NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out Oct. 31

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

A Waxahatchee side project. Guided By Voices. keiyaA. Marfa Public Radio's Julie Bee joins NPR Music's Stephen Thompson to break down the best albums out on Halloween. The Starting 5:- Snocaps (Katie and Allison Crutchfield), s/t (Stream)- Guided By Voices, Thick Rich and Delicious (Stream)- Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo, In The Earth Again (Stream)- keiyaA, hooke's law (Stream)- Anna von Hausswolff, Iconoclasts (Stream)The Lightning Round:- Florence + The Machine, Everybody Scream- The Charlatans, We Are Love- Saintsenaca, Highwalllow & Supermoon Songs- Hilary Woods, Night CRIÚ- Lily Lyons, Re-Open The WorldSee the long list of albums out Oct. 31 and sample dozens of them via our New Music Friday playlist on NPR.org. Follow Julie Bee's weekly Marfa Public Radio show on Mixcloud.Credits:Host: Stephen ThompsonGuest: Julie Bee, Marfa Public RadioAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital Producer: Elle MannionEditor: Otis HartExecutive Producer: Suraya MohamedSee 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 am Stephen Thompson here with DJ Julie B from Marfa Public Radio in Texas. Welcome back to the show, Julie. Hey, Stephen. Hey, it's great to be here. It is such a pleasure. So Julie, my first question right off the bat, before we even talk about the amazing new albums that are out today, Halloween, how do you celebrate Halloween in Marfa, Texas? one of the most kind of art-intensive locations in America. Yeah, it really is. And it's also a location with no stores, no major stores. So Halloween here is very DIY. People have to make their own costumes.

We don't have a Halloween store, much less a Walmart to get costumes at. So, yeah, people get really creative on Halloween. There's always big parties. and we actually have a local misfits cover band called The Nightmares that play a show every year. They're playing again this year, so it's going to be lots of fun. And so in terms of no stores, like you have a way of acquiring candy. You're not making your own candy.

Yeah, no, we don't make our own candy. We do have the Dollar General, and, you know, there's always Amazon. Yeah, yeah. And if the Dollar General fails, they can put up a Spirit Halloween. Well, that would be the dream, right? All right, well, we've got an amazing array of new records out today, October 31st, kicking off with a surprise release, totally unannounced prior to today. But, you know, we heard it. New album by a band called Snowcaps, which is members of Waxahatchee and P.S. Eliot.

Their new album is self-titled. So the Crutchfield Sisters, Katie and E. Allison are twins. They had a pop punk band together until about 2011 called P.S. Eliot. Katie went on to perform under the name Waxahatchie, while her sister started the indie rock band Swerin. And new music from either of them is really a reason to rejoice in a collaborative record with them is really exciting. This album is so great. It's really fun. A lot of really upbeat pop songs. Super catchy, really strong sing-along energy. This album is rich. There's no fluff here. Every song is really a winner. Yeah, I really agree. And you just get such a welcome dose of those

waxahatchy vibes, right? Just really smart singer-songwriter with kind of an edge, kind of a crunch to it. And like little quotable nuggets along the way. You know, these are such excellent songwriters. There's a track called Coast, you know, early on, just totally has that broody, crunchy, quiet than loud, then quiet, you know, formula just down to perfection, kicking the album off with some really welcome bluster and the sound kind of builds as it goes. You know, with this line, can't we just coast? Which obviously this album is an answer to that question, that these are not artists who have any interest in coasting.

Yeah, I love the indie rock. instrumentation on this. The harmonies are so beautiful on the chorus. These two women being sisters and twins, you know, they have that thing that siblings have where their voices just blend so beautifully. In their band, P.S. Eliot, they had a lot of kind of feminist songs about their experiences in the male-dominated punk scene. And I found that there were some really cool feminist gems on this album, too. The song Avalanche. has some really great lyrics. One of the lines is I've got a lot writing on this next gentleman.

