Vile. Kurt Vile has a new album. It's called Philadelphia's Been Good to Me. My poor heart was made into a rock of stone and a done done all that I could do enough. Practically taste them. So, my tongue, but till then it's, we cry.

So Kurt Vial, singer, guitarist from Philadelphia, as you might be able to sense from the title of this record, and from many of the kind of themes that course through it, Kurt Vial has really specialized for a really long time in not only being like a really kind of dexterous guitar hero type, great guitarist, but in a subtle way, weaves guitars together in ways that form kind of, this hypnotic blend, and then the voice that he puts over it is this kind of cool, blist-out slacker. And his records are very much a vibe. And they really will sprawl out. There's a track on this record called 99th song that gives him more than 10 minutes of space to kind of ramble in. And a lot of his songs will do that. They're kind of taking you on a journey, but as the title

suggests, it's a record about his hometown. It name-checked landmarks, it name-check's other bands, it name-checks clubs he's played in, not only in Philly, but in relatively nearby Baltimore. There's a shout-out to Beach House, you know, a band from Baltimore. And in that way, this record feels really lived in. This is the 99th song on my Red Looper. Think I played my piano into a stupor. late in the evening to early in the morning and both at once played it soft and low played it soft and low kurt vial is one of those artists that he has his sound so dialed in that the moment a kurt vial song comes on you know it's a kurt vial song living in austin i would say he's one of those artists

that just gets played at every coffee shop every local business every cool hip you know vegetarian restaurant or whatever. So I feel like when his music comes on, it's very comforting to me. I was talking to my friends about this and she was like, Kurt Vile is like if a puppy dog made music. I was like, that's really nice. Yes, he's very comforting. Like he seems like somebody that I would want to be friends with. This is the album you should play at the pool party. It's a record that stops and sniffs the bushes. Yeah. I mean, the track, you don't know because it's my life. really exemplifies, I think, that spirit. It feels a little free-associated almost.

I can just imagine every coffee shop, as you said, every coffee shop in Philly for the next five years is going to be playing this record. And there's a lot to listen to. He brings in little synthesizers, little drum machines here and there, a little ear candy for you. I also appreciate that there are a few jolts of energy here.

The song Chance to Bleed kind of introduces this kind of chugging blues rock sound, but it's also got like a little bit of kind of classic rock sloganeering in the chorus, where you can imagine that song not only being played in a coffee house in Philadelphia, but on like a classic rock radio station alongside Led Zeppelin and the Who. That is Kurt Vile. His new album is called Philadelphia's been good to me. got a bunch more great records we're going to talk about that are out today, May 29th. But first, let's take a quick break.

From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Andrew P. Brown of KUTX in Austin, Texas. Andrew, tell us what's going on at the station. Well, for me personally, I go by the name Sound Founder. It's a DJ name that I made up for myself in high school. And so my show is called Sound Founder on KUTX. And it's the station's first show that focuses on electronic music. and beats and stuff like that.

And so KUTX has been in a really cool, interesting space for the last five or six years where they really push to get a good hip-hop show and get a good electronic music show and just always looking to expand the idea of, because the slogan is the Austin music experience. And so the conversation has always been, what does that mean?

It used to mean just guitars, Willie Nelson, and Stevie Ray Vaughn and stuff. And it still means that to an extent, but it also means a lot more than that. So it is really cool to be part of a station where we're all working together to kind of like broaden the vision of what Austin music means. Nice. That's exciting. I mean, KUTX is a phenomenal station. That's one, that's one we put on in the kitchen a lot, even though we don't live there. I feel so lucky that to, I started my show in 2019, you know, was a big experiment at the time because they gave me the 1 a.m. on Saturday slot. They're like, okay, we'll see if the listeners, you know, revolt if I play a bunch of Apex Twin and stuff. And the opposite happened. A lot of people really embraced the show.

Last year, my show was voted Best Radio Show in Austin, which is really exciting. And so, yeah, it's really fun. We explore the world of the broad, ever-changing world of electronic music every week. Love it. That's Sound Founder on KUTX. Awesome. Well, let's kick off our next record. It is by Ice Age, and it's called For Love of Grace and the Hereafter. It's not a direct-de-ship one ever than you fucking dead boy.

