New Music Friday: The best albums out Feb. 21
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Happy Friday, everyone, from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson, here with the host of Mountain Stage, Kathy Matea. Hey, Kathy. How you doing, Stephen? It's so funny. It's still crazy to hear you say the host of Mountain Stage.

For me, it's crazy because I grew up listening to your music. Oh, that's so nice. You know, I worked at a grocery store in Iola, Wisconsin, a tiny town in the middle of Wisconsin, about 1,200, 1,300 people. And they played country music, and I thought I was too cool for country music because I was a teenager. ♪

And songs slowly got their hooks in me and I fell in love with country music. And one of the songs that I most fell in love with was 18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses. Oh, that's so nice. It feels so full circle to get to talk to you about music like 37 years later. Yeah, you know, it's interesting because those songs, you know, you never know who hears it, you know, and then somebody walks up

every once in a while, or on Mountain Stage, some of the young musicians come and say, my mom is blowing up my phone right now because I grew up listening to you with my whole family, and can I take a selfie with you? It's just the sweetest thing, and I don't think I would have ever gotten to see that reflected back to me because of this show. Please, even every other reason, yeah, I'm 18.

Well, we're going to talk about Mountain Stage soon, but we're also here to talk about some of the best new albums that are out today. We're going to start with the English singer-songwriter Sam Fender. Sam Fender's new album is called People Watching. As he rails one again, turns to me and says, I'm watching Boris and Jan full police gear and

Sam Fender is an English singer-songwriter, sound inspired by British rock. As you can tell even from that little clip, this is a sound that is engineered to fill stadiums. He's been around for a little while. This is his third full-length album

And it really feels like he's fully coming into his own. I was not familiar with him. This is the kind of album that you could keep playing over and over again, and you'd keep finding your way into nooks and crannies of it. It could be like a good friend, you know? For another wild love, back to the kitchen. Squall love for another wild love.

That song, Wild Long Lie, I was like, this is like McCartney-esque, you know? It sort of reminded me of some old Beatles tracks. And there was some Neil Young-y stuff to it with the harmonic over the guitars on that song a little bit closer. And I just enjoyed it more than I expected to, to be honest with you. They break you in like a whole cube of open souls I don't disagree with

The way this record kind of unfurls, it starts with that track People Watching, and my immediate vibe was like, okay, kind of like Arcade Fire. You know, big, grand, sweeping, thematically ambitious sound.

The title and the opening song, you know, when you call it people watching, it's like we're all watching the world shift in major ways all the time. And the term people watching is so kind of part of the vernacular. But this takes it to a whole other level. You mentioned a few kind of classic names. You've also got to throw in Bruce Springsteen, right? Like he is drawn to a sound and to songs that have a searching quality to them.

There's a track on this record called Crumbling Empire, and obviously it's reflecting disaffection with the state of the world, with the state of the UK in particular. And I really got this sense of a guy who's kind of wrestling with the personal and the political and kind of finding ways to make these grand statements. Rolled like the surface of the moon A Detroit neighborhood love Gale at the wheel Showing me the side of this quarrel

The other song I really liked was the closer. It was so much a contrast to the rest of the sound of the record. The beautiful horns and this lovely space and

woodwinds and brass and it's very orchestral and it's like I think that just this guy has quite a range and seems to be able to own all of it. Yeah, he's dumping out the toolbox throughout this record. He's a whippet He's faster than anything Remember the pride that we felt The tools made him all so huge

You brought up Springsteen. It's a great analogy. Talk about somebody with a very wide range who can do, you know, he can do an acoustic guitar solo record. He can do old Woody Guthrie songs and then he can do his big arena anthems. And it really speaks to someone who is kind of comfortable in their own music. They just understand who they are.

That's Sam Fender. His new album is called People Watching. Next up, we've got Patterson Hood. Patterson Hood from the Drive-By Truckers has a new solo album called Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams. ♪ Suddenly it's freezing after weeks of log pines ♪ ♪ Overtaken by the strain ♪ ♪ As gravity's powerful hands take ♪ ♪ Exploding trees ♪

Okay, so that title did not exactly make me want to pick up the record and oh boy I can't wait till I get to play it Exploding trees and airplane screams, but I am here to tell you man. I have not dug much deeply into his music and I was Absolutely knocked out. I thought this guy is poetic and