His mythology is like a vitamin. He might wobble, but he always wins. He always runs circles around me while running in the right circles. Some really great songwriting on this album. Yeah, and that's part of where you get the sense of like, this doesn't just feel like a side project. There is a certain kind of ambling quality to a lot of the arrangements where it can feel a little shaggy.

but the songwriting, and as you said, the lyric writing just really, really jumps out. It really feels like they're at the top of their games. You know, there's a track early on the record called Heathcliff, which is, you know, deploying kind of a series of sturdy metaphors. You know, the cat in the window is kind of a metaphor for devotion. You know, just these different turns of phrase that are kind of calling to mind bigger ideas. It's very, very sharp songwriting, and it's set against arrangements

that I think really, really work for them. That is Snowcaps, their new self-titled surprise album. This one was not previously announced. Out today, October 31st. Next up, Julie, I know this one is near and dear to your heart. There is a new album, believe it or not, there's a new album by Guided by Voices, but it is like their 105th album.

It is called Fig Roar. rich and delicious. They've been around for over 40 years. They are indie rock royalty, and they are so prolific. This latest album, Thick, Rich and Delicious, is their second of 2025. It's the 42nd studio album. And Robert Pollard, the leader of that band, is so prolific. He's got thousands and thousands of songs to his credit on well over 100 full-length albums

when you add in his solo material and his many side bands. This album is getting a lot of buzz for kind of being a return to power pop for this band with lots of hooks. Bob, the King of Hooks, has said that he really kind of uses that to base his song writing on. He's always looking for that perfect combination of a lyric and a chord pattern that gives you a chill at the back of your spine. a quote from Robert Pollard. I would imagine a lot of people who have loved and celebrated guided by voices over the course

of this decades-long, very prolific output. A lot of people drop in and out of this band. I wonder, and maybe you can answer this question, like, how many guided by voices superfans? And you are literally wearing like a niche guided by voices T-shirt for this conversation. One of many. And I assume that is not your only guided by Voices T-shirt, but do you kind of drop in and out with this band, or are you hanging on their every word? Oh, no, no. I have been a fan since the mid-90s.

They have been my favorite band, literally, since the moment I first heard them. So in the mid-90s is sort of when, I don't want to say the height of their popularity, but... They would put out an album and people would pay attention. Well, yes. Like the press would pay attention. Oh, yes. In ways that I don't think the press has paid as much attention to this band in recent years. I think you're right.

So for fans like me who have followed them all along, and there are new fans coming in, definitely. You know, we have been hanging on their every album. As far as favorite songs from this record, I mean, there were several that really jumped out to me. And, you know, I have long thought of guided by voices as, you know, an extremely sturdy band, an extremely prolific band, but a band where each album, you know,

will serve up a few kind of extra special highlights, right? Songs with hooks that are so indelible that you can't resist them. And I definitely found that here. There's a song called You Can't Go Back to Oxford Telawanda, where it's just like beating you with that hook. And it closes with this song, Captain Kangaroo Won the War, which is, you know,

Very guided by voices, song title. Yes. But, you know, the song is just this strange, gnarled thumper. And I got to it kind of listening through to this record in the car. And my immediate thought was like, I can't wait to hear what's next. And then I realized that the album was over. And it's like, I just said, I can't wait to hear what's next with guided by voices who have like 7,000 hours of music. That's what it does to your mind.

Do you have a favorite song on this record? You know, it kind of changes every day. The first one that really hit Meatwell, Fantasmagoricoric O'Starts, was one of the singles that they released. Love this song. I think Bob's vocals sound really fantastic. I love Arman Syracuse. I love a tribute to Beatle Bob.

Lots of great songs on this one that, I like it a whole lot. That is thick, rich, and delicious. The new album from Guided by Voices, one of many great albums out today, October 31st. We've got more terrific music to get to, but first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday.

I'm Stephen Thompson here with DJ Julie B from Marfa Public Radio in Marfa, Texas. Julie, I already asked you at the top of this show, you know, kind of how do they celebrate Halloween in Marfa? What else is going on with Marfa Public Radio? Oh, yeah. Well, here at Marfa Public Radio, let's see, we have a new executive director, Anne Moros, and we had a very successful fall membership drive under her leadership.

