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New Music Friday: The best albums out Oct. 23

October 23, 20260 comments♥ 0
00:00 A quick note before the show, this podcast contains explicit language. Conductor. Sipping on this brown liquor got me nostalgic. Plastic on couches in the kitchen of Martin and Malcolm. Happy Friday, everyone, from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. Each week on the show, we talk about the best albums out that week with members of the NPR Music Network. For today, October 23rd, we are talking about new albums from Anderson Pack and Corday, Fenlily, and more.
00:29 To kick things off, I want to welcome Francesca Harding from KCRW in Los Angeles. Hey, Francesca. Hi, Stephen. How are you? I am good. It is great to have you on the show. This is our first time chatting. I'm really excited to talk to you. I know, I know. And yet you feel like an old friend. Oh, my God. Kindred Spirits. I think one reason you feel like an old friend is that you brought this next record or our first record to kick off the show.
00:52 It is so fun. Anderson, Pack and Corday, their new album is called Heavy is the Crown. I just feel like everybody fake. Mama used to drive a green camry back in 98. And Cus moved keys like Ray Charles and designer shades. They did my little bro unjust, so we're trying to blaze. They left them down on the scene like Alec Baldwin. And plus his mama still in denial like alcoholics. What's going on?
01:16 Shit, I couldn't imagine Marvin. But ain't no mile and high enough, even if we crawl. Me and AP the second coming, the rest is done with. A couple 50s, the rest is hundreds. It's just abundance. Maryland, L.A., New York, and Paris. London. It's always deeper than it seems. Shit is never nothing. Sipping on this brown liquor got me nostalgic. Plastic on couches in the kitchen of Martin
01:39 and Malcolm. Matriot airloom stones decorate the crown. Heavy is the crown. Heavy is the crown. Heavy is the crown. So my first thought, Francesca, listening to this record is, who, this sounds like a hit. Anderson Pack, obviously, you know, very successful rapper, singer, songwriter, drummer, all around polymath, and like, a great collaborator. He's working here, kind of album-length collaboration with the rapper Corday, who's a, you know, a hitmaker in his own right. And boy, I got to say, Francesca, they're really in this together? This is not the kind of collaborative record where it's like they each brought in a back. of songs and you can kind of tell like where one of them is taking the lead on each track.
02:35 They're like fully embedded together in each of these songs. I 100% agree. I love Anderson Pack and Corday together. And you know, they just compliment each other so well. You know, they both have their own very unique strengths. But you can also tell that their approach to music and lyricism, they have this kind of shared sensibility. So they get into this group very well together. You can tell that they also probably challenge each other in terms of their lyricism. But it was such a joy to listen to this record. Yeah.
03:08 And like in addition to these songs that, you know, evoke a lot of like sounds and scenes from the past, you know, that sense of nostalgia that's running through this record, there's also just an enormous amount of energy and humor. There's wordplay. There are pop culture references. There's a moment in the music. the opening track 58th floor, which is that it feels like this very kind of old school hip-hop
03:33 back and forth where they're just like kind of trading bars. And at one point, Anderson Pack just like momentarily dies. I mean, let's not forget, right? Like this album artwork is inspired. But don't she live on a 58th floor? Hello? Hello? Nigger. I mean, let's not forget, right? Like this album artwork is inspired. by the key art from the 2008 comedy stepbrothers. And so it is this indication that we're in for a really good time. You know, it's just a great kind of comedic, lighthearted starch to the album. But then we are really taken on a journey. And I think that there were so many different emotions to this.
04:21 And again, just the wordplay and those pop culture references that you talked about earlier. I was so full after listening to it. I also, Francesco, did you feel? like elements of this record were like throwing back to like the hip hop of the 80s and 90s where you'd get like a song like just a friend or parents just don't understand. These like these kind of like silly songs where the rap is kind of doing a fair bit of like scene setting and storytelling. But it never sounds like a museum piece. It never sounds pretty, it's never corny. It feels like it's just like tying together 50 years of hip hop in this package that feels.