Heavy rains where you climb the cloud perched in the sky. Never deaths you stay behind. Well, never mind. An ordinary shift pace well enough hand to mouth and there's nothing to it. You're a tad boss swimming in the sewer. And watch your sails, baby. With nothing here, nothing there. A noise there's swift.

So I'm a way to find, The shutter bind So downcast ice coordinates my little navigator Pup the vase but your heart's not in it I'm a sway Are you willing to pay Are you willing to break with All that's lame before

Before you're swept and... So Ice Age is a Danish post-punk band This is their sixth album And part of what I really enjoy about this band. The settings, like kind of the song settings, are unmistakably post-punk, but there's real emotion to it. Sometimes post-punk music feels a little bloodless to me, and this is not a bloodless record. These songs have sweep and kind of a wild-eyed quality to them. And so I love the way these arrangements are kind of constantly threatening to barrel ahead of themselves a little bit,

if that makes sense. If you hear like the song The Week, it feels like a song that is racing against itself. I listened to this album all the way through a few times, and something that hit me kind of each time. So I graduated high school in 2003, and one of my best friends was really into all the kind of post-punk and rock and stuff coming out at the time. It was a really interesting creative time for indie rock bands. And so he would always burn me CDs of like Lasavifav or dismemberment plan or you know, I don't know, slint and braid and stuff like that. And this to me felt like an album that almost could have been like sitting on that stack of CDs.

You know what I mean? Like it feels, I wouldn't say it feels like extremely experimental. They're not really pushing crazy boundaries, but it's interesting enough and it's really well made and really well played. And the singer's voice is great. So if you want just like a good, you know, four piece. rock band that is doing it well. It's an interesting album. Yeah, absolutely. And I definitely had that same reaction to it of feeling like, man, you hear the song Mother of Pearl. And I was like,

this would have blown up on the blogs in 2005. But you also have songs, I mean, that are very distinctly this band. You take salve for every sore. And it's got gallop to it. But it's a little bit unsteady and it always feels like it's maybe about to topple over. And I think that quality where the songs are kind of wobbling but not falling down gives them this sense of like you're, you want to keep listening to hear where they go next. And I think it would be really easy. And I think a lot of post-punk bands really kind of stay on rails in a way. And this doesn't stay on rails. That is That is Ice Age.

Their new album is called for grace and the hereafter. Next up, a group called Feeble Little Horse. It's called Bitnought. So Feeble Little Horse is a band from Pittsburgh. This is their third album. It actually came out Tuesday. So it's been out for a few days. Maybe you've already discovered it. Maybe they're as new to you as they were to me. It took me 10 seconds to fall in love with this record. The opening 10 seconds of the song Doorway, which is the first track, just these big, boomy, blustery, stormy guitars just come bursting out of the speakers. And at the same time, that kind of muscular. guitar sound is set against the vocals of Lydia Slocum and those vocals are so sunny and sugary,

but they're also still part of this sturdy frame. And so this record is stormy and sweet and so catchy and so concise. These songs whizz by, you know, in two minutes apiece. You know, the whole thing flies by in less than a half an hour and there's just not a wasted moment. Something that I personally really like obviously I'm like the electronic music guy but I loved how like at moments this almost feels like a like a pixies record or something but then it'll break down into a bunch of like sounds being chopped up and like sounds like they're like maybe sampled themselves and mix it with a bunch of electronics it'll break down into like weird loops and beats at totally unexpected times and to me that's awesome because they could have just made a rock record and it would have been good but like

going in there and like giving the listener more to kind of chew on with that and taking it to kind of like a surrealist place with the electronic elements adds mega bonus points for me. Yeah, for me too. And you mentioned that willingness to kind of chop things up and like play around with vocal effects and stuff. The song upside down is a perfect example of that where it's it has this kind of weird sideways kind of disorienting vibe. I think you kind of describe some of the processes that I think are going on in this song. And the song blows by in a minute 43, but it is complete. This record kind of gets in and gets out, but it is playing along the way, and it's having fun along the way. I would like to see how they pull these songs off live, because to me, one of the most interesting things in this area we're in now, where most music has some kind of electronic music element to it.

