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Stephen Thompson
Happy Friday everyone from NPR Music. It's NEW Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Aaron Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee's 88.9. Hey Erin.
Aaron Wolfe
Hey. Thanks so much for having me.
Stephen Thompson
I am delighted to have you. We are going to talk about the glories of our shared beloved home state of Wisconsin later in this episode. But first, before we start talking about new records, I did want to mention tomorrow, Saturday, April 12, is record store Day coast to coast. Independent record stores all over the country are going to be selling exclusive titles, rare 7 inches live albums, reissues, kind of Record Store Day exclusives. And I was wondering, Aaron, you, like me, are a music nerd. Is there anything that you are specifically looking for?
Aaron Wolfe
I have my eye on this. Soul Slabs Volume four from Coal Mine. They just always put out these really good various artist compilations. Got Delvon Lamar, Organ Trio, you've got the Monophonics, Aaron Fraser. And also, I have to say, I have not yet been able to get my hands on a copy of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. And I really want that on vinyl. And probably in my bag it'll be Ayer's Moon Safari live and demos. Yeah, and, and the Cures, the Head on the Door, the picture disc.
Stephen Thompson
Yesterday I got so old I felt.
Aaron Wolfe
Like I could die.
Stephen Thompson
Record Store Day is such a crapshoot. You know, for every like really cool obscurity that you've been dying to get your hands on, you get things like there's going to be a 12 inch picture disc of We Built this City by Starship. And I feel like that's what I fear, that that's what I'm going to run into instead of what I'm actually looking for, which is an album called Original Songs from Showbiz by a band called the Rock Afire Explosion.
Guest Speaker
Well, press this here, no Doubt, and the music goes down.
Aaron Wolfe
And.
Stephen Thompson
If you've never heard of the Rock Afire Explosion, they were the animatronic band at Showbiz Pizza in like the 80s. Imagine like a funkier version of Munch's Make Believe Band from Chuck E. Cheese. If you have not watched mashups of the Rock Afire Explosion with contemporary pop and R B songs, do yourself the world's biggest favor and google the rock Afire Explosion in this club where they mash up ushers in this club to this animatronic band. It may be the literal, funniest thing on the entire Internet. I am definitely looking for this album by the Rock Afire Explosion. I'm sure what I will find instead is 757 inches of Taylor Swift's Fortnite.
Aaron Wolfe
Oh, yeah, no doubt. You know, Stephen, there's a documentary about the Rock Afire Explosion. You need to see this if you haven't yet.
Stephen Thompson
They sometimes do deluxe editions of albums that didn't sell very well, like anniversary editions. And there's a 25th anniversary reissue of Harvey Danger's King James Version, which is a phenomenal record, and I'll be looking for that as well. But first up on New Music Friday, a roundup of albums out today, April 11th, we're talking about Bon Iver. Bon Iver's new album is called Sable Fable.
Guest Speaker
I know now that I can't make good but how I wish I could go back and put me where you stood Nothing's really something now the whole thing should.
Stephen Thompson
So Sable Fable is Bon Iver's fifth album, banned from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, led by Justin Vernon. Famously, Bon Iver began as a solo project in that mythical Wisconsin cabin. Now it's kind of bloomed into this giant community. These songs have gotten bigger and dreamier and more expansive and experimental over the course of the years. But at the same time, this record is chronicling changes in Justin Vernon's life as he's moved through the world. He's processed so much sadness and grief in these songs that are deeply, deeply reflective. And this record, Sable Fable, is kind of about cutting the darkness with joy. Even the title, Sable Fable, Sable is referring to kind of darkness, and Fable is referring to joy and wonder. And this record is kind of riding that juxtaposition.
Aaron Wolfe
I mean, I recently spoke with Justin about the record, how it came to be, and what he called his sad former self. Basically, he said he went into the woods, and then figuratively, he came out of the woods again. You know, he was focusing more on making good with himself as a person. And it felt like he just had, like, a really heavy yoke around his shoulders, like he was supposed to be this sad hermit bearing all this heaviness. I think he's finally allowing himself to break free of that Persona and just step into joy. Just, you know, as a basic way of telling this lore.
Guest Speaker
I get caught looking in the mirror on the regular. What I see there resembles some competitive. I see things behind things. Behind things. And there are rings within rings within rings.
