NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out Sept. 25

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

Leon Bridges. Blondshell. Joy Oladokun. Host Stephen Thompson breaks down the best albums out Friday, Sept. 18 with DJs from around the NPR Music network: Erin Wolf from Radio Milwaukee, Jewly Hight from WPLN in Nashville and Liz Warner from WDET in Detroit. Plus, a handful of NPR Music writers and critics offer their personal picks in the lightning round.The Starting 5(00:53) Album No. 1- Blondshell, 'Violins'(07:43) Album No. 2- Julia Jacklin, 'The Gem'(15:13) Album No. 3- Joy Oladokun, 'Hope Is A Heavy Thing'(22:33) Album No. 4- Leon Bridges, 'Happiness Anytime'(28:52) Album No. 5- Protomartyr, 'Hotel Usona'(34:04) The Lightning Round- Space Afrika, 'Quiet Storm'- claire rousay & Martyna Basta, 'hotel room'- Tinashe, 'Popstar'- Mary Gauthier, 'Reckoning'- Axel Boman & Superpitcher, 'Tell It To The Mountain'Sample the albums via our New Music Friday playlist.Credits:Host: Stephen ThompsonGuests: Erin Wolf, Jewly Hight, Liz WarnerAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital Producer: Dora LeviteEditors: Elle Mannion, Otis HartExecutive Producer: Suraya MohamedSpecial thanks to Sheldon Pearce and Ann PowersSupport public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See 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. Each week we talk about the best albums out that week with members of the NPR Music Network. For today, September 25th, we are talking about great new albums from Julia Jacqueline, Leon Bridges, Proto Martyr, and more. But first, I want to welcome Aaron Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee back to the show. Hey, Erin. Hey, Stephen. Thanks for having me again. Well, we try to have a Wisconsin-based host after every Green Bay Packers win. and thankfully they came back and beat the Jets. Hey, yeah, totally. Yeah, this is all but strategyry here. That's right, that's right. You know, I think it's because you were scheduled to be here that the Packers won their first meaningful game since December of 2025.

Oh, undoubtedly, yeah. Well, let's get into it and kick off this week's discussion round where we talk about five of the best albums out this week, starting with violins, the new album from Blanchel. New York-born, L.A.-based Sabrina Titlebaum returns as Blanchelle. And this is her third record violins that was produced by L.A. based engineer and producer Eve Rothman, who's worked with artists like Cherry Glazer, Earth Theater, F.K.T.T.T.E.T.T.E.T.L. and over the years, I feel like Blanchelles really become known as a grunge poet of sorts.

There's, like, this intelligent mind behind her alternative singer-songwriter style. Like, she's got this really amazing blend of words, voice, and chugging guitars. So, you know, many fans, they will feel like an echo of their formative years whenever they hear her. And I feel like she speaks to both young and maybe the older, like, millennials and Gen X alike. Yeah, I think she speaks to a lot of people who are kind of on that Gen Z millennial cusp. You know, she got sober in her early 20s, you know, on her. songs have kind of wrestled with, you know, dealing with sobriety, anxiety, seeking strength

and community and happiness in kind of a toxic, violent world. And I think in that way, her songs feel very, very current and kind of wise beyond their years a little bit. And I really appreciate, you referenced the guitars as being, you know, chugging. I think that the guitars here are really doing a lot of work, giving kind of force and shape to songs like that. You know, you're trying to the title track, which just leapt out of the speakers for me. You know, there's a lot of awesome wordplay to violence, I think, is a play on violence, I want to say. Sure. She, like, really is exploring, like, themes of growth, pretty much.

And as she says, like, her growth has been, like, watching paint dry. But there's really a deep growth that you can hear. It's just, like, baked into these songs. and yeah, there was equally like this striking video she issued. She's trying to save a ice sculpture from melting, and it really kind of emphasizes like that act of futility that so many things in life often are, but yet you just keep trying, right?

