Friday, Feb 18, 2022 • 23min
New Music Friday: The top 5 albums out on Feb. 18
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The week's best new music includes the deep grooves and heady soul of Khruangbin and Leon Bridges, an epic tale in sound from Beach House, the return of queer country pioneers Lavender Country and more.
Featured Albums
1. Khruangbin & Leon Bridges — Texas Moon
Featured songs: "B-Side" and "Doris"
2. Beach House — Once Twice Melody
Featured song: "Modern Love Stories"
3. Hurray for the Riff Raff — LIFE ON EARTH
Featured song: "POINTED AT THE SUN"
4. Kendra Morris — Nine Lives
Featured song: "Dry"
5. Lavender Country — Blackberry Rose
Featured song: "All Disillusions Behind"
Other notable releases for Feb. 18:
Anwar HighSign — Live N*gga Prophecy
Big K.R.I.T. — Digital Roses Don't Die
MAITA — I Just Want to Be Wild For You
Metronomy — Small World
Rokia Koné & Jacknife Lee — Bamanan
Sally Shapiro — Sad Cities
The Shout Out Louds — House
Shovels & Rope — Manticore
Tennyson — Rot
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Talking about
Speakers
(4)
Robin Hilton
Ann Powers
Ayana Contreras
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Transcript
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00:00
Many of us are rethinking how we spend our time. Work has its place in our lives, but it's not our whole reason for living. I think play is fundamental. We just need to redefine what we call rest. A special three part series work, play, rest on the ted radio hour from NPR.
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Robin Hilton
00:21
Happy Friday, everyone from
NPR
music and All Songs Considered
. I'm Robin Hilton, it's February 18th, and I'm here with Ann Powers
, hey Ann
.Share
Ann Powers
00:28
Hello Robin.
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Robin Hilton
00:29
WBEZ
and Vocalo Radio, Ayana Contreras.Share
Ayana Contreras
00:33
Hello.
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Robin Hilton
00:33
And
WXPN
, John Morrison.Share
John Morrison
00:35
Hey, what's up, Robin?
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Robin Hilton
00:36
It's new music Friday, and we're doing a quick look at the best albums out this week. Starting with
Khruangbin
and Leon Bridges
. They're back together with a new one called "Texas
Moon".Share
00:46
Deeply miss your love, when I'm far away, in another place, all that I dream of, my chest is your pillow, waitin' for your love, you in all the ways, in another place, all I'm thinkin' of, just can't get enough, you may not be everywhere I go, get back, but you stay on my mind wherever I go.
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Robin Hilton
01:49
I can't take it down, I keep thinking I gotta, I can't walk over this.
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Ayana Contreras
01:54
No, just keep playing it, let's keep it rolling.
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John Morrison
01:57
That's just the whole show.
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02:03
When I fly above, weeks roll into days, though I'm far away.
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Robin Hilton
02:07
This is
Khruangbin
and Leon Bridges
together again on a new one called "Texas
Moon". The song is "B-Side". So follow up to a record they put out around this time a couple of years ago called Texas
Sun. And Ayana, I kept thinking of you because when we were first meeting and getting to know each other, I asked what kind of music you like, and you said groove based music.Share
Ayana Contreras
02:26
Yeah, I mean, I think thatt sounds really vague, but it's not I mean groove music is inclusive of so many different sounds and if you talk about what a groove is like that, is it, right?
Share
02:36
I love this pairing. I think they're perfect for each other in so many ways. I think that "B-Side", the afrobeat flavor of it, it feels like dancing on the Savannah. But then, I mean, if you go to some of these expanses of
Texas
, it gives me that same flavor. It's adventurous, it's a romp that I love.Share
John Morrison
02:55
There's this texture to music from that region of the country, and it has a little bit of gospel in it, a little bit of country, the blues, funk, soul all mixed up. That was just screaming out at me as I was listening to this project.
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Ayana Contreras
03:11
Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't want people to hear that one song and think that this is going to be a party record, and it just has this one note. I mean, listening to "Doris" for instance.
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03:30
(Doris) Don't close your heavy, don't close your heavy eyes, Doris (Doris) You have so much, so much to leave behind.
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Ayana Contreras
03:48
The way that it just echoes and rings out and talks about sort of this universal truth in a way that's just undeniably groovy, it's just it's really it's really a beautiful scant album scanned.
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Robin Hilton
04:01
It is it's short, it does leave you wanting more.