05:01 current while still evoking a lot of happy memories around music. Or, you know, we talk about mumble rap. And I always say, if you think that about the genre, you're probably not looking hard enough. But it's just great for these two heavy hitters to come together and to remind everyone that hip-hop is alive and well, that lyricism is alive and well. I really do think that this project is so great for the culture. And again, you know, that lyricism, that wordplay, you know, there is the song called Days Like This. It's probably my favorite song on the album. They come with so much energy.
06:05 First of all, Anderson Pack, he rhymes goat with moat, which I'm so obsessed with that, right? On that same track you have Corday, he says, I'm blazing tracks like Tommy Smith, so let me raise my fist, right? So he's talking, of course, about his lyrical prowess on this track, but then he's also referencing, you know, this 1968 Olympic, the medal ceremony where Tommy. Smith, who was a sprinter blazing the track, right, was on the podium and he raised his fist. So again, just so much wordplay. These references are just so timely. They're so refreshing. And I really think that this was just a home run.
06:43 The sleep was nice. It took for me to have some days like this. I'm blazing tracks like Tommy Smith. She let me raise my fists. Upgrade my bitch. I fire my team because they was whack as fuck. I clean house. They ain't know that I was made like this.
06:55 Every watch of time is piece shit. What age my wrists? And plus my cousin moving. He on some Mason shit. And I ain't fucking with you, niggas, Ronald Reagan shit. The roads that grew from concrete, I paved the way for this.
07:07 Now back the days before the accolades, before packing day, we'll go pack a stage before I rap for trade, before I maturate, into the artists who write a draft that niggas, like cash is clay. My dime is offset, though my tax is paid. But never kick a black man down.
07:20 We all have to stay. Together like Al Green, though I have some wild dreams. That is Anderson Pack and Corday. album is called Heavy is the Crown. We highly recommend it. Next up, the singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka is back. New record is called Fudge. I remember when I played I used to be. Now I don't. I hope you fade away. I hope I find somewhere far where I belong. Fars were wrong as I play.
08:15 So Michael Kiwanuka is a singer-songwriter from London. He's been putting out records since Home Again in 2012, won the Mercury Prize in 2020. You know, first broke through as an opener for Adele's 2011 tour, which helped get him a record deal, and he's been kind of slowly churning out records ever since. Big, dense, sweeping, string-swept, kind of epic songwriting, influenced by classic pop, rock,
09:12 And soul. Generations of influences are woven into his songs. You know, he often gets compared to artists like Marvin Gay and Bill Withers. And you really get a sense of that kind of symphonic approach to pop and soul here. What a strikingly raw and vulnerable project. I was listening to this and I felt like my heart just broke wide open. And, you know, just in reading a little bit about it, this was apparently recorded in 2024, kind of on the heel. of small changes, his record before this. And so, you know, it's kind of taken aback because the tone of this record, Fudge, isn't exactly what I would have expected from someone who, you know, at that time, as you mentioned,
09:54 had won the Mercury Prize just a few years before. And small changes, the album before this was pretty well received. But now we know that this project was supposed to come out much earlier, I believe in 2025 last year, but he suffers this tragedy. And it delayed the release of the album. And so, you know, it's so interesting to hear the lyrics in light of this information because the lyrics feel very prophetic for me. The song, California, he says, I need gray clouds to blow away. I need love, love, love to take me home.
10:34 I've been gone, gone, gone for way too long. We know that he was in the ICU for five months. and then he went to a rehabilitation center. So it is this thing, right, where you're listening to these lyrics and it's almost like he's foreshadowing what's going to happen to him. Anytime that happens where an album is delayed, the way this album has been delayed, you get this sense that the album is finished, but then you can kind of go back and make it exactly.
11:33 what you want it to be. And this record in that way, I think, feels very lived in. And, you know, part of that is because we know the backstory behind it, but I think that does kind of deepen and enrich the overall experience of listening to this record. I also wanted to point out, though, the song, Just Another Moment, which has a little bit of a breezier, snappier quality to it. Not everything here is just like, yes, there are strings that give the song heft, but there is also a lightness to it that he lets in sometimes. I was never known to
12:53 to show inside. I don't know if you're with me on this, Stephen, but it reminded me of Nirvana's cover of David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World. If you listen back to drowning in your heart. I wonder if you would feel the same, but you know, you mentioned Michael Kewan Nuka's vocals earlier and just the way the man who sold the world, just how Kurt Cobain's vocals were super kind of haunting and hypnotic and the entire track feels slightly dark but also still really intimate. And it's just, I don't think that a lot of musicians and their vocal prowess can take you to that place that this track drowning in your heart did.
