It has been a busy week for brand new music. NPR’s Music group discusses new albums by Sturgill Simpson, Cassandra Jenkins and extra.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
It’s Friday, which suggests new music. NPR’s music editor Daoud Tyler-Ameen and critic and correspondent Ann Powers have listened to lots of the albums out right this moment, they usually have a roundup for us. First up is Sturgill Simpson, who shook up Nashville in 2014 together with his album “Metamodern Sounds In Nation Music.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN”)
STURGILL SIMPSON: (Singing) Go and try to have some enjoyable, exhibiting heat to everybody you meet and greet and cheat alongside the best way.
DAOUD TYLER-AMEEN, BYLINE: Sturgill has a brand new album out, though not below his title. As a substitute, he has a brand new challenge known as Johnny Blue Skies, which debuts right this moment with a really French-sounding album known as “Passage Du Desir.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IF THE SUN NEVER RISES AGAIN”)
SIMPSON: (Singing) I have been lonely lengthy as I can bear in mind.
TYLER-AMEEN: And what is the deal? It is Sturgill, nevertheless it’s not.
ANN POWERS, BYLINE: (Laughter).
TYLER-AMEEN: He sounds just a little completely different. He is going in every single place. What is going on on with this? What’s he doing with this reset, do you assume?
POWERS: I perceive your confusion, Daoud. For individuals who dwell outdoors of Sturgill’s world, his universe, the man looks like a wild card, ? He is at all times altering since – he mainly invented the modern different method, I suppose, to nation music with “Metamodern Sounds.” However since then, he is completed all the pieces. So we by no means know what we’re getting from Sturgill.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IF THE SUN NEVER RISES AGAIN”)
SIMPSON: (Singing) What if the solar by no means rises once more?
POWERS: Truthfully, I feel there’s actually no specific, vital purpose for him to do that, aside from a number of years in the past, he introduced he was solely going to make 5 albums below the title Sturgill Simpson. And as wild as Sturgill is, he’s a person of his phrase. And Johnny Blue Skies isn’t – I imply, I might need give you a special nom de plume.
TYLER-AMEEN: (Laughter).
POWERS: I do not know what it could have been, however his first title is definitely John. So…
TYLER-AMEEN: Yeah.
POWERS: …I feel that was the motivation behind the Johnny. The Blue Skies, I am unable to communicate to as a result of this document is something however blue skies.
TYLER-AMEEN: Yeah. Properly, so let’s get into that as a result of I used to be just a little puzzled over the primary couple of tracks on this document. And the place the place I clicked in was a monitor known as “Jupiter’s Faerie.” It is this little orchestral suite. It is the second longest monitor.
POWERS: Yeah.
TYLER-AMEEN: And it has this type of fire-and-rain-like story the place he says…
POWERS: Sure.
TYLER-AMEEN: …At the moment, I learn the information that you simply have been gone. You’d left a yr in the past, selected to take a look at and transfer on.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “JUPITER’S FAERIE”)
SIMPSON: (Singing) I hear there’s faeries out on Jupiter. And there was a time that I knew one.
TYLER-AMEEN: What do you assume is occurring right here?
POWERS: This is what I hear. Thematically, this actually is an album about need, about misplaced and located loves, forgotten loves, salvaged loves. I do not know and haven’t any purpose to suspect this displays on Sturgill Simpson’s private life. However it undoubtedly runs by way of the entire document, this story. It is like, listed below are all my tales of heartbreak. Listed here are all of the methods by which attempting to be an excellent lover messed me up or messed different folks’s up. And that is – this fireplace and rain theme on this track I feel goes completely with that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “JUPITER’S FAERIE”)
SIMPSON: (Singing) I laid alone so many nights with out you, spent years simply hoping that you simply have been OK. I cried…
TYLER-AMEEN: Subsequent up – Ann, I do know you are excited for this one – the brand new LP by Cassandra Jenkins, titled “My Mild, My Destroyer.”
(SOUNDBITE OF CASSANDRA JENKINS SONG, “CLAMS CASINO”)
TYLER-AMEEN: I type of need to kick off with the track “Clams On line casino” simply because it is bought one among my favourite traces on the entire document. She says…
POWERS: Oh, it is such an excellent track.