So that's really good news in this time when public radio stations need all the support that they can get. My music show Amplified just had its 100th episode. And you can find it on MixCloud. Just look for DJ Julie B. Wonderful. Congratulations. Many happy returns. That's a great milestone. I mean, I often say the secret to success is to have a good idea and then execute it a thousand times. Or a hundred times. Or a hundred times, you know, so you're 10% of the way there. Nice. Well, next up, we have a new album by Chat Pile and Hayden Pedigo. It is called In the Earth Again. So this is seemingly an unlikely pairing.

These two acts are pretty opposite. Chat pile is kind of a sludgy, edge noise, rock band. They incorporate a lot of topics that reflect the ugliness in their world. It's dark and heavy. Their name actually refers to toxic piles of gravel from abandoned lead mines in what is now a ghost town in their home state of Oklahoma. And Hayden Pedigo just has these beautiful, intricate sparse and haunting guitar songs. They are both from this DIY music scene of Oklahoma City.

For whatever reason, these two came together. I'm so glad they did. This album is really incredible. Yeah, they find really effective ways of meeting in the middle. I mean, if you've ever listened to a Hayden Pediggo record, you know, he makes these kind of vibey southwestern rambles, you know, this beautiful kind of American primitive style guitars, but also, you know, kind of atmospherics on top of that. And then Chatpile is so much more discordant, so much more kind of conflicted sounding. And they find ways to allow this album to ebb and flow, you know, from

track to track, but also within an individual song, where you get a feel for what Hayden Pedigo does, you get a feel for what chat pile does, and you find these kind of surprising bits of connective tissue that hold them together. It kicks off with a track called Outside, which is kind of reflective atmospheric, kind of instrumental meandering. It feels like a Hayden Pedigo song.

And then, like, the next track is called Demon Time, which gives you a sense that this record's getting a little darker. It is Halloween. And you start to hear, you know, guitar bluster kind of coming up underneath him as this song kind of builds to more and more of a ruckus.

Hey, stupid eyes. And then your third track, it's called Never Say Die, and that's where you start to get the feel of actual metal. Yeah, these big chords. Big chords, shoddy vocals. It's a little more unhinged.

The pace is quickening. By about a minute in, it's gotten really wild. And so I was like realizing as I was listening that it is all hanging together even when it's all happening within an individual song. I have to say one of my favorite songs on this, the one that really moved me, was the final song, A Tear for Lucas. This one is so intense. It's a beautiful Hayden guitar song. It has the most heartfelt, personal, sad vocals I've ever heard. I would say, like, make sure you're alone the first time you hear the song, because it's going to make you cry.

And we begin to believe that we don't live of time and space with boundless chance and inherent grace. That is In The Earth again, new album by Chat Pyle and Hayden Pedigo. Next up, the singer-songwriter Kia, that's K-E-I-Y-A, and then a capital A. Her new album is called Hooks Law. Keeha comes from Chicago, an art city that's steeped in jazz and blues. She's now based in New York, where the struggle to survive also had a hand in her lyrics. She combines soulful vocals with beats that she creates. She blends jazz, hip-hop, and R&B to create her own style of Neo-Soul.

She cites influences from Chaka Khan to John Coltrane to Nirvana, And Hooks Law is the follow-up to her 20-20 debut album Forever You Girl. That album received a lot of critical acclaim. It landed on multiple year-endless. Unlike that first album, though, this one was completely produced by Kia. She wrote all the songs and plays all the instruments. And it feels a little more daring to me than her debut, a little bolder. It's got more dissonant sounds.

The sounds aren't all pretty and smooth, but much like her debut album themes of self-love and self-care are all over the lyrics. I think there's kind of a recurring theme with several of the records that we're talking about this week. Artists who pivot within songs, artists whose songs don't take an entirely linear journey. That is definitely true of the Guided by Voices record where there are several songs that have these strange codas attached. to them, you know, where they're moving through different phases. It's true, certainly, of the chat pile and Hayden Pedigo record, where a song really truly contains multitudes. I need to point out, my colleague, Robin Hilton, this week on All Songs Considered, has an entire episode full of

