NPR Music - New Music Friday: The best albums out Sept. 4

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

Rebecca Black. Paris Paloma. Button Masher. Host Stephen Thompson breaks down the best albums out Friday, Sept. 4 with DJs from around the NPR Music network: Nastia Voynovskaya from KQED in San Francisco, Julie Bee from Marfa Public Radio in west Texas, and DeShun Nance from WJSU in Jackson, Miss. Plus, a handful of NPR Music writers and critics offer their personal picks in the lightning round.The Starting 5(01:55) Album No. 1- Rebecca Black, 'Age of the Exhibitionist'(08:26) Album No. 2- Paris Paloma, 'The Fatal Flaw'(16:40) Album No. 3- Sharp Pins, 'Mod Mayday 23'(23:06) Album No.4- 1-800-Mikey, 'In Yun'(29:25) Album No. 5- Button Masher, 'Super Button Masher'(36:20) The Lightning Round- Senri Oe, 'Homework'- Madi Diaz, 'Fatal Optimist UN-unplugged'- Medium Build, 'King of Having Fun'- Chat Pile, 'Who Loves The Sun'- Steven R. Smith, 'Half Light Unfolding'Sample the albums via our New Music Friday playlist and see our Long List of notable releases on NPR.orgCredits:Host: Stephen ThompsonGuests: Nastia Voynovskaya, Julie Bee, DeShun NanceAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellAudio Engineer: Cena LoffredoDigital Producer: Dora LeviteEditors: Elle Mannion, Otis HartExecutive Producer: Suraya MohamedSpecial thanks to Lars Gotrich 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

You know I hate sleeping alone, but you said that you will soon be home. Happy Friday, it's New Music Friday from NPR Music. I am your host, Stephen Thompson. And on this Labor Day weekend edition of New Music Friday, we're going to catch up with three of our favorite people in the NPR Music Network, KQED arts reporter Nostiavoinov Skaia from San Francisco, Marfa Public Radio's Julie B from the heart of West Texas, and WJSU music director, Deshaun Nance,

in Jackson, Mississippi. Together and separately, we are going to break down five great albums out today, September 4th, unofficially the final Friday of summer 2026. But first, yes, you are hearing

Beyonce in the background. Her 20th anniversary edition of 2006's B-Day is out today. And Nastia, Voinovskaia, from KQED, with me right now. Beyonce doesn't do anything partway. She certainly does not.

I can't believe it's been 20 years. since B-Day came out and really set Beyonce apart as a solo act. And this is a pretty perfect pop album. It has production from Neptunes and Swiss beats. It has that pop sound straddling hip-hop and R&B from the 2000s that still goes off in clubs today. Yeah, and Beyonce, like, she does not put garbage out into the world. Everything is extremely meticulous, extremely stage-managed.

This reissue includes Spanish versions of some of her songs. If you are a Beyonce person, this is a big day. It most definitely is. It's a Beyonce holiday. Well, I'm going to make the natural segue from Beyonce to Rebecca Black. It is Friday. Rebecca Black has a new album out. It is called Age of the Exhibitionist.

A lot of mafia, Met Metaumphia Goettinga. Don't be so serious. No one's for coding you. A lot of people know Rebecca Black as the singer of Friday, which went viral for all the wrong reasons in 2011.

It's a kind of corny pop song. She was only 13 years old when she made it. And unfortunately, she was bullied mercilessly for that song. But she persevered. She kind of hold up in her, room became an alternative Tumblr girl and from that internet milieu has blossomed into a very interesting quirky sex positive queer pop star that's kind of between these two worlds of underground

club music and big Gaga-esque pop. And it's a great spot for her. I mean, I think it's very telling that Rebecca Black is playing the All Things Go festival later this month, which is, is definitely a festival that also likes to straddle those worlds. And, you know, over time, people have come to really think about Rebecca Black, I think, a different way than they did 15 years ago. She was kind of an early internet cautionary tale in a way of like, kind of be careful what you put out on the internet, because it could go wildly viral and come to define you.

