New Music Friday: The best albums out Feb. 28
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Happy Friday, everyone, from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson, here with Travis Holcomb from KCRW. Hey, Travis. Hey, Stephen. Very excited to be here with you today. It is a pleasure to have you back for the second time this year. Yeah, and you know what? I think what makes it even sweeter, this is probably the biggest release date of the year so far, so I'm honored to be here with you for this.

Well, one of the reasons we have you back so quickly is you came to us and said, there's a ton of stuff I'm excited about this week. You know, we're going to talk about a bunch of new records. We've got a new album from Emdu Mokhtar, Hope Tala, Marie Davidson. We've got Dark Side. But first, we're going to talk about the new record by Panda Bear. Panda Bear has a new record called Sinister Rift. At the beginning side

It feels kind of like we're in the midst of a Panda Bear renaissance the last few years. He's had guest features on a lot of really cool releases, probably since 2022 or so from Brax and Falcon Step by Step. He was on the last Jamie XX record. He was on a Boolean single, and he had the collaborative record with Sonic Boom that came out a couple of years back.

In some ways, it does feel like Panda Bear, Noah Lennox has sort of eclipsed the profile of his group Animal Collective in the last few years. It was remarkable listening to this record because obviously this sound has been around for a long time. But he has this distinct quality to his sound that is really hard to come by. There aren't a ton of musicians who have a sonic stamp that feels truly unique to them.

Take a step.

No matter how plugged in you are to Noah Lennox's every move, you can plug into this record and immediately be like, that's the guy from Animal Collective. And there is a lot of Animal Collective intersection with this record. He recorded the whole thing with Josh Deacon. It's a tune in the area, music in the night.

On End's Meet, he collaborates with his old Animal Collective bandmates, A.B. Ter and Geologist as well, which is probably, you know, not surprisingly, the most Animal Collective song on this record. And when it is my time And when my motor's gone

There's also listening to these songs I noticed this recurring quality where there's a little bit of a dubby vibe to these arrangements.

There's also a track called Fairy Lady, which has this breezy, lilting quality. It feels like it's leading us ever so gingerly into springtime. And some of that is coming from those dub vibes. Feel it go far

Even if it's not worth the time.

I also picked up on, it was sort of like a 60s pop aesthetic, especially in the front end of the album. I was surprised, like the first song of the record is a track called Praise, which sounds like it could have been played by like a Happy Days house band or something like that. He's definitely got like an appreciation for melody and harmony. You won't be long with me.

He can also tap into a softer, kind of gauzier sound. There's a track on this record called "Elegy for Noah Liu," which has this really hazy, dreamy quality that unfolds over the course of six minutes.

As much as he's mastered this very busy sound, there's also, he shows a willingness and an ability on this record to kind of fan out and slow down and really indulge in something soft and beautiful. Looking for something Seeking as travelers do

yeah i feel like that's on display too with defense the track that he did with cindy lee who was one of the breakout indie stars of 2024 it was it was really cool to see cindy lee pop up on as a feature on this record

And that is Sinister Grift, the new album from Panda Bear. Next up, Emdu Mokhtar has a new album, a sequel to last year's Funeral for Justice. This one is called Tears of Injustice. So Emdu Mokhtar, for those who aren't aware, is a guitarist from Niger.

truly one of the greatest living guitarists. If you have ever had the privilege of seeing Emdumakhtar in concert,

You are just in the hands of a... I'm not somebody who throws terms like guitar god around very often, but I saw him at the Tiny Desk last year and was just so struck by how hypnotic and intense his sound is. And if you unpack the lyrics on Funeral for Justice, these are protest songs about colonialism and mistreatment of vulnerable people. Well, he put out this album in 2024, and it's this searing, these electric arrangements for...

