It's Friday, which means dozens of albums hit streaming services while you were snoozing last night. To help you make sense of the week's new releases, NPR Music's Stephen Thompson and country music star Kathy Mattea — who also happens to host the long-running NPR radio program Mountain Stage — summarize the best New Music Friday has to offer. (Mountain Stage airs on almost 300 stations across the country, so look for it on your local NPR station.)
The Starting Five
Stephen and Kathy give you the backstory and best songs on the following albums:
- Sam Fender, People Watching (Stream)
- Patterson Hood (of Drive-By Truckers), Exploding Trees & Airplane Scream (Stream)
- Jesse Welles, Middle (Stream)
- Sunny War, Armageddon In A Summer Dress (Stream)
- Saya Gray, SAYA (Stream)
Hear the discussion on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Lightning Round
Five more albums we just had to mention:
- Tate McRae, So Close To What
- Cristina Vane, Hear My Call
- Youth Lagoon, Rarely Do I Dream
- Paul Thorn, Life is Just a Vapor
- Nao, Jupiter
The Long List
Here's an exhaustive list of new albums out on Feb. 21, organized by genre:
Country/Folk/Americana
- Jim Ghedi, Wasteland
- Hannah McFarland, Broken Hearts
- Bill Medley (of The Righteous Brothers), Straight from the Heart
- Chase Matthew, CHASE
- Kameron Marlowe, Sad Songs for the Soul
- Liam Grant, Prodigal Son
- Mike Gangloff, April is Passing
- Souled American, Rise Above It: A Souled American Anthology
- The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, Honeysuckle
Pop
- Imagine Dragons, Reflections (From the Vault of Smoke + Mirrors)
- Mike Posner, The Beginning
- Isabel Pless, Workhorse
Rock/Alt/Indie
- Anxious, Bambi
- Basia Bulat, Basia's Place
- Baths, Gut
- Califone, The Villager's Companion
- Chalk, Conditions III EP
- David Lee Roth, The Warner Recordings (1985-1994)
- Ffa Coffi Pawb, Dalec Peilon
- IDER, Late to the World
- Kelora, Sleepers
- Luke Sital-Singh, Fool's Spring
- Maruja, Tir na nÓg
- Pretty Lightning, Night Wobble
- Porridge Radio, The Machine Starts To Sing EP
- Puma Blue, antichamber
- Q Lazzarus, Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus (Music From The Motion Picture)
- Ray Bull, Little Acts Of Violence
- Silverstein, Antibloom
- SPY, Seen Enough
- The Limiñanas, Faded
- The Murder Capital, Blindness
- Trupa Trupa, Mourners EP
Rap/Hip-Hop
- Paris Texas, They Left Me With the Sword
- BlocBoy JB, The Purple M&M 2
- Blockhead, It's Only A Midlife Crisis If Your Life Is Mid EP
- Dave East & Ransom, The Final Call
- Smif-N-Wessun, Infinity
R&B/Soul
- SAINt JHN, FESTIVAL SEASON
- Sir Woman, If It All Works Out
Jazz
- Jon Irabagon, Server Farm
Electronic/Out There
- Masma Dream World, PLEASE COME TO ME
- Amulets, Not Around But Through
- Apta, The Pool
- Bianca Oblivion, Net Work EP
- Cici Arthur, Way Through
- Colin Self, respite ∞ levity for the nameless ghost in crisis
- Ikue Mori, Of Ghosts and Goblins
- Jules Reidy, Ghost Spirit
- Keiichiro Shibuya, Android Opera Mirror
- Laurie Torres, Aprés coup
- Mandrake Handshake, Earth Sized Worlds
- Motorpsycho, Motorpsycho
- Nina Garcia, Bye Bye Bird
- Oren Ambarchi & Eric Thielemans, Kind Regards
- Rafiq Bhatia, Each Dream, A Melting Door EP
- Ralph Heidel, anyways.onto better things
- Tim Hecker, Shards
- TSHA, Sad Girl Remixes
- Wrong Way Up, Totally Right
Credits
• Host: Stephen Thompson
• Guest: Kathy Mattea, Mountain Stage
• Producer: Simon Rentner
• Editor: Otis Hart
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Vice President, Music and Visuals: Keith Jenkins