This record is a collection of songs over many, many years from what I read, and it's sort of about that moment, the life between when he was born and when he decided to go into music. So there's all these little vignettes from his growing up that influenced who he became. She was on the bench and had it stricken I still had some for members to The house of mothers streaking, crashing down Beauty queens in hospital gowns

There's a song on the record called The Forks of Cyprus, which is about this place. I've read his little blurb on it where he talks about this place in Alabama where he grew up. And when he describes it, you are there. I mean, it's not even like you're letting him play this game with you. The details were so...

that it put me in this place and I didn't even realize I was being taken there. And I just think that's the mark of a brilliant songwriter. We walk on the trails Past the pond on fallen leaves Where the panther saw His own reflection in my dreams Watching us making love Upon the cold hard ground Breeding the red clay So freshly plowed

Yeah, I mean, he's been making brilliant work for just decades now. And is such an incisive songwriter. His albums with the Drive-By Truckers have this kind of big sonic majesty to them. The track Airplane Screams on this record, he said it was written four decades ago. I don't want to be put down.

This is his first solo album in more than 12 years. He's put together this massive body of work, and it sounds like him. It sounds like this voice from all these Drive by Truckers records, but it still feels like he's exploring new sounds and finding new things to say. My girl's got a reserve parking space From the church to the cemetery

I thought it was really interesting that "Airplane Screams" is the oldest record, the oldest song on the record, and "Pinocchio" is the newest, and they're back-to-back on the record. And he talks a little bit about "Pinocchio" and how he realized that the whole story, there's an overlay onto his life. He spent like every single weekend of his life with his uncle.

who was a mentor and didn't have kids. And he said, I was like his Pinocchio, and he was like my Geppetto. And I'm like, my gosh, you know, like, what a deep analogy. Trying to figure out like a sad detective Pushing out thoughts when your brain's defective Pushing out words from my ill-formed mouth Trying to see the light when the sun hides out

♪ Trying to see the light like a Rangren song ♪ The other song that really struck me was Miss Cold Iron's Oldsmobile. Yeah, I had a feeling you were going to say that. Oh my lord! You see the street, you see the car. It's all just descriptions of everything around. It's like watching a movie. I was, you know, very knocked out by that one especially. ♪ Cold Iron's Oldsmobile's parked on the street ♪

Ten miles to the gallon and red velvet seats Sissy is gonna drive us anywhere and once

Talk about a guy who's at the top of his game, you know, not only having made decades worth of great records with the drive-by truckers, but you look at the cast of contributors on this album. You mentioned the Forks of Cyprus. That's got Waxahachie on it. The Van Pelt Parties has the band Wednesday, which is this phenomenal southern rock band.

Kevin Morby's on this record. Brad and Phil Cook from Megafon. David Barbie from Sugar. Basically made this record with Chris Funk from the Decemberists that they'd always talked about making a record together and had jammed together on Patterson Hood's solo tours. It's this very personal and very distinctive record, but it's also a very collaborative record. ♪

You mentioned that song to Van Pelt parties. I didn't know what to expect from that title, and it's another big fave, which is the childhood recollection of these parties in his neighborhood where the punch was spiked and no one watched the kids, so they just get wasted on Christmas Eve. ♪

That's Exploding Trees and Airplane Screams from Patterson Hood. We've got some more records we're going to talk about, but first, let's take a quick break. This message comes from Carvana. Discover your car's worth with Carvana Value Tracker. Stay up to date when your car's value changes. Always know your car's worth with Carvana Value Tracker.

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From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Mountain Stage host Kathy Matea. Now, Kathy, you took over Mountain Stage from the great Larry Gross, who hosted it for many, many, many years. Yes, yeah. You've been hosting it now for a couple years. How's it working out for you? How are you liking it? Oh, it's great.

Oh, I love it. You know, it checks all the boxes of what I think is important in the world. Bringing music to people who want to hear music, like finding a connection between the listener and musicians that you might not be exposed to otherwise. And it promotes the culture of my hometown in a way that is not the stereotypical hillbilly. There is a very friendly and unusually warm atmosphere.

atmosphere backstage at Mountain Stage. I think it's really important to sort of tell people what West Virginia is really like. Mountain Stage started the year I signed my original record deal and

So it's been very good to me as well. You know, over the years, it's been a place for me to get heard and me to build my own audience. And so it's a chance to give back and support an institution that's important in my own life. Are you discovering music through onstage? Oh, all the time. You know, for 40 years, it's been me and my music and my records and, you know, blah, blah, blah. And all of a sudden, I get to shine light on other people.