For this album, he's recording the same songs, but he's recasting them as acoustic songs. And it manages to kind of shift the mood of the record from anger to grief. There's a song on both records called "Immuhar" that here sprawls out to eight and a half minutes. You know, so in some cases,

There's a little bit of a jammier quality to them, but some of them are just slowing down and communicating between band members in ways that kind of bring out another side of these songs. ♪

I found it helpful actually to listen to these songs on YouTube where the songs are often subtitled or they're laid out in the video notes. You can kind of infer from the English song titles that it is a political record, but just sort of understanding the lyrics opens up a whole new world of depth for this work. Because I've always appreciated his guitar work, but never really dug into exactly what he was talking about.

You can experience an Emdu Mokhtar record as a jam band record, where it almost feels instrumental if you don't speak the language. But the more you unpack his lyrics, the more you get a sense of how many layers these songs are working on. ♪

♪ ♪

That is Tears of Injustice, a sequel to last year's fantastic Funeral for Justice. Think of them as orbiting each other like a binary star. They are both great. We've got a bunch more records we're going to get to this week, but first we're going to take a quick break.

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From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Travis Holcomb from KCRW. Travis, you host a show called Freaks Only. How are things going? This is the time of the year when new releases are starting to come out a little more. It's just having new music to play is always exciting. I'm hearing music and it's evoking spring. I'm hearing music and it's evoking spring.

Any song that evokes spring is going to make me happy. Absolutely. All right, well, next up, we've got a new record, a wildly inventive new record by a band called Dark Side. The album is called Nothing. Nothing.

So I would say, along with the Panda Bear record, this Dark Side album is one of the ones I was most anticipating this year. So the duo of Dave Harrington and Nicholas Jarre is now a trio with the addition of a brand new drummer. They describe this record as nine transmissions of negative space, telepathic seance and spectral improvisation. And damned if it doesn't kind of sound like that.

It absolutely does. I think if you go into it knowing that there is like an improv element to it, it does give you a deeper appreciation for the songs. ♪

You can hear them finding new elements and new things to latch onto in real time while you're listening to the record. And each song feels and sounds different. You know, there's a track called SNC. Sounds a little bit like a fusion of Daft Punk and Kraftwerk. It's drawing on these kind of vintage classic sounds and this deep, deep bass line. But then you've got a song like Grotcha Maxx.

grinding and wobbling around before it settles into punk that kind of sounds reminiscent of idols. All these movements are happening within individual tracks. I feel like every time you feel like you have one of these dark side songs pegged after the first two minutes, it'll just take a 90 degree turn and you don't know where you're going. That was the case on "Are You Tired, Keep On Singing."

I thought this is what it's going to be for six minutes and then two and a half minutes in it just totally takes a turn into like almost like a twangy country and western kind of thing.

I was going to mention a song called American References, which is almost jaunty compared to a lot of these songs. Lots of little whirls and blurts as the song kind of wends its way into a six-minute jam that gets like fully hypnotic. ♪

All right, that is Nothing by the band Darkside. Next up, we've got a relatively new singer-songwriter named Hope Tala. Hope Tala has a new album called Hope Handwritten. Sometimes I think I need a doctor Cause I've been down With pelvic pain or maybe something softer To straighten me out I'm looking at the piece I'm trying to foster And I hurt my bones

Cause I tried to find myself and then I lost her So now I'm unfound

This is a lovely record. I was not familiar with Hope Tala before, you know, we were kind of putting this episode together. I was struck listening to this album, which really sprawls out. It's 16 songs in almost an hour. How warm and conversational her vocal style is. Her voice can flutter really gently to the point where you almost forget she's singing when you hear a track like Magic or Medicine. More than I've ever been.

There's another track on this record called Thank Goodness, which has the vibe of like a more ethereal Sabrina Carpenter. You know, it's a track that's like dressing down a crummy ex, but in the most approachable way.

But I still haven't yet I'm a little bit surprised That I'm wishing you the best When I think of your true colors Doesn't even make me shudder Crazy we were so in love Now I couldn't care less I thought it would kill me If I caught me convinced But when I look back at the picture now

There's a real kindness to her voice on this record that kind of kept me coming back.