And, you know, we were talking, Nostia before we started taping about just like, what would have happened if something we had done at age 13, had come to define us for the rest of our lives. And just how grossly unfair that would be, because at 13, I was a gigantic dork, basically from 13 to the present day. I, too, was a gigantic dork, but I took myself super seriously when I was 13,

so yeah, no, I don't want anything I did at that age to define me. Absolutely, and, you know, that moment continues to come up sometimes in her music. She is obviously extremely self-aware. How could you not be with that kind of upbringing? You know, there's a track here called Washassalon. I hope I'm not wildly mispronouncing that. That includes the line, Just Made a Million off my so-called mediocrity.

And like, that is a way of kind of nodding at her roots. But at the same time, the songs here are legit bangers. I completely agree. Rebecca Black is really painting these scenes where she's taking you into these fantasy hedonistic nightclubs. And yeah, I think this album really embraces pleasure and sexual taboos, and it has these very thumping fat synths, too, that really take you there. I can see DJs remixing these tracks for sure.

You can really hear the influence of queer club icons like Sophie in these tracks and the production. and it's just a lot of fun. Like, you can see this as a B.A.m. dance floor, banger. Yeah, and there are still textures here. It's not going hard at the exact same pace every single step of the way. And, you know, we've tossed out a few different reference points, but I want to toss out one more,

which is Carly Ray Jepsen. And if you are a Carly Ray Jepson stand, you know, somebody who also blew up about 15 years ago with a song that was widely perceived as a novelty song, but then an artist who turned out to be extremely, extraordinarily smart and talented and prolific, I hear Carly Ray Jepson's influence on some of these songs, particularly in tracks like Michael,

you know, which is kind of a sleek, dreamy, kind of dancey pop song that is on extremely sure footing. I really like how Rebecca Black kind of paints these narratives about queer desire. On Michael, she's speaking to a woman and saying, you know, like what if your love interest, Michael, could actually be me?

And it's in this kind of beautifully poetic way where first she kind of, she references even the biblical origins of the name Michael, but then twists it into being something completely different. So that is Rebecca Black. Rebecca Black's new album is called Age of the Exhibitionist. Next up Paris Paloma. Paris Paloma's new album is called The Fatal Flaw. One of my biggest faces that I'll never feel love in this lifetime Hungry for a feeling I don't only ever see from the sideline It's an answer that I long to know And what I've learned it

From when you're handed like you're swimming with the fishes immersed in it But now I'm looking back I think I was just gazing down on the surface to somewhere that I cannot go. Paris Paloma is a young British singer-songwriter that went viral in 2023 with a track called Labor that women used in all kinds of TikToks and social media posts where they called out misogyny in their own lives. And the song went platinum,

which earned her opening performance spots with Stevie Nix and Florence in the Machine. And Paris Paloma expands on that theme, with very smart and evocative chamber pop that invites us into her rich emotional world on this new album. Yeah, I mean, one of the least surprising things about Paris Paloma, as I was reading up on this record, is that she is a fine arts major. She drops tons of references in her music to Greek mythology, to painting, to literature, multiple references to art in the song titles on this record,

from Miyazaki to Rothko to pre-Raphaelite to the closing track, I Cry in front of paintings. So, you know, you kind of get a sense. Like, on one hand, she has this kind of Florence and the Machine inspired grandeur, but you also have something kind of more delicate, more arty, these kind of softer reflections. She is able to kind of put these soft, painterly shadings on these songs, where she's not just like hitting power note after power note after power note.

Yeah, absolutely. And there's a really literary quality to the songwriting on the opening track Miyazaki. It comes off almost like a manifesto or that you're meeting the main character of a novel and you're about to dive into this person's mind. And it's almost like a declaration of her desire to go out into the world and just experience life and love. and to create, and it has this determination that's really powered by these big drums and the production. And then these really ethereal harmonies also kind of giving it this feeling of hopefulness for the future. At the same time, you know, elsewhere on this record, you get more kind of sonic grandeur. You take the song Stem the Flow, you know, which brings in kind of these stormy strings and builds to like a big sweeping breakdown. I appreciate the fact that while she is not necessarily hitting those kind of Florence and the Machine power notes in every song, she knows how to how to pace a song, let a song build, and find these moments of grandeur in different ways.