songs that contain multitudes. And this week's New Music Friday, thematically, fits shockingly closely to what Robin was just talking about. And on this record, that comes up again and again. The song, Stupid Prizes. About midway through, kind of pivots into this kind of blurred out atmospheric reverie. And it's very catchy and it's very pretty, but there's also this darkness kind of burbling underneath it. You just get a sense of just how many ideas, how much training, you know, she grew up kind of steeped in jazz,

just how many sounds and styles and ideas and themes were competing for her attention in making this record. And what you come away with from all of those ingredients, all just kind of jockeying for attention, is you just get a record that you can't turn away from. It's so listenable. This record just drew me in, and I listened to it over and over again. And each time you listen to it, you hear more things that you might have missed,

like that great jazzy instrumentation, kind of a beat poet feel at times. The electronic stuff going on, that's very hypnotic. The layered vocals are so beautiful. One of my favorite songs was Be Quiet. I really love the message of this one, the directness of it.

She's not asking demurely. She's demanding the space that she needs and the words that she uses to do it are so great. She says, place me in your bread and take a bite. Let the juices fly. And while you're chewing, try to be quiet. I really love that. There's a reason why

I keep to myself I need with lions. And he's tried not to act to press. That is Huckton and the media required. Yes, I be so high. Every day I'm alive. That is Hook's Law.

It is the new second album by the artist Kia. We've got one more record we want to talk about in depth, as well as a lightning round of some of our other favorite songs out today, Halloween. But first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with DJ Julie B from Marfa Public Radio in Marfa, Texas. Before we get to our lightning round, we got one more record we wanted to talk about, and we wanted to get something that you could basically play on your front porch to scare

children on this spookiest of holidays. So we're going with Anna von Hauswulf. Her new album is called Iconicalasts. So Anna von Hosswulf is a Swedish singer-songwriter, grew up in the avant-garde. Her father as a sound artist by the name of Carl Michael von Hauswulf. And Anna von Hauswulf kind of made her name with these extremely booming, doomy, strange, eclectic, arty songs that were constructed around the pipe organ. And, you know, she has continued to be a really inventive and unpredictable artist working with a lot of different sounds,

a lot of different collaborators. And here, kind of in the spirit of the title of the record, Iconicalasts, she has among her guests Iggy Pop and Ethel Cain. And I think, boy, if Anna von Halswulf doesn't meet at the midpoint between Iggy Pop and Ethelcane, I don't know who does. What a voice she has, too. Just such an otherworldly voice. So strong, clear, and really pretty.

I feel like on this new album, she's really stretching out with. her voice and with the instrumentation and the production. This feels like something really new from her. Not as scary and somber as I was expecting really on multiple listens, although there is a song called Struggle with the Beast, which kind of reminds us why she's been described as satanic by some fundamentalist Catholic groups. Well, and she's performed at churches that have been picketed. Yeah, yeah. So she's singing about Struggle. with this beast that seems to be within her. You know, we just did an episode of All Songs Considered,

Robin Hilton, Hazel Sills, and I sat down and did an episode about kind of the Halloween music canon. Beyond the traditional Monster Mash, Ghostbusters, somebody's watching the, you know, songs that kind of pop up on the billboard charts every spooky season don't necessarily, first of all, aren't necessarily particularly scary. They're not scary, yeah.

And don't necessarily speak to the vibes that are kind of most musically interesting about Halloween. So we just had this wonderful conversation, and I was kicking myself when I was listening to this record because I thought, man, how did I forget the previous catalog of Anavan Housewolf, whose first album was called Singing from the Grave? Really, Anna Van Housewulf works really, really well as Halloween music. and if you're looking for a track to add to your Halloween playlist, make it the mouth. Yeah, this is a great Halloween album for sure. I feel like she was kind of almost channeling like art pop icons, Kate Bush and Lori Anderson. Yeah, she's just a fabulous artist, so inventive, really creates this very, very distinct sound world. And I'm thrilled to have her back for a sixth album.

And it's an epic, 73 minutes. Give it some time. Definitely have it in your Halloween rotation. That is Iconoclasts, the new album from Anna von Housewolf. Julie, you know as well as I that there was so much music to choose from this week. We could not possibly get to every terrific album out today, October 31st. I'm going to kick us off. Talk about your Halloween music.