Stephen Thompson
There's so much mythology around Bon Iver. That story of the musician who retreats to the Wisconsin cabin to process his pain is really, really deeply wired into a lot of musical stories in the last 20 years. And at the same time, he's not obligated to carry on processing the same pain he was processing in 2007. I appreciate the kind of defiant joy that comes through on this record.
Guest Speaker
Damn if I'm not climbing up a tree right now. Everything is peaceful.
Stephen Thompson
One of the single from this record is called Everything Is Peaceful Love. And when I first heard it, I thought, wrong song for this moment. But then you think about it like it's a reminder that we have a right to joy. We have a right to experience happiness. We only get one life. And if you are feeling enveloped by love in times that are trying, good for you. Spread it around.
Guest Speaker
All the way to my. Damn if I.
Aaron Wolfe
He's, like, healing himself, and he's kind of offering up, like, a little lifeline to everyone else who's in this mire right now. And, you know, I think part of the reason it sounds so joyful also, I feel like he's reconnecting with himself. He recently renovated April Bass Studios, was lying dormant for such a long time. He returned there to make this record with producer Jimmy Stack. He invited some new guests there, kind of breathed new life back into April Bass. He's got, like, some really cool collaborators on this one, this time around, Dijon and Daniel Heim and McGee. He's. I don't know, he's kind of, like, opening up his world and letting people in, and you can just hear that joie de vivre, so to say. And there's just something really beautiful, too, about Justin staying in Eau Claire and staying true to his roots. It feels like such a comfortable space for him right now.
Stephen Thompson
There's a track on this album called Day One, which features. You mentioned Dijon, but also Flock of Dimes, Jen Wassner's band. Just a fantastic, fantastic project. So you suddenly get John Wasner's voice coming in, and I really felt hearing that song, you're hearing an infusion of the musical community that surrounds.
Guest Speaker
You. Can.
Aaron Wolfe
You hear, like, the Sable songs that are a little dark, a little hermody, and then this storm breaks, and all of a sudden, you know, you've got. What is it? Short story kind of leading in. Feels like a vibe. He's, like, arrived into a new season of his life.
Guest Speaker
First thing needs to Be watched.
Stephen Thompson
That's Sable Fable, the new fifth album from Bon Iver. Next up, a new album by Valerie June. Valerie June has a new album called Owls, Omens and Oracles.
Guest Speaker
There is a light you can see that he's wanting to be free he night deep inside the nutritious big gather easy light you can find. If you start to take time. The wind is right rise and shine. The seas with parking stars align. You find enjoy joy in your soul. Yeah, you find enjoy joy in your soul. You find that joy joy in your soul.
Aaron Wolfe
Not all artists are cut quite like Valerie June.
Guest Speaker
Just for you I would swim more than a thousand feet.
Aaron Wolfe
She is just the most expansive artist, dabbling in psychedelic folk, indie rock, Appalachian bluegrass, country, soul, gospel, you name it. She's, like, humble and open to speaking truth and having those hard conversations in song. And she's just got this really deep humanistic knowledge.
Guest Speaker
I close my eyes I see your face Blue light and love and a warm embrace just for you I will swim across a thousand seas.
Aaron Wolfe
One of the songs on Owls Omens and Oracles called Sweet Things Just for your. She asks, how do we show up for each other with the spirit of sweetness in every move? And although it seems easy, I found it to be super challenging to practice sweetness, especially when we're facing the hurdles of the modern world. Valerie June's new album is not just about practicing sweetness unto others, but it's also practicing sweetness unto your own soul, transforming your mindset into one of joy, trust, love, and every other good thing that you could focus on instead of the millions of other things that could distract you from your own goodness.
Guest Speaker
Before the stars shine midnight blue Just a single hour till the clear sky morning dew.
Stephen Thompson
Valerie June, she has such an eccentric kind of throwback of a voice, but she's not just using it to make songs that feel, you know, vintage or old timey. She's deploying it in the service of many, many, many different kinds of sounds. That sweet voice that feels like it's, you know, billowing out of a radio in the 40s can be applied to a kind of aggressive sound or a track like Superpower, where she's got this kind of spoken word twang with dub vibes around it.
Guest Speaker
Your moon glow night dance twirls. And who would have guessed you'd sketch a rainbow painted world Calling my spirit back to me Trusting a path I do not see.