That song was one of the most evocative to me. The lyrics are so interesting. She really captures these moments of inner conflict so well. And in this one, she's in this dysfunctional relationship where she keeps trying to get this person that's not treating her right to change, but yet she's kind of implicating herself in this cycle. And I think you get kind of that conflicted vibe in the track Good Girl. Yes, that is the other one. I wanted to make sure we were talking about.

Yeah, she sings about, you know, this almost like this feminist ideal that she is aspiring to of loving your body. But then she kind of can't do it. She can't bring herself there and she's tortured about it. And she says, you know, it's really difficult for her to heal this broken relationship. And I think a lot of people will be able to relate to that. That, yeah, it's not always a happy thing existing in this female body that's constantly being, you know, observed and objectified.

I'm at the beginning of time and no thoughts of who I am have entered my mind. I bend over the river and catch a glimpse of something that's none of my business. As I scoop some up to drink, I disperse whatever it was, and you can scream at me all you want, that the greatest love affair is with myself, that it should be passionate, unwavering, no shadow of of a doubt that I am in love with my body, and my body is in love with me, but I'm not, the water is not in love with the cup that I drink from. That is Paris Paloma.

Her new album is called The Fatal Flaw. Nastia Wojnovkaya, thanks so much for joining us for this first segment. But before we go, what do you got going on at KQED right now? Well, thanks so much for having me back, Stephen. QED, we just wrapped up a story series that I edited called Finding Your People. And it was really inspired by this age of social isolation we find ourselves in where loneliness has been deemed a public health epidemic. People are falling in love with chatbots. But there's so many people counteracting that by creating intentional spaces for people to gather. So finding your people

profiles eight different niche, interesting subcultures and meetups in the Bay Area. So some of them are really quirky, like a group of professional mermaids that dress up and swim together at pools and swimming holes. We have things like a black men's chess club. So all of it is really to inspire folks to get out there, interact in real life, and get involved in their community. And it was a very heartwarming project to work on. So if people want to check it out, it's at kkwad.org slash finding your people.

Oh, that's wonderful. And you're also a DJ. You've got a new mix on SoundCloud. Is that true? I do. Yes. Yeah, I just, well, so while I was trying to find my people, I joined this community called her DJ Club in the Bay Area. It's for women and non-binary DJs. I was taking classes with them all summer, met lots of great folks. And yeah, I just published my first mix on SoundCloud. And if folks want to check that out, they can find it in my Instagram bio. And I'm at Nononastia. Nice. Thank you so much, Nostia. Talk to you soon. Can't wait to have you back on the show. After this short break, we will be right back with DJ Julie B from Marfa Public Radio. Okay, we are back with Marfa Public Radio's DJ Julie B, who is arguably the biggest lo-fi indie rock fan in the NPR Music Network. She hosts Amplified on Wednesday nights, where she plays at least one guided by voices song every single week. Is that right, Julie? Yeah. That's about right. And it's really easy because they keep putting out so much great music. And it's so cool to see more young band citing GBV as an influence, including one I'm going to be talking about today.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, you pitched us our next album, so we are so happy to have you here to talk about it. It's by Sharp Pins, and it's called Mod May Day 23. Sharpie what you do And all new girl I've been able to shoot you I'm in my arms And I won't be dreaming Of your own sweet tender child It's a time I love before

Shish a what you do Night and I don't go to me Sharpens are one of my favorite new bands of the last few years It's the solo project of Kai Slater Of indie rock band Lifeguard Kai grew up in Chicago where he was exposed to lots of music, and he really gravitated towards

60s style and culture through the music of that era. He started writing songs at a very young age, busking on the streets and playing open mics in Chicago, and he and his friends formed the band Lifeguard when they were still in high school. So the music of Sharp Pins can be described as low-fi. psychedelic garage pop. I was really influenced by 60s music, especially British invasion bands and the mods. And their new album is mostly cover songs

of some Mod Revival bands of the late 70s, ones that were contemporaries of the jam, but didn't get as much notoriety, bands like Squire, The Mods, Secret Affair, and Baker. Yeah, I mean, one thing that I really appreciated about this, record is like you hear the very first track. It's called It's a Mod Mod World. And you know right away whether you're in or out, right? Like you know exactly what this band is all about. You know exactly

what this band loves. You know exactly, you know, where this music is coming from. That particular track is just like a big, super catchy mission statement. And like I said, you know within 60 seconds. if it's your thing, and it was my thing. Oh, exactly. I was reminded not only, you know, you mentioned guided by voices, you know, big big star as an influence, teenage fan club is an influence, but I was reminded of a band also from Chicago that I loved in, gosh, the 90s, oh man, so long ago, called material issue. Okay.