Absolutely. And you know, it's interesting when you look at Blanchel's origins, you know, when Sabrina Titlebaum was first kind of starting out, she was focused a little bit more on pop. she had this kind of pop project called Baum, and then, you know, kind of during the pandemic, found her true sound, found her true approach. And I feel like the pandemic still is informing a lot of her songs. They listen to the song, C-Legs.

And, you know, it's kind of a softer, more of a ballad, but it still has intensity in an edge. And the lyrics include this line, a little money goes a long way when you don't leave the house. and to me, like, that song spoke to me, first of all, as a growing up song, you know, a song about essentially not going out, but also it felt informed by the pandemic and kind of that discovery, I think a lot of us made where it's like, if you're, you know, if you were able to keep your job and work from home, you realize like, oh, wow, never doing anything is a, is a real money saver. And so, you know, there's that wisdom, you know, that kind of comes out of that experience is really coming. through in these songs. I also feel like heart has to work so hard if we're going to name faves on this record. I just love

how it has so much snap to it and I love again her wordplay, you give me pause. Every time I heard it, I thought she meant P-A-U-S-E, but you read the lyrics and it's P-A-W-S. And it's like

it can make sense both ways, you know, you give me pause, you give me pause, you make me feel like a little bit like an animal. Like, it's describing like this relationship that's kind of not in a healthy cycle and the drums really underline that kind of heightened heartbeat kind of vibe. And yeah, this one really spoke to me. It just had a lot of teeth to it. That is Blanchelle. Her new album is called violins. Next up, another terrific singer-songwriter, Julia Jacqueline, is back with a new album. It's called The Gem. So Julia Jacqueline is an Australian singer-songwriter. This is her fourth album, and her songs kind of meet at this intersection of folk, indie rock,

and alt-country. There's dreaminess to her songs, but also real heft. And those two tastes, taste great together, you know, kind of throughout her career, she's felt like a peer of artists like Angel Olson who know that sometimes your songs are at their most intense when you're, when they're at their quietest. And so she's really able to play with dynamics in, in compelling ways. And I really appreciated the mix of these kind of slow burns and just songs that are just like big and heavy and chunky and lightly twangy, a song like if I had the hand of God, you know, that just have these big billowing guitars to them. And also, like, I want to point out to you that she realized after pre-pleasure,

there was like a little quote where she said she felt like she was standing in her own way. And so a lot of this record is about her rediscovering herself, returning to herself, excavating who she is as evidenced by like the name, the gem, referring to excavation. and also directly refers to a place that she did that excavating. It's a bar and a music venue that she lived above and also recorded the record called The Gem in Melbourne, Australia. Yeah, and boy, and I think being situated near a club brings out a certain amount of live energy in these songs.

You take, get away from me, parentheses, I think I'll love you soon. And it's just this big anthem, and you can hear it kind of as if it's radiating out of a club. It feels like a set closer. It feels like audience participation. There aren't, I don't think, handclaps in the song, but it feels like there are. Yeah, 100%. Now that you say that, I feel like I could be standing on the street outside of the gem and here kind of pouring out through the windows and the doors.

Yeah, there is like a lively appeal to it, like a life-affirming kind of vibe. Get away to me, I think I love you, saying. Get away to me. I think I love you. I also like the fact that she kind of gets into this psyche world and also kind of dips into 70s tones. There's like Neil Young vibes, a little bit of, I don't know if you're hearing this, but I'm hearing like a little crystal gale at times too. Oh, interesting. I did not, I did not clock Crystal Gale. I definitely clocked like Wednesday. Oh yeah, that too. Maybe I'm just remembering like fond childhood memories of listening to like soft rock radio.

you and you're in stuff like that. And like, you know, there's like some really like kind of vintage slow burners on this. It's kind of like really comfy to listen to even though the subject matter isn't comfy because she's like totally figuring herself out. Yeah, she's figuring herself out. And, you know, there are songs here that are about kind of seizing control over your own life and kind of learning how to access your power in a song like God sometimes has this vibe of like, I'm not only trying to be.

