NPR Music - The best new albums out Sept. 5

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

Big Thief. David Byrne. El Michels Affair. WFUV's Alisa Ali joins Stephen Thompson to discuss their favorite albums coming out Friday, Sept. 5.The Starting 5:• Big Thief, 'Double Infinity'• El Michels Affair, '24 Hr Sports'• Curtis Harding, 'Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt'• Lucrecia Dalt, 'A Danger to Ourselves'• David Byrne, 'Who Is The Sky?'The Lightning Round: • Saint Etienne, 'International'• james K, 'Friend'• Ivy, 'Traces of You'• Anaïs & The Hoops, 'Growing Pains'• V/A, 'I Will Swim To You: A Tribute to Jason Molina'See the long list of albums out Sept. 5 and sample dozens of them via our New Music Friday playlist on npr.org.CreditsHost: Stephen ThompsonGuest: Alisa Ali, WFUVAudio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital Producer: Elle MannionEditor: Otis HartProduction Assistant: Dora LeviteExecutive 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

Well, I'm a Sally out of L. Dance, pushing down, skirt drinks. Happy Friday, everyone from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Elisa Ali from WFUV in the Bronx, New York. You and I used to hang out back at the Newport Folk Festival probably a decade ago. It is a pleasure to see you. You and I have not aged a day.

No, not at all. As far as you can tell from the podcast, we're really supple. Yeah, if anything, I'm kind of Benjamin buttoning back to Infer. Yeah. That's my goal. So, Alisa, you know, we're recording this show. This is the first Friday after Labor Day. So we're no longer talking about summer music. We're talking about fall music. And I thought it might be a nice way to kick off the show. If you give us your song of the summer. What song are you taking with you from the summer of 2025? Well, first of all, summer is not technically over yet. And I'm going to hang on to every last scrap of it that I can. I believe, I firmly believe that the song of the summer is, Sally when the wine runs out from role model. It is just so much fun. And every time I play it on the radio, I have to say that was Salé.

Love it. And as you noted, summer not technically over. That's a good reminder. All right, first album we're going to talk about that's out today. September 5th, Big Thief has a new record. It's called Double Infinity. Big Thief and their new album,

Double Infinity is such a wonderful record. This is their sixth studio album. Their first as a trio since the departure of their bassist, Max Oliarchic. So we've got Adrian Lanker, Buck Meek, and James Crivchennia. And they have been making music for quite some time now. And interestingly, when they first started working on this album, they were intending it for it to be a hard rock album. That is not the case. but it is still quite a beautiful record, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate not only is it a little bit of a quieter album,

it's a little bit more of a sleeper, kind of gets its hooks into you over time, getting better with each listen. It's also scaled back from their last record. Big Thief put out a record in 2022 called Dragon New Warm Mountain, I Believe in You, that is like a supersized album. And I sometimes feel like artists will

fall into this trap where each record has to be bigger and kind of grander than the one that came before it. And I appreciate the fact that they kind of do a little bit of a reset here. And you get, I think, a subtler album as a result. It's a really sunny record, too. I mean, it's very upbeat and hopeful, in my opinion. And interesting that you say that they scaled it back because they also brought in a bunch of new collaborators, a bunch of new singers, a bunch of new singers too who are singing with Adrian. Interestingly, you know, Adrian, we're just used to her voice alone that carries Big Thief.

And also Adrian's solo releases. So it's really nice to put in songs where she's singing with other people. She's singing with Elena Spangler, Hannah Cohen, and June McDume. And they sound so lovely together. And it's a new way of bringing out her voice. and for her to be harmonizing.

So you hear those collaborations on that song, Incomprehensible, but there are also, occasionally you get a little bit more unexpected guest. There's a track on the album called Grandmother, which has got this kind of woozy feel over the course of like six minutes. And then the great ambient musician La Raji comes in and provides this guest vocal. You know, La Ragee's kind of had this renaissance and renaissance, in recent years. You can watch a tiny desk concert he did a few years ago. He's a pioneering ambient musician. And I think that kind of speaks to the vibe here a little bit. It's so funny,

Alisa, that as you said, they intended this to be a heavier album. And by the time they were done, they were working with La Raji, who is like the farthest thing from heavy. It's quite a turn, right? And he sounds so wonderful on there as well. I mean, this is what I'm saying about the band working so well with others and her voice sounding so beautiful with others. And there's so many different textures, I think, on that song in particular. And I love, there's a great line in that song, Grandmother. We are made of love. We are made of pain.