Which is like another kind of throwback to kind of early garage pop, super catchy. And so this thing immediately got its literal hooks in me, you know. Like there's a track called I've Got You on My Mind, and it's originally by Squire. And, you know, that song is so sweet and sunny, but it also tapped into my own nostalgia, not even necessarily for music of the mods, but music of material issue and music that I was listening two on college radio in the 90s. I compared a lot of these songs with the originals, and one that I really love is the single,

Live Without Her Love, which was also originally by Squire. Kai's version is definitely more lo-fi. It's really jangly. It's got just beautiful, like, kind of psyche harmonies. Kai recorded this on his portable task cam. So it ended up sounding even older than the original that he is covering just like this beautiful, warm, old sound that is one of the things I just love about Sharp Pins. That is Sharp Pins. Their new record is a kind of reissue. These songs were recorded in, mostly recorded in 2023, but it is a perfect time to rediscover it.

The album is called Mod May Day 23. Next up, new record from 1-800-Mikey. It's called In Yoney. So 1-800-Miki is the solo project of Michael Barker from Sydney, Australia. And like Kai of Sharp Pins, Michael grew up with music-loving parents. And he ended up creating music alone in his bedroom while he was still in school. He kind of joined his own little DIY scene there in Sydney. He came up with the name, 1-800 Mikey, because his day job had been manning phones of a call center.

It's a really fun name, and everything about this band is really fun. It's really optimistic, positive. His message is love, love yourself, love your friends, love your cat. He really... Speaking my language. Yeah. And the music is kind of a cross between power pop and punk. It leans a little heavier on pop with some classic indie rock hooks.

Very bubbly, very energetic and bright. It's kind of music that pushes you to put down whatever you're doing and just get up and move around. It's very infectious. Yeah, I mean, this is a really nice kind of counterpart to the Sharp Pins record we were talking about a moment ago. They're both kind of inspired by a lot of. of really energetic guitar rock.

I appreciated the way this record kind of takes that bass and makes it bigger and brighter and slicker. You know, there's a, there's a grandiosity to some of these songs. You listen to a track like Falling in Love. And you can just imagine Michael Barker like pinwheeling his arms playing guitar. It feels showy in like a big, fun, infectious way. where like this band, it takes like stadium rock and retrofits it to somehow fit into a garage.

I feel like Mikey's lyrics on this album, this is, I think, his third record on Garner Records, and I feel like his lyrics are a little bit more mature. I mean, he sings about self-love. That's the opening track, which kind of sets the tone for the record. It's a really fully developed song unlike some of his other stuff that's just very short and fat. He's really known for these very short songs, which I love.

But it's really nice to hear something that's a little bit more mature from him. Self-love kind of has this cool, like, loud, quiet, loud section. To me, it's just like kind of a perfect song. Listening to this, Julie, I have to ask, have you ever heard a rock guy named Tony Molina? Oh, that sounds familiar, but no. So Tony Molina makes these, like, big, grand kind of pocket rock jams where, like, the songs are, like, a minute long. Yeah. And he's amazing kind of crafting these fragments into something that feels complete.

This really, particularly, like, the title track from this record, In Yun, the vibe of it really reminded me of Tony Molina, where it's, like, You're working in miniature, but you are finding ways to fit in every ingredient I'm looking for in a, in a just like a cool, kind of epic feeling rock song. Yeah. And so to me, this is like a great companion to that. If you haven't heard Tony Molini, you should definitely check him out. And, you know, this record, it's just a great energy to take into your Labor Day weekend. That is 1-800-Miky.