And it's always interesting to see how bands make that work because this totally feels like a rock album for the most part. But like I said, they have these other parts where it goes totally abstract and weird and loopy and stuff. So it would be really cool to see how they do that live because every band has a different approach to it. Well, and I want to see them live just to hear them perform the song DMT, which closes this record, which is just like screaming bluster. There's just this explosion at the end of the record. and nothing makes me want to start a record over when it's finished, then just like a burst of energy. Just like remind me that like you came here to have a blast.

And I get to that last track and I just immediately start it over. That is feeble little horse. Their new record is called Bit Not. We've got one more record we're going to talk about in depth as well as a lightning round of some of our other favorite records out today, May 29th, But first, let's take one last quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Andrew P. Brown of KUTX in Austin, Texas.

Before we get to our lightning round, we want to talk about one more record. It's by Greg Mendez. Greg Mendez's new album is called Beauty Land. Crawling around like a spider, I'm hurting the ground to stay away. Dark room in a hospital bed, I'm shrinking out the window, and your body's shivering feeling out. Peacefully slept, now you're breathing with all of your chest So Greg Mendez is a singer-songwriter from Philly, like Kurt Vile,

big Philly-themed show this week. Greg Mendes has been putting out records for about the last decade. This new record, man, talk about relevant to my interests. These songs kind of land at this cross-section where, like, Elliot Smith meets Fountains of Wayne, meets the shins. And I don't like to just like always just throw out references as a way of describing a sound, but that really does describe the vibe here. You get a lot of that Elliot Smith really delicate, but with a heaviness to it. You get that Fountains of Wayne where it's just these big, bright, beautiful hooks. And you get the shins where it's sort of layered. You know,

they're like he's bringing in these harmonies and kind of doubling and tripling up his voice and making it sound, like I said, feathery and heavy at the same time. Yeah, the Elliott Smith thing hit me like a ton of bricks when I was like, wow, this is really, I mean, it's really nice. And that's a huge compliment, you know, to be compared to Elliot Smith, obviously.

But, yeah, the first, the opening track, I felt like is a great choice for opening track because it grabs you right out of the gate. Gorgeous song. Gorgeous song. I want to say there was like, maybe some, like, toy piano or something layered in there. There's some interesting, like, kind of melody textures

in there. Immediately he's talking about going to rehab and all kinds of stuff. Whether, I don't know, it's unclear how many of the lyrics are metaphorical or not, but, but yeah, immediately I was like, okay, this is going to hit really well for people who want this kind of moody, acoustic songwriter stuff, you know? I want to feel pretty and laying, but when nobody's with me, I don't have a spine, it goes straight to my head. I'll sing if I want or I'll swim till I day I got a new job and it's not too sweet Last night I got robbed as I walked through the streets

At a quarter till three When no one's around except someone like me That song's called I Want to Be Pretty And it really manages to land right at that sweet spot for me Between Elliot Smith and Fountains of Wayne And when people think about Fountains of Wayne and they often think about like Stacy's mom and these like big overblown power pop songs. But Fountains of Wayne had a lot of kind of tender, softer, kind of sparkly ballads.

And for me, this song just hits right in that spot and I didn't realize how hungry I was for that sound. And at the same time, 14 songs, 27 minutes. Swoon. You know, like get in, get out. Say what you want to say. Some of these songs are sort of in the form. of fragments, but they still feel like complete thoughts. And you have a couple tracks that are like,

ooh, they're pushing three minutes, and they feel like epics. This song, No Evil, you know, which is just like building and layering voices and swelling as it goes. And it's such a nice trick to make a song that is so spare and yet feels so grand at the same time. I've been thinking about the things you said pacing up and down the block inside my head. Again where those pretty little houses lie in their pretty little locks. I don't know why I'm crying.

I'm a sidewalk every night. Every time I share a bed with you, I'll remember all the worst things we went through. Suppose that's why I'm alone. You don't give me more till I'm dead and I'm crying. I like it when artists aren't afraid to include shorter songs. Like, if it doesn't need to be bigger, don't make it bigger. It can be in the mix. It can be a part of the overall big picture.

I noticed some of that almost feel like little rough sketches that he wanted to include in the album. And I think that's cool. I like that. I like weird, unexpected little things like that rather than try to kind of fluff everything up to be a three-minute-long commercially viable thing. Just if you're feeling it, just put it on there. And we'll take the ride with you. Let's go. Do I can't see no evil.