And I did talk about this one on that Halloween special that we did with Rob. Robin and Hazel, just in time for Halloween, the English pop band Florence and the Machine, back with a sixth studio album full of grand, dramatic, sometimes scary bangers, Florence Welch's voice, undiminished, undefeated. And as we discussed on that show, the title track from this record truly belongs in the still developing Halloween music canon. Both that song and the new album are called Everybody Scream. So, I call her by her first name,

I always meet her back at this place. She gives me everything. I feel no pain. I break down and get up and do it all again. Because it's never enough. And she makes me feel loved. I can come here and scream as loud as I want. So fans of the charlatans are going to like their latest batch of songs.

really full and rich with lots of lushness, catchy tunes. I really love their single deeper and deeper, super dancey. It's an earworm for sure. And the band's frontman, Tim Burgess, has said that he thinks that this is the best record that they've ever done. The Charlottons' latest album is We Are Love. There are a few records this week that feel especially appropriate for Halloween. It's almost as if they timed them out that way.

One I'm really excited about is the first album in seven years from the mysterious and worldly Ohio band, St. Seneca. St. Seneca has been putting out wonderful music for the better part of two decades, though they've slowed down quite a bit in recent years. Fortunately, they are back with a supersized, 21-song album runs almost 80 minutes. And as always, it's brooding and idiosyncratic, it's catchy, it's alluring. I have really missed this band. St. Seneca's new record is called High Wallow and Supermoon songs. Hillary Woods has a new album out called Night Crew.

It's the fifth solo album from this Irish musician, and it's another album that you want to immerse yourself in. It's perfect for this season. Hillary is influenced in part by filmmakers. She's on the indie label, Sacred Bones, which also hosts releases by Jim Jarmouche, John Carpenter, and David Lynch. And this album actually had additional production from David Lynch sound designer Dean Hurley. That's Hillary Woods, Knight Crewe.

And finally, I don't want to get through this week's show without mentioning a gorgeous new record from the English singer-songwriter Lily Lyons. Her music is delicate and forceful at the same time. a pretty clear through line between her songs and those of everyone from Joan Shelley to Laura Marling and farther back to classic English folk of the 60s. Lily Lyon's new album is called Reopen the World. Now, Julie, you and I listen to a lot of music to prep for this conversation. What is the best song you heard, the one that you are going to remember the most after all

these hours of listening. Oh man. I think the one that is going to be my favorite. I'm going to have to go with guided by voices, of course, because they're my favorite band. I wonder what band it will be. Yeah, yeah, which song is the question. I'm going to go with the tribute to Beatle Bob. I love this joyful celebration of a man who devoted his existence to celebrating music. He was a true music fan. Yeah, he was a famous music fan. You would see him dancing. concerts and he had like a beetle beetle hair cut, dressed in 60s clothes, famous for

the way that he danced. Yeah, so I'm going with this one. This is a tricky one because, you know, I'd love to pick something like avalanche from snow caps or, you know, one of these really expansive tracks from God, from Chatpile and Hayden

Pedigo or Kia. I think I'm going to go with the spirit of Halloween, not spirit Halloween, and say everybody's scream from Florence in the Machine. Love the big kind of horror evoking video. I love

the fact that more and more artists are really trying to tap into Halloween music the way so many artists have tapped into Christmas and kind of the holidays in general. Having like an actual genre of Halloween music develop, you know, beyond

kind of goth subcultures or metal subcultures. But just to Halloween music as a genre, I think is a really cool and welcome thing. And I think Florence and the Machine bring tons and tons of drama and joy to it. That is our show for this week. Thank you so much DJ Julie B for taking time out of your week at Marfa Public Radio. Oh, thank you. It's been so much fun. 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 edited by Otis Hart. The executive producer

of NPR music is Soraya Mohamed. We'll be back next week to discuss new music with Liz Felix from WYEP in Pittsburgh. And yes, I might mention that the Packers beat Pittsburgh. Until then, take a moment to be well. Keep the spirit of love alive, like the charlatans said, and treat yourself to lots of great music.