Going to turn it all into rock and roll. I mean, that's a good use for love and pain. Am I right or am I right? You know, Alisa, I love a mission statement. You know, anytime you can pull out a lyric and be like, this lyric defines what this artist is all about. That makes our jobs so much easier. I also just think at the same time, instrumentally speaking, even though there has been a little bit of contraction in the band as they've gone from a quartet to a trio, you still get these kind of wiry, spindly arrangements.

And you have that like stormy swirl of guitars that Big Thief does so well. Polyrhythms, another kind of. trademark of a lot of big thief songs is that they have this layered percussion to them. But then, as you say, like, lyrically, Adrian Lanker's words are just so on point about kind of aging and trying to keep your life in perspective. And I love, you know, for, you know, for a band of people in their early 30s to be singing about aging, I'm always like, that's adorable. But it's really thoughtful and beautiful.

Yeah, it's a philosophical album. I mean, I think the centerpiece of the album, Double Infinity, really speaks to this. as well. And it's not only about aging, it's also about turning into a different person. You know, you're thinking about what's forming while at the same time what's fading. You know, it's that the music is kind of a bridge between those two worlds and it just feels so thoughtful and moving. I mean, time moves like the waterfalls, unrelenting, cascading. I mean, it's just gorgeous. That's big He's at the bridge of two

Infiniti's what's been lost And what lies waiting That's Big Thief. Their new album is called Double Infinity. Next up, a new album by El Michaels Affair. It is called 24-hour sports.

So Leon Michaels has become a go-to producer. He put out a great collaboration with Black Thought a few years ago. He's made records with Nora Jones and Clero and Calliuchis. This is kind of his opportunity to work with his own canvas again. And it is a collection of songs with influences ranging from vintage sports broadcasts, which is part of what gives this album its title, to like MF Doom to Gospel.

He typically records instrumental records, but the first thing that jumps out about this one is the collaboration, just the sheer variety of voices that pop up here. Yeah, there's so many people on this record, and it just shows what great style this guy has. I mean, he's got everyone on there from, like, Brazil's Jose. He's got Ghanayan musician Florence Aduni on here, Nor Jones Cleros on here. There's so many great musicians of so many different backgrounds, and yet the album is still cohesive sounding. Totally. And he's able to kind of deploy those voices in ways that work with their style and with his.

And so I think that's a big part of where that cohesiveness comes from is it doesn't feel like he's retrofitting these songs around someone else's style. He's finding ways to combine them in really charming ways. You know, clero, you know, when we think of clero, we think of kind of that cool bedroom pop vibe. And she pops up in a song called Anticipate. And the kind of swirly, psychedelic pop vibes that he concocts for her voice really match her low-key freak, you know, perfectly. Leon's using his own voice, too, on Shining.

And his voice is swirling all around that track, too. And it's just such a, of course, as the title suggests, it's such a warm and sunny song. It just, that could be the song of the summer. Well, and, you know, it could be the song of your NFL season, which kicks off this weekend. What better soundtrack as you're preparing for NFL games? I know, I know, Elisa, you obviously are going to. I'm definitely not going to since I don't watch football. However, I feel like, you know, he starts off.

Let's talk about the sports thing and how ignorant I am of sports in general. However, I do think it's so interesting. This is one thing that I can relate to and understand about the sports analogy is that he took inspiration from Sports Illustrated magazines from the 80s. Just the look of that is what he was trying to replicate as sound. I mean, I'm familiar with those magazines. I'm familiar with the 80s. I know that colorful and bright sound, and I do hear that here on this record. It's a knockout. It's a home run. I'm mixing sports metaphors, but I think he gets a trophy for it.