13:35 But it reminded me of feeling very similarly of how I felt when I first heard that David Bowie cover from Nirvana. Chines the chicka, I see you, drown me. That is Michael Kiwanuka. His new album is called Fudge. Francesca, thanks so much for joining me on the show. My pleasure. Thank you for having me, Stephen. Always great to have you.
14:23 We've got a quick break. When we come back, I'll be joined by Aaron Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee to talk about new albums from Fenlily and Fina. Hey, Aaron, welcome back to the show. Thanks, Stephen. Nice to be here. It is great to have you. I'm very excited.
14:38 to talk about our next album. It's by Fenlily. It is called Win Win. There must be a stranger things than finding you. I just haven't found him yet. It must be a stranger things to loving you. I just haven't found him yet.
15:03 A stranger things to fall. I haven't fallen yet. Be strange and things then I just haven't found them yet. English singer Songwriter Fenlily uses poetry and this really like down-to-earth conversational approach to her version of folk. She leans personal, yet she's really like tapping
15:49 into these universal themes of growth, grieving, who we were and who we could be. I love the fact that Fenn's vocals and the acoustic guitar are oftentimes a musical center for her storytelling. Like her voice is so luminescent, but it never chases perfection. She shapes her songs with acoustic guitar, banjo, slide, this soft percussion and piano,
16:14 and this creates this really soft cradle for a voice. It's just full of this deep emotional observation that's still sometimes often humorous, and it soothes the processing of this big life stuff. And really, she did go through a lot of big lifestum, so that's what this record is hooked around. I also love the fact that she so often recalls the songs of Neil Halstead or Mojave 3 for me. And so, yeah, right away from the get-go, I'm just sucked in.
16:46 Yeah, those kind of crisp, jangly guitars do kind of recall that. I mean, you mentioned kind of the origin story for this record and kind of the tumult in her life leading up to it. I mean, she moved from England to New York. She was broken up with over the phone, you know, so experience. this kind of devastating, hurtful breakup, and then fell in love again. And so, you know, that is the stuff songwriting is made of. And boy, Fenlily made this record in 2023. Her previous record is called Big Picture.
17:18 And it has a song on it called Lights Light Up that Aaron, I have probably listened to 300 times. Always voluntarily, I've never come across it in the wild. I just love it so much. And she just picks up here right where that song left off, these big, beautiful, kind of chimed but sad guitars, this voice that just fits like a glove. And, you know, the album kicks off with this song called Uh-huh. And it does with banjos, what Lights Light Up did with this kind of gorgeous, clean guitar line. This song just immediately got under my skin in the best way.
17:55 You know, I also wanted to talk about it, which is kind of this line. And this line that comes up in the song, you got a lot of time. We got a lot of time, I guess. And I think that that kind of mix of optimism, and, well, doubt that comes with it is just a perfect reflection of kind of just the sheer volume of life events that informed this record. I got a lot of time, I guess, is something you might say. And I don't want to keep you and you don't want to stay.
19:06 Well, I don't want to tell you something. So we got a lot of kids I also think that the song Room to Room really spoke to me especially after I found out it was about the loss of her family pets And if you watch the video She has old footage of her dogs
19:32 Oh boy And in the background you hear that slide guitar It almost sounds like crying or like a dog Crying or howling And it really was like, dang This is like a humorous song But it's bittersweet And it's really tender
19:46 and it just feels like Fenn 100% through and through. That's like her being. She's real. She's intimate, but she's also kind of has this playful quality to her so she can kind of laugh at the harder parts of life. Love it's been out of life. this record. Can't wait to hear what she does next. I hang on her every word. That is Fenlily. Her new album is called Win Win. Next up, the artist Fina, Fina has a new album. It is called
20:38 Jazz Dreams. Copenhagen's Fina, who was born, Fina Glindavad Jensen, is part of this burgeoning Danish music scene that really explores like the vibier sides of folk, electronic, jazz, and alt sounds. And Jensen herself was previously in a more like alt-leaning project called China. But I've always been more drawn to like the subtly cinematic music she creates as Fina. And I really love as a producer, she's not bent on perfection like alt music so often is. There are like these vocal wobbles and quirky endings to some of her songs and overall like less gloss. Her music just has like this natural luminescence that, it feels earthly and unearthly all at the same time.