make my way in the world. I'm trying to control it. And I think that's a very compelling message. Also, I want to point out, too, that I got to talk to her a couple years ago when she released Pre-pleasure. Actually, it was four years ago. And she's talking about how much she loves pop music, but never really has leaned into the pop artist she loves, like Robin, Madonna, Britney Spears, she even has been quoted. And I really like the opener track brand new, because it feels like kind of a different direction for her. And it made me want to just like settle in for the ride. And she didn't totally go there. But I think the next time around, we might hear like a different version of Julia Jacqueline.

Don't remember. Don't remember you. Oh, that's her answer. It appears as it feels. Stay up. That is Julia Jacqueline. Her new album is called The Gem. Erin Wolf, thanks so much for joining us. Yeah, thanks as always for having me. All right, after a quick break, I will be back with Julie Haight of WPLN in Nashville to talk about some more great new records. Julie Height, welcome back to the show. How's it going? Thank you for having me back. It is going, it is going hot. It is going hot.

Oh, yes. Julie is in Nashville where, as football fans learned, it was 157 degrees over the weekend. Yes, it definitely made it. I would say the hottest. Americana Fest on record last week. I mean, I thought of it as hot Americana Fest summer, because it sure isn't fall. I wonder how the hot chicken restaurants did in Nashville over the weekend. Well, you would have to ask a non-vegetarian about that. All right.

Well, I'm really excited to talk to you about these records, including a Nashville artist, Joy Olatakoon. Her new album is called Hope is a Heavy Thing. quick to second chances but I do not victimize my circumstances life is too short and heavy-handed to throw my been as sweet as you used to be

you look the same but you're not new to me they say that if it hurts you should set it free if it don't return be super to me this new work from Joy Alada Coon is kind of a culminating album. I think of her as making singer-songwriter pop, but there are certainly elements

of folk in there, and really stylistically, this time she's showing us kind of a full range of all these different musical lineages that mean something to her. I mean, ranging from Nigerian voices to

all these different eras of pop music, and I have watched her progress from being an unknown singer-songwriter who was just playing like a tiny little stage at Nashville Pride Festival to her song starting to grab attention on TV and just out in the world, you know. She has always been a truth teller. She's always been kind of, you know, guiding her own path and shaping her own artistry. And I think that she demonstrates that with greater clarity than ever before on this new album, which she put out on a new label.

Yeah. She is such a compelling songwriter, and she's very good at zigging when you think she's going to zag. Yeah. You know, there's a song here called Don't Call Me Baby. And you look at that title and you look at how it sits kind of on this record full of protest song, songs about the state of the world, songs about identity. And you think, don't call me baby, this is going to be like, you know, pushing back against

misogy. And then what you hear is this kind of girl group inspired, timeless, innocent, kind of swoony love song. And that kind of undercurrent of upending expectations runs throughout this record. You know, what you're pointing to there, how she plays with girl group forms is something that I just love to hear her kind of pulling all these different elements together stylistically. I mean, she's kind of rifling through the pop music archives and showing us where she finds things that are valuable to her and meaningful to her and useful, you know? And a theme that I really am aware of listening to this album

is what she's telling us about the toll of doing the type of creative labor that she's been doing over the years, you know, of being so attentive, so attuned to, you know, all kinds of, kinds of very real suffering in the world and just drawing insight from her own really complex story being first generation Nigerian American and, you know, moving through all kinds of church spaces, you know, as a music maker on her way to being the artist that she is, you know. So in in the song, Easy Company, hearing her sing, Doomsday Dancing sounds like a good plan to me. Come tomorrow, I'll be everything you need.