His new album is called In Yun, that's YUN. Thank you so much, Julie B. I'm so glad you're here. If you were ever at a loss on what to listen to people, go check out Julie's show, Amplified on Marfa Public Radio's Mix Cloud page. We love it here at NPR Music. Thanks so much. Okay, next up, we are going to chat with Deshaun Nance from WJSU about one of our favorite albums of the week. Stay tuned for that as well as a lightning round of some other staff picks out today, September 4th, right after. the break. And we are back. It is time to bring in Deshawn Nance of WJSU in Jackson, Mississippi, where he serves as music director for the station as a whole, as well as its 24-7 music channel The SIP. Welcome back to the show, Deshawn. Thank you. Glad to be back. It is great to have you, and I'm excited to talk about this record. It's by Button Masher. The album is called Super Button Masher. Button masher, Grammy Award winning producer, composer, also known as Jake Silverman, is a musician who pretty much creates music that is reminiscent of things that you would hear in a video game of sorts, hence his alias button masher.

It sounds something of nostalgia from the 8-bit to the 16-bit, but it is also. forward in its composition and its style. So while you will hear something that sounds like it came off an NES, you will also hear things that you've never heard, not even in today's music. So it's a very diverse and forward project while also giving you a lot of the past that you know and love from the video games that we all know and love. Absolutely. I mean, the nostalgia that runs through this record and just how evocative it is. of like whether you are a gamer or not. Like most people have played video games at some point. And you hear these tracks. There's a track here called Dance of the Twin Bees that feels so familiar.

Like has this song already driven me insane while I was trying to complete a level? Like it's just this super familiar and insistent piece of music. These songs are so busy and so jazzy and so musical at the same time. When he says, like, he mixes this kind of chip tune music with jazz fusion, you get the jazz. You know, when you hear songs like the second track, Magic Dragon Ride, it has, it's dynamic, it's forward, it is, it changes tempo, it changes dynamic.

And not something that you would hear from a 8-bit or 16-bit video game back then, but because technology has moved forward, you can also get those dynamics while also still being placed in the mind. of an ocarina of time or maybe a Final Fantasy 7 original. So it's very good at placing you in the time in which you played these games. When you hear another piece like the space between worlds that, you know, creates, you know, it creates travel. And what I mean by that is when you're on a level in a game, you know, the music changes with how you move in the game. So if you're walking or exploring somewhere and something dangerous happens, you will get that feel. You know, if you turn a corner and there's an enemy, you would hear, you know, you would hear that in the music represented as well.

Yeah, you'd hear a shift in the music. Absolutely. Exactly. So it's a very good project for immersion. So you could close your eyes and you could definitely envision yourself in 1998 playing some NES game that, you know, everybody knows. It's retro futuristic. It's so insistent and so catchy. My son plays a lot of video games. And one thing that he's always trying to do is like when he's trying to kind of pull me into these games and have me play them with him. You know, I'm terrible at any video game made after 1983. But like, one thing that he's always pointing me to is he's like,

Dad, this is art, listen to this music. You listen to a ton of music, you study it, you obsess over it, but you are missing an entire genre unto itself over here. Absolutely. And he's such a connoisseur of video game music, and my immediate reaction hearing this record was I cannot wait to share it with him. I did an entire graduate presentation on how important video game music is when I was in school.

and, you know, I basically, you know, broke down the theory of how creating it works. And it was so much fun. You know, I hear things in video game music that I haven't ever heard before, you know, just like in jazz. You know, there's always something new to hear. That is Button Masher. Button Mashers new album is called Super Button Masher. So, Deshawn, we could not get to everything out today, September 4th. So it's time for our lightning round where we.

gather up some of the other best albums out today with the help of some of the NPR music team. But why don't you kick us off? What do you got? Right. So yeah, we have pianist out of Osaka, Japan, who's been hanging around out in New York for quite some time by the name of Stimri-Oha. He's one of the very much most transformative and popular names you hear in the fusion electronic space out in Japan as well as in the country. His new album homework is absolutely phenomenal for how it pushes the genre of electronic and jazz. with its emphasis on personality and movement. In his description of the album,

he references it as a movie without visuals. And I could not agree more because the way it moves, the way it transforms, how you listen to it as it goes is something that is totally original, very much a unique project. That is Cymri Oahu's album is called Homework. Nice. Thank you, Deshaun. So I'm going to go next.