You know, the whole show is just about music and love. It's about loving our musicians and shining light on them and letting them be heard. Let's go to our next record. It's Jesse Wells. Jesse Wells has a new record called Middle.

If these alkaloids elicited the origins of my mind Then why's the jackalope approaching, winking both its beady eyes? Oh, ye wizards of ineptitude, you've conspired for my end As the flames of hell come rolling on the Santa Ana wind

So Jesse Wells is a singer-songwriter from Ozark, Arkansas. A really refreshingly no BS singer-songwriter, but somebody who is not necessarily working narrowly with any given form. He's a guy who grew up on...

Dylan and Baez and Joni Mitchell and Woody Guthrie and then discovered kind of classic rock. And you can just kind of feel that in these songs that really clearly are coming from a guy who is very direct in what he wants to say while still being artful about it. He's a deep thinker.

And that was the first thing that really struck me. I mean, you know, that opening song, the harder you think, the deeper you sink, the harder you grip, the more that you slip. You know, that's like so kind of zen. I got some bricks and life is pretty short. So I take them down. The harder you think, the deeper you sink, the tighter you grip. Oh, I'm singing this song about love.

Clearly, he's somebody who's very introspective, and I think he kind of made his name posting protest songs about capitalism and fentanyl and microplastics on the internet and stuff. So clearly, he comes from that Woody Guthrie kind of tradition. How was I supposed to know that my soul was gonna roll away down in the valley to the ocean?

I just like his voice. I like how accessible he is. And I think that he, you know, he's clearly using music to communicate in a deeper way than just like, hey, let me make you feel good. You know, it's really, let's talk about life.

You know, a song like Simple Gifts where he sings like, how I envy all them stones, they don't ever say a word.

and kind of reveling in and searching for simplicity and how that kind of juxtaposes against a song, you know, like Certain, which is about, you know, a kind of self-identified space cowboy, you know, who's trying to find answers. I can't take the chance on this.

In that simple gift song, there's a lyric that I made a note of that says, when true simplicity is gained, how much then is lost? And I thought, you sit on a pillow sometimes for a long time, don't you? Because that's just very, you know, that's a very Buddhist-y kind of thing. What do you have to let go of that you don't even know you're gripping tightly, you know? That part in Certain where it says, what I would do to be certain. And it's sort of like about, he articulates all of those things

struggles that we all kind of go through, sometimes unconsciously. You know, we want to hang on, we want to learn to let go, sometimes we don't even know we're hanging on. And I just think he gets to the heart of that in a very eloquent way. One of the truest ways to be a great songwriter is to always be searching for something.

And I think that really comes through in this guy's songwriting. I agree. There's a couple lines in that song, Wheel. Wheel keeps

where he talks about trusting all the planets to stay in their orbit and do the right thing, you know, and goes from that to if a minute's a place and a moment's a gift, then a while is a time too heavy to lift. It's like it's contemplating the macro and the micro. But he's doing it in a very accessible way, which I think is the magic of it. It's what tells me that it's authentically him. He's not trying to do something. To me, it just sounds like what he sits around thinking about.

I'm trusting all the planets to know their math, to know their way. My path, I don't know. I hope so. Seems like every calendar is a slice of cake. Where you get a little, the less you take. We'll keep spending on. Turn and turn me.

That's Middle from the singer-songwriter Jesse Wells. Next up, Sunny War. Sunny War has a new album called Armageddon in a Summer Dress. Won't you meet me on the outskirts of my lap? Close your eyes and take a ride on a one-way track. Cause I swear once you're there, you won't want to leave. You'll be back, you'll be loved, you'll have all you need. And the sun and the breeze will be all you know. And you'll sweat like a tree while you play and you grow. Cause the world's not a game, you don't have to play.

Okay, I have to say, folk punk is not, you know, I don't really have a lot of folk punk music.

in my collection or on my playlists. But I kind of dug into this. You know, she says, I'm influenced by old-time music. I'm influenced by roots music. I'm influenced by punk music. And they have the same lyrical approach. They're both anti-establishment. And that punk, she points out that punk relates to Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and the Union songs. They're all about being an outsider. So she really...

lives in that space very comfortably. She can kind of put your face into things that are hard to look at, but it's not so angry that you get alienated. I know you've been changing and feeling so defeated. Even still you have to rise, babe, like the sun not shining.