22:18 Absolutely. She's really good at kind of spooky, murky, twangy, stylish mood music. And I appreciate, Erin, that you kind of talk about how idiosyncratic some of these arrangements are. There's very often a heavy throbbing baseline. You'll get strings thrown in. These arrangements are kind of, I'm glad you use the word wobbling. I think wobbling is a really good word to describe the sound.
22:44 where these songs are constantly in danger of wobbling off kilter. And I think that makes them feel that much more human. This was where I would ordinarily drop a giant anti-AI screed. But like I really appreciate more and more the way like music can signify. This is made by humans. And I feel like I appreciate that careful imperfection more and more. A hundred percent agree with you. I'm like, well, these little whatever quote unquote flaws are just the
23:14 delightful. I'm going to like gather them all and just enjoy them. Her last record that she put out, rocky top ballads, I thought was a little more like leaning towards the folk of Hope Sandville. But when I was listening to this new record, it reminded me so much of sneaker pimps. But then it kept getting me into the brain space of Twin Peaks, not the band, but the TV show. So I like coined a new genre for her called Sneaker Pimps. peaks. Nice. Yeah. And I mean, you take a track like The Thing and you know, you kind of reference the kind of transporting quality of this music and the sense of place that that's happening throughout this record. That's a song to me, there's like a submerged quality to it. It almost sounds like
24:03 she's underwater or at the bottom of a well. And, you know, the song is built out of her voice, kind of a spare piano line, some ambient effects. There's this kind of ominously ringing phone that turns up late in the song. And I think Twin Peaks, the show, is a really good reference point for this kind of music where there is this otherworldly quality to it, but it is still very human at the same time. I didn't mention I'd been writing this book for years. I'm mad, mad order. Just looking around.
24:47 I got a million pockets. I'm sorry to light there will go out. I really ultimately love that this record is just like about going from light to dark. dark. So you've got these like really glimmering moments of like pastoral jangle pop, but then you got these really vampy moments that just feel like you're in like a haze of clove cigarette smoke or something. Oh man. We both kind of are shuddering on the inside. Not my favorite. But if you remember the 90s, that was everywhere, right? I do. I do. It was the worst thing about the 90s. Do you have other favorite songs? I mean, I really love.
25:36 love, there's a track called Goodbye Brain that has this kind of innocent, you know, almost girl group like vocal set against, you know, this string-swept, chimie, bassy arrangement. And to me, that's another one that's like, it's not only transporting you to a club in Copenhagen, but it's transporting you to a club in Copenhagen in a completely different era. You know your secrets very well, babe, a goodbye brain. I love the devil right behind us. It's good, babe. A goodbye, friend.
26:13 Your name is like a bell to me, babe. The whistle from the train, yeah. Just take my mind away, babe. A goodbye, friend. I really like that song a lot. And going back to the Hope Sandoval kind of Massey Star era, that was one that really got me in that baseline. It's just such a treat.
26:36 to hear bass like that for me. Absolutely. It's a good record. That is Fina. Her new album is called Jazz Dreams. Aaron Wolfe, thank you so much for bringing these great records to the show. Oh, yeah.
26:48 I had so much fun listening to these two. So, yeah, always a joy to talk with you. Great to have you. Go Brewers. We've got one more quick break, and then I'll be back with Alex Newman from KMHD Jazz Radio in Portland to talk about more fantastic albums out today,
27:04 October 23rd. Welcome to the show, Alex. Thank you so much for having me, Stephen. It's always a joy and a pleasure to be here. It's great to have you. Let's go right into our next record. It is by Surprise Chef. It's called Frogs in a Pond.