Yeah, I felt like the aesthetic of the album cover is almost like a high school collage project. And I think the most impactful tracks on the record are the ones that almost sound intimate, like they were recorded in a bedroom as a teenager or something like that. Songs like I Can't Even Cry. They just feel like you're just sitting in the room with her and she's just singing the songs. The intimacy, I think, is the strength of this record. I thought you were the one for me, I did.

Thought you were the one that I'd be Strolling hand in hand like little kids Until you turned around and fucked with it Now I can't help but wanna be alone Pack up my bags and walk out the door Know that I'm about to lose this war But I can't remember what I've been fighting for

Is it love or is it something different? Voice of caution in my eardrums but I never listen Opening my heart to the thing is messy But I'm scared of all the hoping and the wishful thinking Cause love can be a marvel but it can be vicious Can't you tell you're bleeding without no permission? Till tears are in your eyes, love will blow your vision Blow your vision But I can't even cry

You know, she's also fanning out creatively. There are a couple of tracks, there's one in particular called Survival, where she incorporates like a little rap breakdown and it works surprisingly well.

Yeah, cause it feels like a waste No, we need different but we struggle to change We end up saying the same Make an effort for a couple of days Then turn around and see we're stuck in our ways I started slipping away So what happened when I started to break? Spent too much time trying to work out what to say Couldn't help hiding my face Hid my spirit but not anymore Cause I stopped running and decided to stay We open the door Choices must be made And we start hoping for more Cause how much more?

There's one more that I wanted to mention. There's a song on this album really late called Shiver, which is a very, you know, I keep talking, I was talking about Springtime a second ago, but this is a fully wintry little pop song. And I was listening to it and I was thinking, you know, if this album hits, which I could really see it hitting, this song is begging to be reworked as a holiday jam.

Like, you rework those lyrics a little bit, and this is going right into my Christmas playlist. One thing to note is she is an artist that can count the former president Barack Obama as a fan. She's appeared on three of his summer playlists. Barack Obama, probably the president with the best taste of our lifetime. He at least has a good music stylist. Absolutely. I just imagine him poring over every Tiny Desk concert, just looking for a new discovery. Yeah.

All right, that is Hope Handwritten. It's the debut album by the singer-songwriter Hope Tala. We've got a lightning round and one more album that we're going to talk about in depth. But first, let's take a quick break.

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It's New Music Friday from NPR Music. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Travis Holcomb from KCRW. Before we get to our lightning round, there's one more album we wanted to get to. It is a wild one. It is by the artist Marie Davidson. The album is called City of Clowns. City of Clowns

So this is a record that Marie Davidson made in collaboration with Soul Wax, who anything Soul Wax touches, I am completely all in on. Along with her former partner in the group SAE Pop, Pierre Garneau. You definitely hear the fingerprints of all of those acts in this new record. This is definitely much more of a dance record, I feel like, than any of her previous albums. I read somewhere where she started DJing in 2022. So it's more structured toward the dance floor, I think, than any of her five previous records. ♪

sometimes explicitly. Like the last track on this record has this, this like, get on the dance floor. These tracks are not necessarily, uh,

Coming at the dance floor in the most linear possible way, you know, she has made a bunch of records that are kind of mixing techno and minimalism in ways that are like danceable, but in this kind of weird, lurching, herky-jerky, awkward kind of movement. I'm trying to imagine myself on the dance floor. I'm trying to make sense.

Well, I feel like one of the closest music analogs to this record is another Dewey release. Dewey is being the label that Soul Wax runs, which is the record that came out a couple years ago from Charlotte Adigeri and Bolas Pupul called Topical Dancer. And the reason I say that is because it sort of similarly combines political and social commentary with dance music.