Do I can't see no evil? That is Greg Mendez. His new album is called Beauty Land. Now, Andrew, we could not get to every great record that is out today, May 29th. So we'd like to put together at the end of each show a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today. I'm going to kick us off. So I've used the phrase relevant to my interests a couple times on this show. you know, everybody's got their thing, everybody's got their little obsessions. One of mine is little-known power pop bands of the 1990s. I was in college radio in the early 90s. There was a big power pop boom with artists like Matthew Sweet and the posies. And one of those bands that I really loved was called the Greenberry Woods. They recorded a couple of just gorgeous sparkling records for a major label in the kind of early to mid-90s and then disappeared. I never stopped loving their records, particularly the sun.

they had called Trampoline from 1994. Anyway, now the Greenberry Woods are putting out their first new album in 31 years. And what is astounding to me about it is that it doesn't miss a beat. There have been a couple of singles from this record. There's one called Whenever You Want Me Too. There's one called The One That Makes You Happy. They could have fit right in on those records that I loved in the 90s. But because most people don't remember the Greenberry Woods,

These songs, which have been out for a few weeks or even a few months, have, like, Spotify play counts in the low to mid four figures. So if you love 90s power pop, you should help rectify that. The Greenberry Woods new album out today is called It's All Good Sugar. My lightning round pick is Obly. The album is called Soft Speak, and particularly a track on it called We Are Sitting in a Scary Place. It's got break beats. It's got kind of a grimy synth thing going on, some female vocals on it, and very nice kind of light, maybe more approachable electronic music to balance out the darkness of words of Canada. The headier vibes.

That is Obli. Nielba is called SoftSpeak. All right. Let's bring in Anna Maria Sayre, co-host of NPR's Alt-Latino. Anna Maria, what do you got for us? Reinau's latest album, Marcria, is one of the most interesting experimentations in Puerto Rican music I've heard in a while. She does all of this crazy genre experimentation, but not in the way that we typically expect, like a Dembo beat and what we've heard recently with, say, a bad bunny mixed with a Plena rhythm.

What she does is all this really interesting, subtle electronic manipulation that blends all of these sounds really naturally together. It's more than just Plena meets Dembeau or reggaeton and folk. It's like a really interesting, almost ancestral Plena Jam meets with something we haven't even heard yet. It's just musically incredible. Thank you, Anna Maria. Hilton, my fellow all songs considered host, what do you got for us? Well, the album my most excited about this week is called Rumspringer, and it's from a band known as Ear. You know, I think it's really hard to create much mystery around the identity

of a band or the music it makes, and I think it's maybe even harder to make something that is truly surprising. But Ear does both of these things better than anyone I've heard this year. We know that they're a duo from upstate New York, but for the most part, they keep a pretty low profile and don't reveal very much. And the music ear makes is, it's kind of magical. Very often, it's made of collages of sounds, found sounds, electronics, little snippets of lyrics or conversations, it's very lo-fi. But it's not, you know, I wouldn't call it overly arty or experimental.

In fact, it can be pretty infectious just because it's so arresting and kind of wondrous to listen to. Ear is the band, again, and the album, Rum Spring. I can definitely say it'll be on my list of the year's best albums come December. Thank you, Robin, and one last pick. We've got the Marvelous and Powers, and what do you got for us? My lightning round pick this week is now, more than ever by the flutist, keyboardist, and composer Brian Jackson. So Brian Jackson is best

known for his work with the late poet Gil Scott Herron. Now, Gil Scott Heron, of course, is remembered as the godfather of rap for his heart-hitting blend of spoken word, jazz funk, and social commentary. And this record brings those songs right back to us in a new form. Brian Jackson made seven albums with Scott Herron in the 70s, including the masterpiece Winter in America. For a long time, wasn't really messing with this music. He was doing other things, but in the past few years, Jackson has returned to the Scott Heron Songbook, reimagining classic songs like The Bottle and Home is where the hate is, in tandem with the legendary garage house production team masters at work, and an array of vocalists. This music cooks. It's full of rage and insight, and it's just what I

need for another hot summer. All right, that is our show for this week. Thank you so much, Andrew P. Brown, for taking time out of your week at KUTX in Austin. Thank you for having me. It was a joy. Love nerding out with you, man. This was great. 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 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 Laura Grant at W-E-X-T in New York. Until then, take a moment to be well, take a nap if you need one, and treat yourself to lots of great music.