I mean, that's just such a compelling testimony to the space that she needs to create for herself to, you know, a musical fortress against all of these life-stealing forces that she's creating for herself to have healing and release. And definitely no coincidence that she invokes Grandfather Couti, Fela Couti, in that song. I find a second of feast, dooms and dancing sounds like a good play. There's one other song I wanted to shout out on this record quickly before we move on. I wanted to shout out the song, Zombie. Yeah. Which, you know, first of all, you know, Joy Al-A-Coon has talked about the fact that she was inspired to pick up a guitar by listening to Tracy Chapman. Yes.

And this song, to me, is probably the song that most clearly maps over that and kind of evokes Tracy Chapman, which to me is a signifier of immediate strength. Like that means I want to listen to that song. But I love the way, you know, kind of talking about the way that she inverts a lot of expectations. The song has this line, I feel like a zombie in a beautiful world. And, you know, so many songs, I hear so many songs, Julie, that are kind of about asserting your own worth in this world that beats you down. And that theme comes through elsewhere on this record in songs like kind. But this song that is like inverting that expectation where like the song, song is about like I feel like I don't fit in. The world around me is beautiful. Again, like

she's constantly throwing in these kind of narrative surprises. And as I said at the top of the segment, zigging where you expect her to zag. She is such a strong presence on this record, such a strong songwriter. And I love the way she's always surprising. That is Joy Alatakun. Her new record is called Hope is a Heavy Thing. It is awesome. All right, next up, Leon Bridges is back with a new record. It's called Happiness Anytime. So Leon Bridges, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actor, kind of got his start in music as kind of what you might think of as like a throwback, you know, to kind of classic vintage soul sounds. Over time, his sonic palette has grown more expansive.

He's trafficking in kind of timeless soul and funk over here, but also traces of African and South American music. And this is his fifth album, and it's produced by Jay Lloyd Watson and Lydia Kitto of the band Jungle, whose new album we talked about on this show a couple months ago. And it's just, as the title suggests, this is an album largely about joy. Yeah, happiness anytime I really hear Lianas creating this atmosphere where it's not like you're supposed to turn off your mind, turn off your emotions and just plunge into this dance party. But it's an invitation to be so fully present. You know, it's not this kind of naive insistence on optimism, but he's, you know, cultivating a richer, like more fully embodied way of being. being together in the musical space

that he will create when he takes this on tour, which I cannot wait for. But what he managed to do with Josh Lloyd Watson and Lydia Kito, I mean, there's such virtuosic ease and elegance, all these different elements, backing vocals, these kind of capricious, ticklish drum patterns and stichot-buchar lines.

Tick-o-ish drum patterns, wow. Yeah, I mean, as someone who studied drums, that's what I was feeling. feeling there. But it, I mean, you know, they really emphasize that they didn't prolong their labor over any particular song that they just wanted to, rather than, you know, starting something and then putting on hold and returning back to it months later, they were just committing to immediacy, you know?

And, I mean, in songs as well, like illusion, that is a song where I hear Leon Bridges committing to demonstrating in the moment immediacy, you know, because when he, when he, when he sings one step out of time in that call and response. He could mean literally one dance step at a time. He could mean one step toward what is really important to him, toward his true artistic self, all of those things. One step. I'm here in the prison. One step at a time. One step at a time. I'm even in the prison. One step at a time. One step in a time. I'm even in the prison. One step at a time. I'm glad you mentioned illusion because that is a song that has more to say than just be happy. Yeah.

Like that is a song about persistence. It's a song about staying present in your own life. I'm also glad that you mentioned just like what a versatile sonic palette they're working with. You know, the song, Take My Hand. You know, the song has a little, it's a little bit of a slower burn. It feels like his voice is emanating from a jukebox in the 50s. And there's like this vintage. sounding kind of choir cooing behind him.