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John Morrison
04:04
Yeah, they find a nice groove, the texture of a lot of these songs has like this rough, washed out feel, that sounds old, but like something you, a record that you would have found in a storage space somewhere, and you throw it on. It's like, yeah, what is this? It's a remarkable record, and it is, you know, it's nice and short, and it hits you. You want to replay it immediately.
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Ayana Contreras
04:26
Exactly.
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Robin Hilton
04:27
Leon Bridges
together with Khruangbin
the record is called "Texas Moon". Also out now in February 18th is a double album from the band Beach House
, it's called Once Twice Melody
.Share
04:45
Zeroes multiplying. You tell me it existed, as you lie beside me from the early words to modern love stories, I reach into the darkness, the universe collects us.
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Robin Hilton
05:34
Beach House
, their new record, is called "Once Twice Melody". This is the closing cut, called "Modern Love Stories". I said it was a double album, but it's one that they've been releasing in chunks, they're calling them chapters. They started dropping them last November, so today they've got the fourth and final chapter.Share
05:49
And I don't know, you know, they've always made this very dreamy, hazy music, but I think it's fair to say that this is their most, I think the most cinematic and certainly expansive release in the nearly 20 years, they've been putting out music together.
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Ann Powers
06:02
Beach House
is beach housing, you know, they're doing the thing, and they're doing it better than ever, you know. Ayana, you were talking about the value of a groove, is this groove music?Share
Ayana Contreras
06:15
It's a vibe, right? Like I can imagine me living in
The OC
and wearing Tory Burch
and listening to this, it would be a good life, you know, but I don't know that it's a groove in the same way, I don't know.Share
Ann Powers
06:31
Victoria Legrand
who's half of Beach House,
and it's the vocalist, and you know, they write all their songs together, but she's the visionary in a lot of ways. She said that this music is supposed to evoke the '80s, the excess of the '80s. But for me, it's really like, right around 1990 because it feels like rave culture without being rave music, you know.Share
06:53
It's just like a really long trip, very sensual, very kind of, I get bright colors, I get little fluffy clouds, not literally the song by
The Orb,
but I'm feeling like it's invoking that moment and I think this is also a record for the era of legalized weed, you know what I mean? It just feels like lay back, have your edible get into it.Share
Ayana Contreras
07:17
You are in California, right?
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Ann Powers
07:18
No, no, I'm in Nashville, so don't tell them that I said, okay, just checking.
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Robin Hilton
07:25
Well, you know, I kept trying to find this thread since it is being released, and you know, it was released in chapters, and they say it's of a piece, it's like an hour and a half of music, I'm not sure what the story is, it's fairly abstract, but you know.
Share
07:38
If you dig into the lyrics a little bit which are all very fantastical, it seems to at least in part explores sort of the ways that we get lost in great works of art, in the imaginary worlds that they create, which is what their music has always been about.
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Ann Powers
07:52
Well, they work with
Alan Moulder
., he's one of the main mixers on this record. And I John I hear you say, okay, I get it now, I mean, that is like the king of shoe gaze, right?Share
Ayana Contreras
08:02
That's going to say, yeah.
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Ann Powers
08:04
And to say like what is the meaning? I mean, Robin, I don't even know if we're supposed to be able to say what is the meaning.
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John Morrison
08:10
I'm definitely a proponent of that in art, that feeling is the narrative sometimes.
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Robin Hilton
08:16
Yeah, well, I think any long time fans of
Beach House
are going to love this when the record is called "Once Twice Melody". And let's talk about one more album before we take a break. It's from Hurray For The Riff Raff
. It's called "Life on Earth".Share
09:02
I'm just a loaded gun, I know I'm not the only one, shooting straight at the sun, I know I'm not the only one. Jesus Christ and a heart attack, suffering to be loved, I relate to that, well, maybe you don't know what.
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Robin Hilton
09:43
Music is pretty great, huh? I like it. I give music ten out of ten, would recommend.
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Ayana Contreras
09:50
What are you talking about generally?
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Robin Hilton
09:51
I hear stuff like this, and it's just so beautiful and so hookey, and so melodic, it's just nirvana for me.
Hurray For The Riff Raff
, the new record is called "Life on Earth" and this song is "Pointed At The Sun", this is Alynda Segarra, their first album in five years, and it is a big, big swing for them, I was totally blown away.Share
Ann Powers
10:11
So exciting to see an artist evolve and constantly challenge themselves and push themselves, push their vision, push their, you know, emotional intelligence and find new ways of expressing the most profound lessons of their lives. And that's what happens with this record.
