NPR Music – Details, episodes & analysis

The best albums out this week include Wild God from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Doechii's Alligator Bites Never Heal, Jon Hopkins' Ritual and more.

Featured Albums:
• Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Wild God
• Doechii, Alligator Bites Never Heal
• Enumclaw, Home In Another Life
• Ellen Reid, Big Majestic
• Laurie Anderson, Amelia
• Jon Hopkins, Ritual

Other notable releases for Aug. 30:
• Muni Long, Revenge
• Emily D'Angelo, Freezing
• AWOLNATION, The Phantom Five
• Big Sean, Better Me Than You
• Shemekia Copeland, Blame It on Eve
• Tycho, Infinite Health
• Zedd, Telos
• Chelsea Wolfe, Undone EP
• Tank & the Bangas, The Heart, The Mind, The Soul
• The Cactus Blossoms, Every Time I Think About You
• Caleb Caudle, Sweet Critters
• Amy Rigby, Hang in There With Me
• Noah Kahan, Stick Season (Live From Fenway Park)

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

The latest update to our running list of the year's best songs includes tips for staying engaged, being happy and letting go from Arooj Aftab, Great Grandpa, Japandroids and more.

Featured artists and songs:
1. Arooj Aftab: "Raat Ki Rani," from Night Reign
2. The Smile: "Don't Get Me Started" (Single)
3. Japandroids: "D&T," from Fate & Alcohol
4. Peter Cat Recording Co.: "I Deny Me," from Beta
5. Great Grandpa: "Kid" (Single)
6. Yasmin Williams: "Virga (feat. Darlingside)," from Acadia

Like the show? Tell a friend and leave us a review in Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.

Questions, comments or any other feedback always welcome: allsongs@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

NPR Music's Stephen Thompson and Sheldon Pearce are your guides to seven anticipated albums out Aug. 23. During the second half of the episode, the two dig into the mercurial nature of the album format in 2024.

Featured albums:
- Sabrina Carpenter, 'Short n' Sweet'
- Lainey Wilson, 'Whirlwind'
- Illuminati hotties, 'POWER'
- Fontaines D.C., 'Romance'
- Heems, 'Veena'
- Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, 'Woodland'
- Magdalena Bay, 'Imaginal Disk'

See the longer list of albums out August 23 and stream our New Music Friday playlist at https://npr.org/music.

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

Over the past month thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets to protest the disputed election of president Nicolás Maduro, while Venezuelan artists like Danny Ocean use music to reflect on this political moment. But Ocean's work is just one data point in a long history of music from Venezuela that embodies the political opinions and emotions of those within the country and the diaspora.

On this week's episode, Felix Contreras and Anamaria Sayre are joined by producer Isabella Gomez Sarmiento to walk through crucial moments in Venezuela's political history over the last 30 years, and the music that soundtracked it.

Songs featured in this episode:

•Yordano, "Por estas calles"
•Carlos Baute, "Yo me quedo en Venezuela"
•Canserbero, "Es Épico"
•Danny Ocean, "Me Rehúso"
•Apache, "Rompiendo el Hielo"

Audio for this episode of Alt.Latino was edited and mixed by Taylor Haney, with editorial support from Hazel Cills, Zach Thompson, Tony Cavin and Didi Schanche. Our project manager is Grace Chung. NPR Music's executive producer is Suraya Mohamed. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.

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

On August 30, the Australian-born rock titan Nick Cave will release Wild God, a new album with his band The Bad Seeds. It's a high point in Cave's career, and NPR Music's Ann Powers spoke with him about the struggles — personal, musical and religious — he faced on the road to making the album.

Wild God is filled with songs about encounters with the divine, which does not always take a benevolent form. And it follows a decade in which Cave, having publicly faced tragedy in his own life, has evolved from post-punk's louchest fallen angel into a revered figure among his audience in a new way: a dignified seeker whose courage and wisdom resounds beyond musical boundaries thanks to advice he has shared in interviews, writing projects and public appearances. Perhaps it's not surprising that so many of the songs reckon with the moment of revelation or transformation, or the demand for conversion from what Cave describes as "a suffering god ... a god that is embedded in the world."