That is L. Michael's Affair. Their new album is called 24-hour Sports. We've got some more records we're going to talk about in depth. First, we're going to take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Alisa Ali from WFUV. in the Bronx. Elisa, tell me about the station. Tell me about what you're working on. Well, the station is, you know, like a lot of stations freaking out

because of our public funding right now, but we have been hearing from a lot of our listeners that they really value public radio, and that means so much to us, and it is so wonderful. One thing that I've been working on for a few years now is a local music feature

on my show called New York Slice, And it has been such a bright spot for me in creating a community of people here in New York City. And that is including the musicians who make the music, the recording artists, the venues where the bands play at, and the record stores where their music is sold. So it's really been just such a wonderful way to bring us all together. And I recently did a New York Slice showcase for New York Music Month, which was really wonderful. And I got to showcase some great New York acts that I adore. It's every weekday from around noon is when I play these artists. And you can find out more about them at WFUV.org slash NY slice.

And we actually will take Tri-State Area musicians. It's not only for New York Slice. We appreciate our Jersey brothers and we'll even accept our Connecticut brothers as well. Nice. All right. Well, let's carry on. We've got more great music to get to that's out today, September 5th. Next up, Curtis Harding. Curtis Harding's new album is called Departures and Arrivals, Adventures of Captain Kurt. So this is his fourth full-length album, and he is just a brilliant soul singer-songwriter with, a lot of different elements thrown into the mix. I mean, he's a great guitarist, too.

He was a multi-instrumentalist. And this new album is a concept album. Oh, hello. Okay, a concept album. Yes. When you say someone is putting out a concept album, it's like someone just offering you a sandwich, but an ice cream sandwich.

Like the very best kind of album. You know what I mean? So, yes, I'll take a ride with me. Where are you going with this concept album? It's a space opera, the Adventures of Captain Kurt. Hello, Star Trek not, but the concept is really about missing home and feeling alienated from your friends and from your people and just feeling lost. And I think that that's something that we can all relate to. Absolutely.

I think he uses that space metaphor really aptly and uses it in ways that feel really relatable. at the same time as he is cooking up these gorgeous, expansive, lush soul arrangements that are, you know, to me conjured memories of Isaac Hayes or Curtis Mayfield, where there's this cinematic sweep to it. You get strings coming in. It's this almost orchestral quality, while it still at the same time feels grounded in something personal. Yeah, the strings, like you say, add so much to it and add. I love all of those flourishes. It just takes it to another level. Actually, you know what is another flavor that he puts in here?

There's a little bit of a disco. Yeah, and I was just going to mention the song The Power. I think that might be like one of my favorite. Okay, we talk about this a lot, like what's your favorite track from the album? And it's always changing. But that was the first one that really I was like, oh, yeah, this does have the power. I like this. It's got that kind of disco throb, that beat, that bass line, the strings come in in a way that evokes disco.

And it arrives about halfway through the record and gives it this kind of jolt of energy that I think is really welcome. Because, you know, he has such a flare for atmosphere. You know, there's a song here called I'm With You that feels like it could have fit like on an indie soundtrack in the 70s. It's got this really a moody arrangement. It's using the strings in kind of a more low-key way. Totally, totally. It's just so yearning. And I have to talk about his vocals on this track.

This guy has got some serious range. I mean, he goes high and low on this song. And it is just, you know, you're melting. You're melting in his hands. What I like about it, too, is that it's really hopeful, you know? I mean, this is the guy who's really positive, and you can feel that positivity flow through him. He acknowledges, you know, he's not where he needs to.

be. I think on this song, I guess he's talking about LA, which feels like galaxies away from home. But I love, you know, the positivity that he has there. I'm with you. It's really reassuring. That is Curtis Harding. Curtis Harding's new album is called Departures and Arrivals, Adventures of Captain Kurt. Next up, the singer Lucretia Dalt is back with a new album called A Danger to Ourselves. So Lucretia Dalt is a Colombian-born artist who's made a string of adventurous albums when she's not busy scoring movies. Like she did the score for Unbecoming a Guinea Fowl. She did the score for HBO's The Baby. So she's kind of been delving into movie and TV scoring in recent years.