And that song, as you said, like the way they were able to kind of make this record in the moment and not necessarily make these songs feel so fussed over that they're like, that they're these kind of airless museum pieces. A song, like, take my hand, feels really lived in. It feels like it could have come from any number of eras. But there is this kind of,

there's this light touch to it. I mean, that song, as well as talk it over and please don't say goodbye, I mean, he's also kind of playing with time itself, you know, the desire to bend it and stretch it and, you know, make a moment last, especially if it's the kind of moment where you feel perfectly synchronized with someone else or with a whole bunch of people, you know. I mean, the song all day, all night, too, I love the way that he, fantasizes about the future in the moment. I mean, I just really identified with that. You hear him kind of dreaming about this whole life with someone. And that is so true to the way that our imagination can, you know, just take off when we are truly, truly deeply in a moment. That is all day and not one shit.

Baby, don't you do me like that? That is Leon Bridges. His new album is called Happiness Anytime. Thanks so much, Julie, for being on the show. You are so welcome. Thanks for having me. We've got another quick break. Then I'll be talking with Liz Warner of WDET in Detroit about one more terrific new record. Welcome back to New Music Friday. Liz Warner. What are you bringing to the show today? Stephen, hi, how are you? I want to talk about the band Proto Martyr. And their latest record, it's called Hotel Usona.

Proto Martyr. They are a band from Detroit. They've been making music for, I don't know, about 15 years now or so, and each record seems to get better. This one is purely a concept record. It starts out with a song called The Old Hotel, which kind of serves as the hotel lobby. It's like a welcome postcard after checking into this hotel and gives you a clue of what is about to come. And the song itself hovers between the solemn observation and intense frustration. Then you start to hear some of the political shifting that happens with the record. I mean, it's interesting. Joe Casey's the singer for Protomartor, and he's talked about this record, quote, reckoning with the horrors of our current moment. And I think that is definitely a vibe that has run through a lot of Proto Martyr songs throughout the course of the band's career.

They're big and clattery and cantankerous. And I think you use the word frustrated. And that frustration comes through throughout this record, starting with, as you referenced, that opening track, the old hotel, which has these kind of gnarly guitars and just this big, pent-up frustrated anger. By the time we get to sounds we cannot hear, that frustration is in full force. It starts like a train, and it just keeps on going. It's probably the closest to a wall of sound that they have for this record. But I think it's really worth noting for this record. They teamed up with a new producer to them, Dave Fridman, who is so brilliantly knows how to dissect all of the different instrumentation

and textures and layers, and it sounds so fantastic. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned Dave Fridman. You know, Dave Fridman's worked with bands like The Flaming Lips, you know, which famously just kind of pile on, you know, many, many, many, many, many, many, many sonic components. And Fridman is just a master of, like, making them all work together without burying anything. And it's never more potent than on the song, Feed the Sewer, which is just like a perfect proto-martre song title. You know, and the song is just as like turgid and rumbling and unsettling as that title suggests it should be. Like, I wrote down in my notes the words, toilet grunge.

You do hear these little bits of, let's say, the words that are used are quite intricate, just sort of thrown about by Joe Casey. But it's in such an interesting way. It makes you really try to listen even closer. And then when you finally catch it, it's like an Easter egg. You know, you hear, oh, wow. What is this? Now, I haven't heard that word. Let me look that up. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So it makes it really fun. Absolutely. A band where a lyric sheet is going to give you deeper and deeper insight than you'd otherwise have.

That is Proto Martyr. Their new album is called Hotel Usona. Now, Liz, I say this every week. Couldn't possibly get to every great record out today, September 25th. So we wanted to do a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums, including bringing in some other members of NPR music team. But Liz Warner, I'm going to have you kick us off. All right, Stephen. I want to talk about space Africa. It's an English ambient electronic experimental duo, and this latest cinematic odyssey finds them collaborating with like-minded folks, including opera singer ex alfano, violinists, Vanessa, Vederere, and also experimentalist Duen and several others. It has such amazing moments, such lulls and ebbs and flows. It's perfect breadcrumb material to learn and explore more about some of the most innovative artists on the scene today, Stephen.