Rise, that song Rise. It's like you've been trying to be patient. You've been thinking that the worst is yet to come, but you even, you have to rise up again like the sun. You have to. And there's going to be good days too, my friend. It's like she's talking to some friend and encouraging them. So it tells me that this person's heart is open, even as they're looking at what's hard in the world. I'm not shy enough, yeah. I'm not shy enough, yeah. I'm not shy enough, yeah.

She's somebody who's had a long road to success in the music business. She has been homeless. She was a Venice Beach busker for a long time. Some of her videos on Venice Beach went viral because people recorded her and wanted to share her with the world. And, you know, so this is somebody who has moved through, you know, many phases of scratching and clawing to get ahead in the music business and really pulled from a lot of different influences and sources along the way.

hour or so. Don't have to let everything go.

I got into a hilarious mock argument with Sunny War when she played at the Tiny Desk in 2019. Because behind the desk, there's a doll of the rapper Master P. And it's from my dumb collection of weird pop culture toys. And it's been behind the Tiny Desk since basically the very beginning. And she was insistent that she wanted to buy it from me.

Because she wanted this talking Master P doll more than anything. And we had this whole long back and forth. And I'm like, I didn't necessarily have you pegged as somebody who was in the market for a talking Master P doll based on your music. That's the omnivorousness of an artist like this. I said, no, I would not sell it to her. Well, it's interesting to hear this because, you know, there's a song on the record that we have to play called Walking Contradiction. Lock it.

I'm out.

The lyrics get pretty explicit and usually that will turn me away but her message was so compelling so she's like something something for a dollar selling something for a dollar is not the only way to to be a whore you know we sell we sell hours we sell our time we sell our power we sell our soul we do it all the time we just don't call it the same thing and in this song there

There's a real droniness to the melody. This is like rap mixed with roots music. All the food we are grows in the dirt, but we can't grow our own because we've got to go to work and the rent's due every 30 days and you won't have anything once your bills are paid. I mean, it's just so tight, the lyric, and about things that are hard to think about in a very specific way, but not so angry that it alienates me. I don't see them as people

Everybody gives a soapbox and a bag of dreams and an echo chamber allocated for the screams while the war pigs killed more.

That is Sunny War. Her new album is Armageddon in a Summer Dress. We've got one more record we're going to talk about in depth this week, as well as a lightning round of some of the other stuff we're excited about. But first, let's take a quick break.

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From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Kathy Matea from Mountain Stage. We've got one more record we're going to talk about before we get to our lightning round. It's by Sia Gray, and it's called Sia. ♪ I'm like the guests, I want to call you out ♪ ♪ Call you out, call me rude, and I'll show you ♪

Okay, this album took me a little bit to get into, and then I fell in love with it. And I thought, she's like the Carla Bonoff of her generation. Like she, every song is about Carla.

breaking up or a relationship not working out. She is a master of writing about heartbreak, but it's such a different take. And she reminds me of Billie Eilish every now and then, you know, and that sort of mix of the

drum machine but then an organic guitar sound I think oh it's it's kind of like what they did with Casey Musgraves you know where they took traditional sounds and used them in not traditional ways and mixed them with you would normally think a record would be all one thing or all the other and the way they put these together um I thought was just really interesting and hooky and I really I really just got deeper and deeper into it and enjoyed it more and more

I had a very similar reaction to this record. I feel like if you're looking for 2025's breakout stars, to me, Sia Great really feels like a big one. Get back home.

She is squaring the circle of hyper catchy and accessible pop with weird indie folk in a way that not very many people can pull off. And I think it's really interesting when you look at her background. You know, she's a visual artist. She's a musician. She's a singer-songwriter. She's been the musical director for Willow Smith, who is extremely inventive. Oh, wow. And Daniel Caesar, who's a phenomenal singer.

phenomenal artist. And she's worked in a lot of different phases of the music industry. And once she synthesizes all these sounds together herself, you just get something that is so sleek and stylish and strange. I could really see her

really taking off this year. But there are so many different directions she's hurtling on this record. You know, you have this sweet, swirly pop song like Exhaust the Topic, which is sweet and swirly until late when it goes hard. You know? Yeah. Yeah.

This record closes with a track called Lie Down, which is channeling this big kind of Bon Iver energy. There's just a lot of different sounds all swirling around, and she holds it together into something that feels really cohesive. If I died in this life, would you mention me?