TYLER-AMEEN: …I heard somebody order the Clams On line casino. I stated, hey, what’s that? They stated, I do not know (laughter).
POWERS: Existentialism in a lyric.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CLAMS CASINO”)
CASSANDRA JENKINS: (Singing) I do not need to snort alone anymore – knew it was time to place this swimsuit away once I ripped the knees open…
TYLER-AMEEN: So you’ve got been banging the drum for Cassandra for a minute now, Ann. I am just a little newer to her, so I type of need to know what’s drawn you so strongly to her as a songwriter and the place you hear her type of specific skills coming by way of on this document.
POWERS: I feel it is a mixture of parts. One, it is how she composes and works along with her group and her producer to make use of discovered sound and varied synth parts to create this, like, sound discipline that is under no circumstances flashy. It is very ethereal. , it is very cumulus clouds, however there’s loads occurring in each track, despite the fact that it is quiet and smooth. After which her lyrics, they have a tendency towards the paranormal and the uncanny, however they’re very emotional as nicely. And there is lots of, like, grounding within the physique and in nature, however at all times these type of shocking turns, just like the one you talked about, , I do not know.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CLAMS CASINO”)
JENKINS: (Singing) I have been out on the lookout for a silver lining, simply discovered a stray hair within the bedding.
POWERS: After which the third factor is her voice as a result of she has a kind of recessive voices that you must come to it, ?
TYLER-AMEEN: That is an excellent phrase. Yeah.
POWERS: It calls for attentive listening. And it actually has a sense of type of, like, a lullaby impact as nicely.
TYLER-AMEEN: Properly, that is Cassandra Jenkins’ “My Mild, My Destroyer.” And now it is time for a fast lightning spherical by way of a few of the different releases out right this moment. And this is without doubt one of the extra nuts lightning rounds we have had shortly. There are such a lot of information by such an incongruous unfold of artists at such completely different factors of their profession. First up, his title is what? Eminem is again, and love him or hate him, the dude is nothing if not persistent in his imaginative and prescient. 4 years after 2020’s “Music To Be Murdered By,” Eminem’s newest album is “The Demise Of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace).”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HOUDINI”)
EMINEM: (Rapping) Abra-abracadabra – and for my final trick, I am ’bout to achieve in my bag, bruh. Abra-abracadabra…
POWERS: Over a pair of albums, Clairo has carved out a particular voice amongst an enormous wave of younger feminine singer/songwriters. Her new album, her third, is known as “Allure.” It is impressed by ’70s people rock. It is heat and intimate with a critical analog vibe, perhaps because of her coproducer on the album, Leon Michels of the Dap-Kings and El Michels Affair.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SEXY TO SOMEONE”)
CLAIRO: (Singing) Horny to somebody is all I actually need. Generally attractive to somebody is all I actually need.
TYLER-AMEEN: They’re Vermont’s favourite sons. They bought their very own Ben & Jerry’s taste, and legend says they by no means play the identical set twice. Phish provides to their sprawling discography right this moment with a brand new album known as “Evolve.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “EVOLVE”)
PHISH: (Singing) I paused a second as soon as in time earlier than the solar started to shine.
TYLER-AMEEN: Subsequent up, two hip-hop veterans, rapper Widespread and the legendary producer Pete Rock have teamed up for a full album collab. And from the sound of the title, it perhaps will not be the final time. Widespread and Pete Rock’s new joint launch is “The Auditorium Vol. 1.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DREAMIN'”)
COMMON: (Rapping) Do it proper. I used to be listening to melodies and rhythms by way of the night time. This was a dream that felt actual like a combat. What made it realer, J Dilla was there…
SUMMERS: That was Daoud Tyler-Ameen and Ann Powers from NPR Music. And you may hear extra of their full episode of New Music Friday wherever you get your podcasts.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DREAMIN'”)
COMMON: (Rapping) By the Morris Days and Gladys Knights – whoo (ph). Sheila E. jogged my memory concerning the glamorous life. Ali was telling me…
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