Share
10:29
Alynda has talked a lot about how this record was inspired by many different writers as well as being in the natural world and thinking about climate crisis and how we need to preserve and uphold what we have here on earth. And they really talk a lot about a book called "Emergent Strategy" by a writer named
Adrienne Maree Brown
who is also an activist.Share
10:53
I was lucky enough to be in a room with Alynda and
Adrienne Maree Brown
recently, discussing their views on life and the energy between those two was so profound.Share
Ayana Contreras
11:02
You know, it's interesting, we had mentioned that
Beach House
kind of has a '90s really early '90s, early mid '90s kind of vibe. This also for me feel very late '90s, I mean maybe it's because I'm from Chicago and our indie scene is very idiosyncratic in that way, but I do think that I heard this, and I was transported to a time that was, it was a good time and the sound is I mean it was a good time, so, I wonder.Share
Robin Hilton
11:26
Are you getting a pushback for me, it was a great time.
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Ayana Contreras
11:28
It was a good time. It's I wonder if a part of the appeal from my perspective is a little touch of nostalgia, we're still being like deeply rooted thematically in the issues of our time.
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Robin Hilton
11:39
This whole mood is my jam, you know, sad euphoria, the acknowledgement that things are not okay, but life is still beautiful, you know,
Hurray For The Riff Raff
. Really incredible record called Life on Earth. And we're going to talk about another incredible album out today from the singer Kendra Morris
and flag a bunch of other great releases out today in the second half of the show, but first we need to take a short breakShare
Break
Robin Hilton
13:09
It's new music Friday from
NPR
and All Songs Considered
. I'm Robin Hilton, and we're taking a quick look at the best albums out now on February 18th. We start the second half of the show-off with the singer Kendra Morris
, her new one is called Nine Lives.
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13:23
Sometimes I'm looking for a soul, find nothing but a big black hole. Sometimes I'm looking for a soul, find nothing but a big black hole. Some days I'm looking for a place, to rest my head, but the ground's erased. Some days I'm looking for a place to rest my head, but the ground's erased. Anywhere but here is fine, to look for love, gotta taste the wine, anywhere but here is fine, to look for love, gotta taste the wine. Enough to just those who won, trial and err, find out or run.
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Robin Hilton
14:25
Kendra Morris
is the singer, "Nine Lives" is her new record, the song we're hearing from it's "Dry". I don't know why it didn't occur to me until just listening to it now how it's very similar to The Crumb band
like she's someone who would also sound great with Crumb band
.Share
Ayana Contreras
14:39
Yeah, you know, I like to, I like pairing, I think it's a good pair.
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John Morrison
14:42
I can definitely hear that because a lot of this, it's rooted in soul music, RB. But it also has sonically like a lot of nods to psychedelic rock. I even got some '70s library music like KPM type stuff and a lot of the arrangements on this record, it's colorful and gorgeous.
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Ayana Contreras
15:04
Here's my thing because I'm a sole cat, right? Like, I think that it's hard because this is clearly made through the lens of sample culture, right? So like
Adrian Young
type thing where it's, there's something about it that's sort of interpretation of that sound as opposed to that sound.Share
Robin Hilton
15:19
You're not saying that it's pretend soul or dress up soul?
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Ayana Contreras
15:22
Absolutely not, it's actually the antithesis of that because the dress up soul is these people who are suits and are made to sound like gold wax, it's made to sound like
Motown
, it's made to sound like this. Whereas this is like I wanted to throw this in a blender and I'm not going to curse, but funk it up in a weird way and pull out the stuff that Wu-Tang
would have pulled out as opposed to the stuff that might have actually played on soul radio.Share
Ann Powers
15:46
Yeah, like a deep knowledge and a way of connecting with the past that isn't about evoking one moment the way dress up soul often is, but that's playing around in a kind of a time machine. And I think her vocals are really interesting in that way too, she's not imitating one moment or one predecessor, set of predecessors. She changes her vocal approach in these songs often, even in the middle of the song, which I think makes her stand out for me.
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Ayana Contreras
16:16
Yeah, I mean to your point and I don't think that they're treading New Earth here, but I do think that it's a really lovely, really beautiful interpretation of this sub-genre of music.
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Robin Hilton
16:29
Kendra Morris
, her record is called "Nine Lives". And before we get to the last album that we want to play today, let's take a minute to mention some of the other notable releases, out now on February 18.Share
John Morrison
16:41
Yeah, probably my favorite thing that came out this week is Anwar HighSign. His EP is called "Live N*gga Prophecy", and he's dope, he's a dope MC. He's from my hometown Philadelphia, and he's definitely one of my favorites out. And this EP is, it's just like a real fly thoughtful record.