That's Space Africa, and the record is called Quiet Storm. Nice. Thank you, Liz Warner. I'm going to go next to two prolific, invented. experimental sound sculptors have a really beautiful, atmospheric, haunting record that they made together. Claire Rousey, who puts out a great new album every few months, and the Polish Chamberfolk composer Martina Basta, they teamed up to make a really deeply evocative new record. It's dark and lovely and strange, full of found sounds and field recordings. It's a great record to get lost in if you're planning to do a little bit of brooding this weekend. Claire Rousey and Martina Basta's new album is called Hotel Room. So now we're going to hear a few personal picks from a few NPR music staff members, starting with my dear colleague Sheldon Pierce. Sheldon, what do you got? Hey, Stephen. My pick is Tanache's pop star.

Few have transitioned as seamlessly from major label artists to indie darling as Tenachay. Initially on the top 40 track, she has since found a better function as an early adopter at the forefront of the pop industry in its sound, with music that straddles smooth R&B and viby electronica. Popstar is the third album in a trilogy and also the first of its kind, an album that longs to stretch the definition of the term until it breaks. While it joins a host of recent albums interrogating the Star Experience and shuffling onto the dance floor, it is most interested playing around in the vast sandbox the artist has built for herself over the years. On Crashout, when she sings, don't need validation, but it would be nice.

She is boiling down the record's core tensions, being so sure of your artistry that it's a wonder more people aren't taking notice. But Pop Star feels like it's her most undeniable music yet. And so attention must be paid. Thank you, Sheldon Pierce, and Powers. Welcome back to the show. What you got? This week, my lightning round pick is Reckoning,

by Mary Gosey. In 2006, you know, every day can feel like a reckoning. The veteran singer-songwriter, Mary Gossay, a genuine Nashville treasure, by the way, puts empathy at the center of all of her music, and on her new album, she's talking us through our crises. Working with a small circle of friends, all of them gold-plated Nashville songwriters, Gosey keeps the music simple here, so that the scenes really hit, people facing the truth at a deathbed, in the battlefield. In the battlefield, in the bleakest hour of heartbreak. Mary's voice, like that of her inspirations, Towns Van Zant or John Prine,

it's so human in its passion and understanding and sometimes it's anger. But in the end, she gives us hope. Change can be hard, life can be hard. But as she sings in the title track, when you're really stuck, a reckoning is the only way back home. A reckoning is waiting there where ends complete.

Thank you, Anne Powers. We are going to close it out with our long-suffering, brilliant producer, Noah Caldwell. Noah, give us your pick. Hey, Stephen. I have a truly blissful and joyful electronic album for us this week. It's called Tell It to the Mountain. And it's by Axel Bowman and Super Pitcher. Axel Bowman is a Swedish producer.

He co-runs a super influential label called Studio Barnhill. and SuperPitcher is a German DJ and producer he's been in the game a long time as well. And together, they've crafted something really beautiful. A lot of it is down tempo and really takes its time. It's got these melodic kind of looping arpeggios, kind of slowly evolving repetitions that might be closer to minimalism than house or techno. If there are any Fortet fans out there, this side of this album would be for you. But they can also get pretty heavy.

These are producers who are super familiar with club sounds. and so they can turn it up when they want to. Apparently this project was dreamed up while visiting a glacier in central Sweden, and that feels fitting. It moves slowly, it's big, it's majestic, it's beautiful. Once again, that's tell it to the mountain by Axel Bowman and Super Picture.

All right, that is our show for this week. 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 Soraya Mohamed.

We'll be back next week to discuss more new records from Victoria Monet, Michelle and Dege Ocello, and more with members of the NPR Network. Until then, take a moment to be well. Say hi if you see me at All Things Go this weekend and treat yourself to lots of great music.