There's a song on here called "How Can You Keep Up a Lie?"

And I thought, this is really interesting because she uses her vocals like an instrument. She layers them up and they're kind of affected and they're kind of all dreamy and they're all produced and layered on the chorus. And then on the verses, they're completely dry and right in your face so you don't miss a word. And then they'll put this like harp in and then this kind of beatily synth sound. Then she said, "You test my faith, you tap my temple."

Like, that's such a double entendre, you know? I thought, this person is, there's lots of layers to what they're doing. ♪ I'm out of my mind for you, but I'm out of time ♪ ♪ And it's lit right through my fingers ♪ ♪ You feel so lovely, you test my faith ♪

Somebody spent hours and hours and hours in the studio

building these tracks up. And I got to work with a producer who did that one time. It was a completely different experience. It makes sense to me that she's a visual artist because it's more like making a painting, adding a layer of paint, adding another layer, adding another layer. And it is, it's ear candy in the best way. It feels like it's very rare that you hear something that sounds like nothing you've heard before. I'm out my heart for you I'm out for you

That is Sia from the artist Sia Gray. Obviously, we can never get to everything we want to talk about in a given week, but we did want to do a quick lightning round of just some of the albums that are exciting us. I'm going to kick us off. Oh, man, there's so much we couldn't even get to, Kathy. I wanted to talk about the Basha Bulat record.

There's tons and tons of great stuff out today, but I'm going to start with the Canadian pop singer Tate McRae. She had a colossal hit with Greedy a couple years ago. She's now back with her third album. It's called So Close to What. It's already spawned a hit single called It's Okay, I'm Okay. And as that song suggests, this record does not skimp on the hook-forward, hyper-danceable pop bangers for which Tate McRae is known. Thank you.

Well, next up is a woman named Christina Vane, who I just discovered. And she lives here in Nashville, where I live. She's a blues guitar goddess. She plays a national steel, and she's playing it on this record. And her songwriting is great. Her singing is great. And she's another one that I just want to dig deeper into what she's doing, because there's a lot of really great women gunslinger guitar players out there right now, and she's one of them. Keep on living

In 2023, singer-songwriter Trevor Powers rebooted the musical project he calls Youth Lagoon, NPR Music favorite, and in the process put out a terrific record called Heaven is a Junkyard.

Bringing back Youth Lagoon obviously reinvigorated him creatively because now he's back with another album. It's called Rarely Do I Dream. It's dark and disoriented, kind of a big, strange rock sound. It's inspired in part by his discovery of a bunch of old home movies in his parents' house, and that led him to a lot of strange and deep and dark reflections. And they put it on, they put it on, they'll put it on.

All right. I've waited this whole show to play this record. This is my big fave. He was on Mountain Stage. This is Paul Thorne. And he played this song at Soundcheck. He was supposed to come with his band. The band got stranded on some flight that didn't make it. And he drove like two hours and borrowed guitars to still play the show. And walked into Soundcheck and played this song. And I thought, oh my lord, I have makeup on and I'm going to have mascara on.

running down my cheeks. It moved me so much. He's like one of my best discoveries since I started hosting Mountain Stage. The album is called Life is Just a Vapor. It don't matter that you don't know who I am Life is a vapor, let's live while we can It's just a vapor, even though it's a vapor Summertime hits

Finally, the English R&B singer Now, that's N-A-O, is back. She's been making funky, lilting, vibrant music for more than a decade now. Don't miss her 2019 Tiny Dust concert if you haven't seen it. Now she's releasing her fourth full-length studio album. It's called Jupiter. I can't help it, cocaine in your kiss, the way the crowd when it hits, floating like

And that's our show for this week. Kathy Matea, thank you so much for taking time out from hosting Mountain Stage to join us. Oh my gosh, Stephen, I have had so much fun. What a great gig you have. What a great gig I have.

We are two of the luckiest people in this industry. I always look at my fellow musicians and say, just don't forget, we're the lucky ones. If you enjoyed today'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 Simon Rentner and edited by Otis Hart. The executive producer of NPR Music is Soraya Mohamed, and her boss is Keith Jenkins, NPR's vice president of music and visuals.

We'll be back next week to talk about new albums from Panda Bear and many more with KCRW's Travis Holcomb. Until then, take a moment to be well, delete all the smartphone apps that make you miserable, and treat yourself to lots of great music.

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