As for the state of his own religious conviction, Cave says that the struggle is the point: "I would say I'm in the process of conversion," he tells Powers. Wherever he is on that road, he's found something ecstatic to share.

Click here to read a transcript of this interview and hear songs from the album Wild God.

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

NPR Music's Daoud Tyler-Ameen and Hazel Cills give you a quick rundown of the most notable albums out Friday, Aug. 16, including Post Malone's country project, F-1 Trillion, Tinashe's seventh LP Quantum Baby, and Charly Bliss's first new record in five years.

Featured Albums:
- Tinashe, Quantum Baby
- Post Malone, F-1 Trillion
- Charly Bliss, Forever
- Morgan Wade, Obsessed
- Starflyer 59, Lust For Gold
- Palehound, Live at First Congregational Church

Visit https://npr.org/music to see the longer list of Aug. 16 releases and stream our New Music Friday playlist.

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

We look ahead to the final big push of releases for 2024, with fall albums from Mount Eerie, SOPHIE, Soccer Mommy, a newly discovered Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan recording and more.

Featured albums:
1. SOPHIE: SOPHIE
2. Mount Eerie: Night Palace
3. Dua Saleh: I Should Call Them
4. Kim Deal: Nobody Loves You More
5. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Chain Of Light
6. Soccer Mommy: Evergreen
7. Katie Gavin: What A Relief
8. Oliver Coates: Throb, shiver, arrow of time
9. Nubya Garcia: Odyssey

Other most-anticipated releases for fall 2024:
Bright Eyes: Five Dice, All Threes
Porridge Radio: Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me
Jamie xx: In Waves
Thurston Moore: Flow Critical Lucidity
Alan Sparhawk: White Roses, My God
Billy Strings: Highway Prayers
Christian Lee Hutson: Paradise Pop. 10
Mickey Guyton: House On Fire
Broadcast: Distant Call - Collected Demos 2000-2006
Dawn Richard, Spencer Zahn: Quiet in a World Full of Noise
Orla Gartland: Everybody Needs a Hero
Yasmin Williams: Acadia
The Linda Lindas: No Obligation
Japandroids: Fate & Alcohol
Laura Marling: Patterns in Repeat
Pixies: The Night the Zombies Came
Charley Crockett: Visions of Dallas


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

Anamaria Sayre and Felix Contreras play some of their favorite new songs from the last few months, featuring globe-spanning electronica from Colombian producer Sinego, border-crossing new music from La Doña, nuanced salsa from Spanish Harlem Orchestra and more.

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

NPR Music's Daoud Tyler-Ameen and Ann Powers take you on a tour of the most exciting albums out Friday, Sept. 6

Featured albums:
• LL Cool J, 'The FORCE'
• MJ Lenderman, 'Manning Fireworks'
• Nala Sinephro, 'Endlessness'
• The Dare, 'What's Wrong with New York?'
• Toro Y Moi, 'Hole Erth'

For the complete list of new albums out this week and to stream our New Music Friday playlist, visit https://npr.org/music.

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

We update our running list of the year's best songs with the shapeshifting rock of Caleb Landry Jones, Angélica Garcia's dystopian grooves, a searing look at infidelity from Damien Jurado and more.

Featured songs and artists:
1. Caleb Landry Jones: "Hey Dawn," from Hey Gary, Hey Dawn
2. Angélica Garcia: "El Que," from Gemelo
3. Damien Jurado & The Fremont Abbeye: "Sheets ('24)," from Sheets ('24)
4. Laura Marling: "Patterns," from Patterns In Repeat
5. Carlos Ares: "Cigarra," from Peregrino
6. Melt-Banana: "Stopgap," from 3+5

Feedback, questions, comments or suggestions always welcome: allsongs@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