But Davidson is a little bit more on the industrial techno edge, I would say, production-wise. But she's definitely got a rock star quality to the way that she sings. I feel like there's a lot of lyrics that she throws out there that a less confident act might not be able to land like she does. ♪

Well, and you talk about the confidence. You know, there's a single from this record called Sexy Clown. And to me, like, man, two words, A, that I had not expected to see in that order, and B, that I had not necessarily expected to hear on this record. It's weirdly danceable. I should be moving on. Let go of tradition. Where my kindness is way out of fashion. I'm sexy. It's for me. Don't speak the word. Really have to choose address.

It is festive and strange and freewheeling. And by the time it's over, I think, that is definitely a song that lives up to the title, Sexy Clown. And this album was inspired by Shoshana Zuboff's book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. So some pretty heavy stuff that are reflected in the themes. It sort of explores how technology has changed people's lives. And you see that theme sort of pop up throughout the record. I really have to choose, I've got no time.

♪ Makes her beautiful ♪

You want treatises on capitalism? You want sexy clowns? Have we got a record for you. It is called City of Clowns by the artist Marie Davidson. Before we go, we can never, you alluded, Travis, to how many albums are coming out every week now that we're deep into February. We could not possibly get to all of them, so we're going to do a lightning round of some of the other stuff that we're excited about that's out today. I'm going to kick us off with Serpent with Feet. Serpent with Feet.

He is an inventive, experimental R&B polymath. He's got a new sequel to his magnificent 2024 album, Grip. Appropriately enough, the title of this new record is Grip Sequel, and it's got six brand new songs plus three reworkings of songs from Grip, and it's got a new title, Grip Sequel.

The whole thing is as strange and exploratory as you would hope from a wonderfully, wonderfully creative artist. I want to throw out everything is recorded. The new record is called Temporary. And Richard Russell is the head, the label boss of XL Records, which is home to everything.

Everyone from Adele to the Prodigy. And I feel like this project is a collaborative record and it features an eclectic roster of guests from Kamasi Washington to Sampha, Florence Welch, Bill Callahan, Ja Wobble. It hits a lot of notes and it's fantastic and every bit as eclectic as you'd expect an album put together by Richard Russell to be. I'm living in the past and you're living in your heart And I wonder where you are, yeah You're scurrying up and down to hell

I'm scared of you. Didn't know how. Back then. Didn't know how.

Well, speaking of hitting all the notes and eclectic, just a moment ago I talked about an experimentalist worth celebrating with Serpent With Feet. Here is another. The Canadian artist Eve Jarvis has a strange, provocative, frequently beautiful new record. It's called All Cylinders. Its songs are creative, imaginative, moving through radically different phases from one moment to the next, which feels like a theme with a lot of the records we're talking about this week.

One thing gives me some relief I just got out by the skin of my teeth A man has come out, what's new with you?

I got one from Bedroom, spelled B-D-R-M-M. The new record is called Microtronic. Shoegaze music having a bit of a moment right now. I feel like it's the biggest revival of shoegaze since the 80s when it started. This record is just a very nice balance of electronic music and shoegaze, and it's often sort of veering into the world of trip-hop, I might say. How'd we get here?

Finally, the singer-songwriter Mia Folek has a gorgeous new record that fuses sweet, sunny pop with soft, beautiful, atmospheric moments. Erotica Veronica is the title of her third album. It's got a bright, lovely vibe to it. Every time I hear a song from this record, it feels like I'm conjuring springtime as I listen, and that is, I'm just wishing that into the world. We need it right now. I just want a third wrist I can see a child come

♪

That is our show for the week. Thank you, Travis Holcomb, for taking time out from hosting Freaks Only on KCRW to join us. Thank you for having me, Stephen. It is such a pleasure. 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 Simon Rentner and edited by Otis Hart. The executive producer of NPR Music is Saraya 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 Jason Isbell and many more with Celia Gregory of Nashville member station WNXP. Until then, take a moment to be well, reach out to a long lost friend, and treat yourself to lots of great music. Veronica, I can feel the softness

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