27:40 So Surprise Chef is a kind of DIY, funk, jazz, soul, instrumental group from Melbourne, Australia, heavily inspired by low-budget Italian cinema of the 60s and 70s. The group formed nearly a decade ago, and their music is meant to kind of evoke a certain kind of cinematic quality, but a very specific cinematic quality. Yeah, we've been big fans at KMHD since their first record came out in 2019. They use a lot of silly titles in their songs, but the music is somehow like pretty serious. It's like very like methodical. It's very intentional. They can like replay these songs live.
28:54 in a very similar fashion, which is really mind-blowing. And while there is the cinematic, almost kind of library music elements to their albums, there's also like a real hip-hop sensibility to what they do. And years ago, I read an interview with the Beastie Boys. I mean, this is like sometime in the 90s. And they were like, well, they were very excited about what kind of music would come from people who grew up listening to hip-hop. And I think that a group like Surprise Chef is sort of the unexpected kind of musical quality
29:24 that emerges from people who grew up in a world that got to enjoy DJ premiere from a young age. They got to enjoy Jay Dilla from a young age. And it's really cool to see a band who can synthesize that sensibility into these, like, really patient and methodical compositions. Yeah, I think patient is a good word for this record, because it's not necessarily hitting you over the head, right?
29:48 Like, long stretches of this record really reminded me of kind of the origin story for All Songs Considered. When All Songs Considered started, Bob Boylan, you know, a young miscreant. Bob Boylan was a director at All Things Considered, and he just wanted to do a show that was kind of profiling the interstitial music between news segments on All Things Considered. And a lot of that music was this kind of vibey, stylish, atmospheric tone setting, you know, pieces that don't necessarily, like I said, hit you over the head, but they have real verve and energy. and creativity to them.
30:25 And I thought so much about, you know, about artists like that, the kind of artist that he was profiling on the show in the very beginning when I was listening to this record. Yeah, like a song like The Reno. It like builds up in this like really patient and like special way. And then you sort of get this like blast of like a rain stick or something that happens. That song takes a journey. Yeah.
30:49 And it just feels really special. You know, as much as there is this kind of continuity through the record, there are still songs that pop, and there are songs that kind of unleash hooks as well as vibes. I'm thinking of a track like Leg Day, which is, you know, this kind of jazzy, funky, cinematic song, but it's also serving up hooks. It's also, like, a song that's going to get stuck in your head. The music really is, like, apropos for so many different scenarios, like, driving, like, late at night, like, walking the dog early in the morning.
32:15 It somehow is malleable in its vibe, even though it has such a distinct vibe. Yeah, and there are different little touches that will pop up in different songs. You know, Leon Michaels turns up in one track to play flute. Yeah. He turns up in the song outside voice, and all of a sudden this kind of flute wanders in. And there are songs where you hear flamenco guitars. And, you know, so I appreciate the fact that as much as there's this consistency that runs through the record, there are still these little surprises that get meted out along the way.
32:44 No pun intended, huh? One of the surprises for me was, I feel one of the signature sounds of surprise chef is the guitar player, Lachlan Stucky. And his guitar playing echoes a lot of like the great James Brown guitarist, a lot of the Funkadelic guitarist. But he plays a lot of that acoustic guitar on this record. And I did some very non-scientific research through their catalog. And there's really only one other song that I found that has that acoustic guitar. and it appears multiple times on the record, like on a song like Get Well Soon, and it just adds just another dimension to the record, which I really, really dig.
33:48 That is Surprise Chef. Their new album is called Frogs in a Pond. All right, Alex, this is the part of the show where I always say, you know, there are too many records coming out in any given week. We can't showcase them all, but we did want to do a lightning round with some of our other favorite albums out today, October 23rd, and we're going to bring in a few different members of the NPR music team to give us their picks. But, Alex, I'm going to ask you to kick us off.
34:13 The record I want to focus on is it's a style sport from Shabazz Palaces. It's by my count their 10th record. Shabazz Palaces is the most consistent and recent output of Ishmael Butler, who once upon a time was the conductor of diggable planets. Yeah. He, by my estimation, is by leaps and bounds, the most creative force that has emerged from hip hop. He has this insatiable curiosity in his music. He has the ability to have nostalgia in his music, but also be in the avant-garde. But without being pretentious, which is like juggling live fish with a bicycle on your nose, I don't know how he does it.