It feels like the height of holy, privilege that I get to talk about this record. It's an extended version of an album that I loved from last year, but that came out while I was on vacation and not doing this show. So Fatal Optimist is by the great Maddie Diaz. It's a devastatingly beautiful stripped-down record that really showcases her gorgeous expressive voice. Now it's got an expanded edition with four additional tracks. Three of them are billed as un-unplugged, full-band versions of songs from the record. One has an assist from Lucy Dacus, another has an assist from August Pontier, and there's a track originally written for and with Marin Morris that's been knocking me out called This Is How a

Woman Leaves. Maddie Diaz is a damn national treasure. Everyone should hear her. That is Maddie Diaz. Her new release is Fatal Optimist, Parentheses, Ununplugged. It's not gold. It's not platinum. It's not silver. It's not special. All right, Ann Powers, what do you got? Well, Stephen, we're going to stay in the Nashville area for my pick. Maddie, of course, is the Nashville artist. And the artist I picked is Nick Carpenter, aka Medium Build. He's been hanging out in Nashville a lot lately.

The album is called King of Having Fun. Nick Carpenter, he's a writer of, I think, potentially huge hit. who is complex, fearless, and able to just go deeper on sensitive subjects. He writes beautifully about family dysfunction, about mental health issues, and the struggle just to be good and true in a world that puts up so many roadblocks to believing in yourself and caring for others. And he's also just really great at hooks and choruses. You want to sing along with his songs.

Carpenter's made 10 years' worth of records as Medium Build. And I think that this new record king of having fun is, the one that can really take him to bigger stages. That's King of Having Fun by Medium Build. All right, thank you, Ann Powers. Dora Levitt. What do you got? Hey, Stephen.

The album I want to talk about today is Who Loves the Sun, the third album from Oklahoma Sludge rock band Chat Pile. And last year, I was pleasantly surprised to see that chat pile collaborated on an album, actually with finger-style guitarist Hayden Pedigo. And now the band has returned and they continue to build their incredibly vivid and brutal soundscapes that paint a portrait of human suffering and greed, often in search for a kinder and more generous world. So if you're looking to rage about the state of the world or find solace in your community when it feels like everyone, is embracing AI with open arms.

I recommend starting here with Who Loves the Sun by Chatpile. Nice. Thank you, Dora Levitt. Finally, Lars Gottrich. Lars, what do you got for our lightning round? Stephen, I know you're always looking for music that slows the blood. Yes. And so I'm going to turn you on to a musician who, let's say, I celebrate his entire catalog.

Stephen R. Smith has operated under several names and his been in several bands since the 90s, and many of them kind of traverse this space between psychedelic and folk music. It can be very broody and dense, like the thick of the woods come to life, you know? But this new album is called Half Light Unfolding, and it paints with a much more limited palette. The songs are primarily based around acoustic guitar and piano, and the results are much more austere. You know what it kind of sounds like to me? me, it's like court music for a cozy fantasy film. Okay.

Yeah. It's full of sweetness and it's full of awe. That's the album Half Light Unfolding by Stephen R. Smith. And that is our show for this week. Thanks as always to our guests, Nastia Voinovskia, Julie B. and Deshaan Nance for the excellent recommendations. If you enjoyed the show, head on over to Apple Podcasts and let us know in an NPR Music podcast review. If we missed something you love, let us know in the Spotify episode comments. We do read them. The producers of New Music Friday are Al Mannion and Otis Hart. Noah Caldwell

edited our audio with assistance from Sina Lafredo. Our production assistant is Dora Levitt. The executive producer of NPR Music is Sarea Muhammad. We'll be back next week to discuss the latest from Sylvan S.O. And more new releases with more friends from the NPR Music Network of Public Radio Stations. Until then, take a moment. to be well, ask yourself what would Dolly do and then do that and treat yourself to lots of great music.