Share
17:03
The wordplay is real slick, it's intricate and detailed. This cut is probably my favorite from the EP is called "Dover" is this slow burning, vivid story that he's telling, and it really shows how sharp and remarkable a writer, and we're Anwar HighSign is.
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Ann Powers
17:41
Well, I'm really excited about this collaboration between Rokia Koné an incredible Malian singer and the producer Jacknife Lee, it's called BAMANAN. So Jacknife Lee, he's worked with people like U2 and Taylor Swift, you know.
Share
17:54
Rokia Koné is a, one of the most beloved vocalists in Mali. She's known as the "Rose of Bamako", and she is just an amazing vocalist, very raw in some ways, very conversational as Malian music can be, but also so brilliant in her phrasing and her power. So yeah, this is my record and I wanted to play a track called "Anw Tile". It's our time, like much of the record, celebrating the Bambara culture of southern Mali.
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Robin Hilton
18:22
Ayana.
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Ayana Contreras
18:41
So the album that I was surprised to be interested in is Metronome, Small World, and it's not that I don't like the band, I think it's hard not to like the band, but I don't know that I really had any expectations one way or the other.
Share
18:57
But when I started hearing some of the releases singles behind it, it got me very excited. I'm a fan of Hot Chip, I'm a fan of sort of that domino dance music sound and this was giving me those flavors, but it was also giving me just like so much heart.
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Robin Hilton
19:33
This is a song "It's good to be back", I hear that Hot Chip, touchstone you were talking about.
Share
19:38
And I'll just mention a new one from the Mississippi rapper Big K. R. I. T. It's called "Digital Roses Don't Die". This is a track called "All the Time".
Share
19:59
Big K. R. I. T. Also one of the judges in this year's Tiny Desk contest that just opened up, John, you were judged last year, weren't you?
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John Morrison
20:06
Yes, it was very difficult.
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Robin Hilton
20:07
Yes, it is very difficult. Big K. R. I. T. the record is called "Digital Roses Don't Die". All that music out now on February 18th. Along with this last one that we want to play from the band Lavender Country, it's called "Blackberry Rose".
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Ann Powers
21:29
I laugh because this is like so different than everything else we've listened to.
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Robin Hilton
21:36
I love the line. "He says, come to my bed, You might be surprised what you find". Lavender Country, "Blackberry Roses", the record the song is "Leave All Disillusions Behind". This is a band that formed 50 years ago, 50 and this is kind of a historic release.
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Ann Powers
21:56
Absolutely, this is a long awaited return to the studio for Lavender Country only their second record after that groundbreaking though rather obscure 1973 release, Patrick Haggerty is just a blessing on the earth.
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22:11
This man, his spirit is incredible, he's just so full of wisdom and joy and humor, you hear that. For Patrick, his message is all about queer pride and being like a lifelong progressive radical. The album is pure Joy.
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Robin Hilton
22:30
Also though the music is a little subversive, you know, these songs.
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Ann Powers
22:34
A little.
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Robin Hilton
22:34
They sound, they sound like pretty standard classic country fair at first listen and then the more attention you give the lyrics, you realize that like, "I'm sorry, what did you just say? " It is not at all what you expect.
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Ann Powers
22:48
Very sexually forth, right? Very much about radical politics, there's tributes to like longtime socialists on this record, you know, it's it goes there, but they feel very relevant to me right now. I mean, there is the spirit of kind of like radical liberation that was such a big part of the early seventies and the gay liberation movement of that time. Patrick Haggerty now 78 has carried forth that spirit into the 21st Century.
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23:16
Lavender Country is the band "Blackberry Rose" is the record, and that'll do it for this week's new music Friday. Thanks so much, Ann.
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23:23
Thank you so much. Great to talk with you.
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Robin Hilton
23:25
Ayana Contreras.
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Ayana Contreras
23:27
Thank you.
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Robin Hilton
23:27
And John Morrison.
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John Morrison
23:28
Yeah, thanks, Robin.
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Robin Hilton
23:30
As always you can see a list of the albums and songs we mentioned on today's show in the episode description for this podcast. You can also find it on our website at NPR. org/allsongs.
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23:41
To hear the tracks again and a whole lot of other new singles that came out this week. Search for
NPR's
new music Friday playlist in Spotify or Apple Music and for NPR
music and All Songs Considered, I'm Robin Hilton. I hope you have a stellar weekend, Be well and treat yourself to lots of music.Share
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Robin Hilton
Ann Powers
Ayana Contreras
John Morrison