34:59 And a song like Heliocentric Immortality Manifesto, it sounds like Houdini and Too Short and your teenager's favorite rapper all together on a song, and it's just, it's mind-blowing. Ishmael Butler for president. I'm here. The globe full straight,
35:15 to the main line. It lasts forever. But it takes time. Wait to him to be beef with a nick in. And like me, check the fingers and a fig. All you sell, go play games. That's Shabazz Palaces. It's a style sport.
35:37 All right, well, I'm going to go next with the artist Claude. Claude Mince is a Phoebe Bridgers-approved singer-songwriter from Chicago, who just goes by their first name, Claude, like Madonna or Cher. Their music is sunny, catchy, a little dark, always relatable, with little touches that recall the sounds of 80s and 90s pop. These are songs about good and bad relationships. and the music and shared community that makes everything worthwhile. Claude's new album is called Me and the Music. Let's bring in Anne Powers, my dear friend and colleague. Anne, what do you got?
36:30 This week, my lightning round pick is Animative by Josh Johnson. So if you're into current jazz at all, and I know you are, then this year I'm sure you've been enjoying. the work of Josh Johnson, the saxophonist and composer who's in super cool ensembles like SML and the openness trio. He produced Honora, the jazz debut from Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And he's also played with artists as different as Miley Cyrus and Michelle Degiate A cello, just so many people, honestly. Now, Johnson is releasing his third solo album, and you can just fall right into it. Johnson played most of the instruments. Johnson played most of
37:12 the instruments on the album himself, saxophone, of course, but also Rhodes, percussion, bass clarinet, guitar, and he looped his sax and used drum machines and synths to create songs that are like puzzle boxes with so many angles and openings that they dazzle the mind. This is a record I play on repeat, noticing something new every single time I listen. I know Johnson's going to be part of something else that's cool very soon, but I'm making animative a regular part of my rotation, because it just keeps blowing my mind. Thank you so much, Anne Powers. Next up, we've got. Lars Gotrich. Lars, give us your pick. The third and final album by the Olivia Tremmer Control is just as weird and wondrous as I'd hoped.
38:15 And I wasn't totally sure we'd ever hear it. The Athens, Georgia band released two indie rock masterpieces in the late 90s, reunited in 2005, and had been teasing new material ever since. But after its two principal architects died more than a decade apart. With mostly completed tracks, the music felt uncertain. Just what makes this album the same place feel so miraculous. The Olivia's touchtones remain the same, a psychedelic prism that refracts the meticulous pop melodies and bonker sound collage into a droopy, drippy fantasia. It can be goofy and noisy and playful, often all at the same time. But there is a cyclical nature to these songs that point to an abstract concept of home. If you scroll open your podcast feet just a bit,
39:04 Robin Hilton and I just did an entire episode about Elephant Six, the musical collective that fostered this band and so many others. And I sum up this final album as such. This is not an ending, nor is it a beginning, but a portal to something yet unnamed. That's the album, The Same Place, by the Olivia Tremor Control. Thank you so much, Lars Gottrich. Last certainly not least, my dear friend, Tom Hisinga, Tom, give us your pick. Oh, I've got a fabulous track from the new album by the Grammy-winning band Third Coast percussion.
39:50 Their quartet of amazing musicians based in Chicago, we've had them on the tiny desk, so definitely worth checking out. And for a while now, they've been collaborating with electronic artist Jay Lynn. She's from Gary Indiana. Her music is inspired by the footwork style of music and dance from Chicago. Lots of intertwined beats per minute. And usually Jalen collaborates by writing music for the band. But on this album, Vernacular, she's not only written the music, but she performs with the band, and so that's really exciting.
40:25 Let's hear this beautifully textured track called Granny's Cherry Pie with the Third Coast guys on percussion, and Jay Lynn doing electronics. It's from the album Burnacular. Thank you, Tom, thank you, Anne, thank you Lars. And of course, thank you Alex Newman for joining us. My pleasure, Stephen. Thank you for having me.
41:07 It is my pleasure. 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
41:23 NPR music is Saraya Mohammed. My colleague Lars Gottrich will be back next week to discuss more new music with members of the NPR network. Until then, take a moment to be well. Don't be afraid to hand off a project to your friend Lars Gottrich and treat yourself to lots of great music.