Her own work is very arty and expansive, very daring, multilingual. She manages to be extremely artistically open and really, explore a lot of different sounds on her records. And one thing that jumped out at me about this one and kind of a theme for several of the records that we're talking about this week, her collaborators really give you a sense of what she's trying to do here. You know, David Silvian from the band Japan, you know, pops up and, you know, he co-produces the record and he gives this kind of spoken word contribution to the song, Kosa Rara that opens the record. Wanamolina pops up. in the song of The Common Reader, and they are just such a natural pairing.

I love the way they sound together, and I actually, the first time I heard Lucretia, I was like, oh, this sounds very much like Juanamalina. And I was more familiar with Juanamalina, so that's what drew me in. And you mentioned the song Kosarara, and I adore that song. It is so good. It's like reading a book, and you know you wish you could read it again for the first time. Because it's so intriguing and surprising when that second part comes in with David Silvian, who in this song plays Tom Waits.

Right? Right? He plays the part of Tom Wates, and it comes with this creepy bloodstained monologue. It's just, it's so good. And by the way, that's, I think, the monologue, that's where you get the title of this album. He says, we are out of favor. a danger to ourselves. We're out of favor.

A danger to ourselves. It's not unfair to me. It's something else. My body is smeared and bloody red. She said she loved me, but I don't trust her yet. You know, she's been open about the fact that this is kind of her most personal album, that she's in the past been drawn to kind of use,

you know, fictional characters and kind of putting words in other people's mouths as a way of, you know, kind of telling other people's stories, kind of using fiction as a mask. And here, you know, she has talked about wanting to find ways, you know, to kind of strip away artifice and distraction and experience universal grounding truths. And the way to do that is by kind of telling your own story. And so, like, a lot of the life experiences that inform this record are kind of like the rush of a new relationship and kind of a lot of the material that we talk about a lot as informing a lot of people's records. And it's so funny to me that, like, she took this kind of more basic approach of telling her own story, but it still manages to come out in this

fragmented, very nonlinear, experimental, and extremely expressive, Lucretia Dahl way. And that's her personality coming out where it's like, it's not going to be a sugar-coded. Everything is great situation. She's going to show you that, you know, love is scary and it almost feels like you're being attacked at times or that you are so in love with someone that you want to like bite them or like, you know what I mean? When you love something, you want to just like grab it so hard.

It's, you know, you feel that. She really expresses that so well. and I think that's the emotion. That is a danger to ourselves by Lucretia Dalt. We've got one more album we're going to talk about in depth, as well as a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today, September 5th. But first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday.

I'm Stephen Thompson here with Elisa Ali from WS.S. FUV in the Bronx. Before we get to our lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today, we got one more that we want to talk about in depth. It's David Byrne. David Byrne is back with a new album called Who is the Sky?

Think about how busy David Byrne has kept in recent years, right? you know, he had the production American Utopia on Broadway, which was enormously acclaimed. Spike Lee made a David Byrne movie for HBO. He's been really busy with a lot of theater and film projects. And while he was working on those and those kind of somewhat overlap with the pandemic, he was also taking down kind of sketches and notes for future songs. And that kind of formed the skeleton that became this album.

And it's really interesting to hear where he kind of is at this point in his career, where he's kind of reached a phase a little bit like the phase that like Neil Young has been in for a number of years, where if an idea strikes his fancy, David Byrne writes a song called My Apartment is My Friend, where he is writing about, you know, giving you this sense of place and kind of what his home means to him. Yeah, he takes these little fragments of his life, like My Apartment Is My Apartment Is My Friend, friend, moisturizing thing. Right. You know, just these little things that happen to him, and they seem kind of silly at first,

but then, you know, there's a message in there. You know what I mean? It's don't judge people or, you know, you can't really tell what love is going to be. You know, there's all these really wonderful little slices of wisdom, and that is his style. He is looking at life through this, like, I don't know. I don't want to say totally sunny, you know, through like Pollyanna vision, you know, through rose-tinted glasses. However, if there's something good to be found, he will see it and bring it to your attention.

