Welcome to New Music Friday, NPR Music’s podcast dedicated to sharing the best albums out each week. We listen to dozens of new releases in advance, identify the ones we think you need to hear, and highlight our favorite five in a brisk mix of clips, context and commentary.
The podcast is hosted by NPR Music’s Stephen Thompson, and each episode features a member of the NPR Music Network of public radio stations. This week, our guest is Chloe Kimes, the weekend host of WMOT in Tennessee.
Scroll down to see which albums we discussed this week and links to our New Music Friday playlists, where you can hear singles from each album. Then scroll down to see the long list and Dora’s Corner, where NPR Music production assistant Dora Levite shares her favorite albums that didn’t make the podcast.
The Starting Five
Courtesy of Secretly Canadian /
🎵 Ella Langley, Dandelion (Columbia)
- Recommended If You Like: Megan Moroney, Lainey Wilson
🎵 Tenille Townes, The Acrobat (Township)
- RIYL: Amanda Shires, Joanna Newsom
🎵 Wesley Joseph, Forever Ends Someday (Secretly Canadian)
- RIYL: Sampha, Jorja Smith
🎵 Brown Horse, Total Dive (Loose Music)
- RIYL: Neil Young, Built To Spill
🎵 Juni Habel, Evergreen In Your Mind (Basin Rock)
- RIYL: June Tabor, Laura Marling
New Music Friday is a feature of NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast. Hear the discussion on the NPR App, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Lightning Round
Five more albums we wish we could have discussed on the podcast, recommended by NPR Music’s staff:
⚡ Gracie and Rachel, If We Could, Would We (Righteous Babe)
⚡ Melanie Baker, Somebody Help Me, I’m Being Spontaneous! (Tambourhinocerous)
⚡ upsammy & Valentina Magaletti, Seismo (PAN)
⚡ Spirit Adrift, Infinite Illumination (20 Buck Spin)
⚡ Drivin N Cryin, Crushing Flowers (self-released)
Listen to each album’s best songs on our New Music Friday playlists on Spotify and Apple, or wherever you stream music.
Dora’s Corner
Daisy Ayscough and Tomos Ayscough /
Dora Levite is New Music Friday’s production assistant, an occasional All Songs Considered guest, and 17 years old according to her Spotify wrapped. Below are her picks for the best albums not featured on the show.
💿 My New Band Believe, My New Band Believe (Rough Trade)
💿 Félicia Atkinson & Christina Vantzou, Reflections Vol. 3: Water Poems (Mute)
💿 Mei Semones, Kurage EP (Bayonet)
The Long List
Pop
- Holly Humberstone, Cruel World (Polydor)
Classical
- ~Nois, What is ~Nois (New Amsterdam)
- Flore Laurentienne, Volume III (Secret City)
- Jonas Kaufmann, Magische Töne (Sony Classical)
Country/Folk/Americana
- Cactus Lee, Lee’s Dream (Western Vinyl)
- Marika Che, Bright Flame (DIY)
- Rae Spoon, Assigned Country Singer At Birth (Coax)
- Fantastic Cat, Cat Out of Hell (Missing Piece)
Electronic/Out There
- Rosa Pistola, Incorregible (Eck Ecko)
- Alex Zhang, Hungtai Dras (Shelter Press)
- Emra Grid, Eleven Finns (Line)
- ESYA, Chasing Desire (AOK)
- Fantastic Twins, Speicher 139 (Kompakt Extra)
- Frost Children, SISTER (remixed) (True Panther / Dirty Hit)
- Fumitake Tamura, Mijin (Leaving Records All Genre)
- Guests, Common Domestic Bird (World of Echo)
- Hoavi, Architectonics (Peak Oil)
- Mathilde Nobel, Wide Awake Open (Intercept)
- Nu Vision the band, The Seed (Nation)
- PPP (Piezo, DJ Plead & DJ Python), Bborn Again (Wisdom Teeth)
- Rachel Lime, STORIES (DIY)
- Squarepusher, Kammerkonzert (Warp)
- The Black Warhols, Famous For Fifteen Minutes (Pure Sonik)
- Vanity Productions, The Vanity Project (Northern Electronics)
Global
- ANSIEDAD1000, ABIZZZMO (Hakuna Kulala)
Jazz
- Alicia Lázaro, There is no end to anything round (DIY)
- Black Nile, Indigo Garden (MASS MoCA)
- Club d’Elf, Loon & Thrush (Royal Potato Family)
- Judith Berkson, Trevor Dunn, Gerald Cleaver, Thee They Thy (ECM)
R&B/Soul
- Drunk, A Derby Spiritual (Jagjaguwar)
- Kumail, Mudbrown (Tru Thoughts)
- Les Imprimés, Fading Forward (Big Crown)
- Tiwayo, Outsider (Record Kicks)
- V/A, Eccentric Sweet Soul (Numero Group)
- Isaia Huron, Mr. Lovebomb (Itola)
Rap/Hip-Hop
- WiFiGawd, Trap Or Die (DTLA)
- Skrilla, Z (Priority)
Rock/Alt/Indie
- Wu Lyf, A Wave That Will Never Break (L Y F)
- Fishbone, In Your Face/Cover Your Face (reissue) (DIY)
- Scritti Politti, Songs To Remember (reissue) (Rough Trade)
- Blue Hour, Selva LP (Blue Hour Music)
- Boko Yout, GUSTO (Hoopadiggas)
- Craig Wedren, The Dream Dreaming Deluxe (Tough Lover)
- El Ten Eleven, Nowhere Faster (Joyful Noise)
- Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains, Halage (Domino)
- Gnaw, Inside a Machine That’s Glistening (Loide)
- Gnod, Chronicles Of Gnowt (Rocket)
- Gregg Allman Band, Great As Ever: Live In Philadelphia ’86 (Sawrite)
- Hannah Lew, Hannah Lew (Night School)
- Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage, Bad Wiring (Blang)
- Joe Jackson, HOPE AND FURY (earMUSIC)
- Melvins & Napalm Death, Savage Imperial Death March (Ipecac)
- Nic Panken, Near Divine or Merely Rhyme (Useful Object)
- Pictish Trail, Life Slime (Fire)
- Prism Shores, Softest Attack (Meritorio)
- PUNCHBAG, I Am Obsessed EP (Mute)
- Franck Carducci, Sheeple (Cherry Red)
- Sparkler, Glidewinder (A La Carte)
- Stepmother, Absurdus Manifestus (Tee Pee)
- Steve Gunn, Shape of a Wave EP (No Quarter)
- THE DHARMA CHAIN, Some Kind Of Pure State (Spinda)
- The Itch, It’s The Hope That Kills You (Fiction/I Oh You)
Credits
Host: Stephen Thompson • Guest: Chloe Kimes, WMOT • Audio: Noah Caldwell • Producer: Elle Mannion • Production Assistant: Dora Levite • Editor: Otis Hart • Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed • Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
Copyright 2026 NPR
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.lpm.org ’