Yeah, I think that upbeat quality comes through quite a bit on this record. I mean, it's pretty undeniable. You know, it kicks off with the track called Everybody Laughs. That's a very optimistic and hopeful person. perspective to take. And then you've also got a track called What is the Reason for it? And that's where I really noticed his collaborators here, not just the guests like St. Vincent and Haley Williams from Paramour, but the Ghost Train Orchestra, which is this chamber music ensemble that he works with on this record. And it's kind of a large-scale chamber music group. And they kind of come in and

give this song and a number of other songs in this record, this really jaunty, freewheeling vibe. There's this like clippity clop gallop to it that again, like I come back to the word childlike. And maybe that's the, maybe that's my reaction to the optimism is to think that it's childlike, which really says more about me than it does about hand. I love the little tango kind of vibe of that song. And it is, it's interesting how the different songs bring so many different styles because he's got this huge, you know, orchestra that he's working with. He's got so many instruments to pull out of this bag and they're able to, you know, bring in a tango song or like a sweeping harmony song. There's so many different textures on this album. All right. That is David Byrne. His new album is called Who Is the Sky? Now, we couldn't

possibly get to every great record out today, September 5th. So we're going to close this week's show with a lightning round with some more recommendations. I'm going to kick us off with the English band St. Etienne, which has been a global treasure for 35 years. They made some of the most charming, timeless, catchy pop music of the early 90s, then just kept churning out terrific albums for more than three decades. They've said their new 12th record will be their last, and they go out on a high note. St. Etienne's lovely new swan song is called International. I would like to put forth a great New York City musician producer named James Kay,

who just released her third album called Friend, and it is a wonderful companion for late-night grooves. Her vocals are mesmerizing as she creates ghostly trip-hoppy soundscapes. It's called Friend from James Kay. A moment ago, I mentioned the final album of the indie pop band St. Etienne, another wonderful 90s pop band is back with a bit of bittersweet closure. Ivy made six records in the span of nearly 20 years, with the last coming out in 2011. One of Ivy's members was the great Adam Schlesinger, who played in Fountains of Wayne, among many other projects.

Schlesinger died in 2020, and the surviving members of Ivy got together with some of their favorite collaborators to record another album, with every song containing something Schlesinger recorded as a demo for Ivy, between 1995 and 2012. It's a sweet, charming, understandably melancholy collection called Traces of You. Another artist that I want to call attention to is New York Slice alum,

as I mentioned before, New York Slice is a local music feature that I have on my show on WFUV and I've previously played Aeneas and the Hoops. They make jazzy indie pop music that goes down real smooth. Anayas Lund is the mastermind behind this project, and she's got her debut EP out today.

It's called Growing Pains. Hey, Jay, do you? Sit along, thank for you. We're just to drive away. But I know when things have to change now. I mentioned Ivy and Adam Schlesinger a moment ago. He was one of my all-time favorite songwriters and a musical presence I miss deeply. Another much-missed all-time favorite of mine is Jason Molina, who recorded a long string of brilliant records as Songs Ohio and later Magnolia Electric Company.

He was an incredible singer and songwriter whose cult following has only grown since his death in 2013. Now he's inspired a new tribute album with contributions from M.J. Lenderman, horse jumper of love, hand habits, and many others. It's called I Will Swim to You, a tribute to Jason Molina. All right, Alisa, you and I have listened to a lot of new music to prepare for this episode. This is the part of the show where we put each other on the spot. I'm going to ask you, what is your favorite song that you heard this week in preparing for this episode? I think the one that I will go back to, as soon as we're done talking immediately is the big thief song words.

It's just such a sonically moving song. It's got this great galloping pace. It feels so freeing. I feel like I could swim in this song all day. Speaking of summer and the last dips in the pool. So as always, after much agonizing, I'm going to go with the song, Say You Will from Ivy's final album, Traces of You. It's hard to separate my fondness for Say You Will from how much I miss Adam Schlesinger,

not to mention the deep well of nostalgia that Ivy's breezy, melancholy pop conjures for me. But it's also just a gorgeous, stylish, deeply sweet little song. So that is Say You Will by Ivy. And that is our show for this week. Thank you so much, Elisa Ali, for taking time out of your week at WFUV in the Bronx. Stephen Thompson, I cannot wait to hang with you again. I know it has been way, way too long. 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 Raina Doris, host of World Cafe at WXPN in Philadelphia. Until then, take a moment to be well, moisturize, and treat you. yourself to lots of great music.