Stephen Thompson
Late in the record, there's this contemplative stretch of songs calling my spirit or a kind of gentle ramble like my Life is a country song. That voice, part of what makes it feel so immediate and present is just how versatile she is genre wise.
Aaron Wolfe
Producer M. Ward did an amazing job, like making everything sound so cohesive and yeah, giving it that kind of old timey vibe. But you know, it's, it makes you listen up. It makes you like really like catch what she's saying, you know.
Stephen Thompson
Yeah. I'm glad you mentioned M. Ward and the fact that M. Ward's production stamp is all over this record because I think that is such an ingenious pairing of artists that I wouldn't have necessarily thought of off the top of my head, you know, like his music is so ornate and thoughtful and extremely literate, musically literate. And when you apply that to Valerie June, who is so musically multilingual, you just get ideas blooming from every corner.
Guest Speaker
Trusting the path I do not see wandering, I drift to a war unknown A guiding light will keep me strong.
Aaron Wolfe
Stumbling what she's thrown at you too spiritually, I feel like, I feel like this, this album listening to, it's a little bit like, you know, going to church or going to your corner bar and like hearing someone play music in a dimly lit corner. And just like the community that it's inspiring, it feels like music that's bringing people together.
Guest Speaker
We both found out trying to make a new start.
Stephen Thompson
That is Valerie June. Her new album is called Owls, Omens and Oracles. We've got more great records we're going to be talking about this week. But first, let's take a quick break.
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Aaron Wolfe
On the Wildcard podcast, author John Green fights to be optimistic.
Stephen Thompson
I keep learning again and again that hope is the right response to the human condition, and I have to learn this over and over again because despair is an incredibly powerful force in my life.
Aaron Wolfe
I'm Rachel Martin. Join us for NPR's Wild Card podcast.
Stephen Thompson
The show where cards control the conversation from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Aaron Wolfe of 88.9 from Radio Milwaukee. Aaron, before we start talking about the next crop of records, I wanted to ask you how things are going at 88.9 and how can people listen?
Aaron Wolfe
We just celebrated 18 years of Radio Milwaukee. We're getting ready to celebrate three years of hyphen, which is our urban alternative station, on Juneteenth of this year. And at 88.9, the Indy Alternative station, we're gearing up for some great studio Milwaukee sessions. We've got Craig Finn and Valerie June coming in. And also, yeah, we're plotting and planning some special sessions with artists coming to Milwaukee for Summer Festival. And if people want to follow along on both stations and stream, you can do so@radiomwaukee.org, org and on our mobile apps.
Stephen Thompson
It's wild. There are people in this country who have not heard of Summerfest, which is in Milwaukee every July. That is one of the biggest music festivals in the world. The sheer volume of unhealthy fried food, it's heaven.
Aaron Wolfe
You do. You do. It's beautiful. It's like a state fair combined with a big music festival. There's nothing quite like it.
Stephen Thompson
All right, next up on New MUSIC Friday, we've got a new record from Gerald Clayton. Gerald Clayton has a new album called Ones and Twos. So Gerald Clayton is a piano player and a composer. He's been recording for Blue Note for a while now, making really adventurous and expansive jazz music. And listening to this record. I put this record on without any context and was really kind of drawn into just the cool vibes of it all, but also just like a sense of searching and scope. These songs really convey these these interesting moods and everything. And then I look at the album on my itunes and I start to notice patterns and realized as I kind of dug in and started reading about this record, that this album is designed where you can take side A and side B, you know, split this record perfectly into halves and overlay them and play them on top of each other. Do you remember the many, many years ago, the Flaming Lips put out an album called zyreka. It was four CDs. They were designed to be played simultaneously. So you would set up four boomboxes with your friends and hit play at the exact same time and they would overlap, kind of overlay and kind of create this really cool kind of symphonic sound. This record is a little like that. It's two records that individually they sound great, like they really work as individuals pieces. But if you basically in this day and age, you set up two laptops with the same album on it, play them simultaneously and you get a different vibe.
Aaron Wolfe
Did you do this?
Stephen Thompson
Yes, I did. And it is richer and fuller, but it's also not 100% necessary to do that.
Aaron Wolfe
I think it shows like, as a writer, he's thinking about music from like the stance of being a live performer. These parts that he writes and plays with his band and producer that, you know, he can mix, match and meld together with the right approach. I didn't quite listen to the two sides back to back, but I. I listened to it singularly. And Ones and Twos just feels like this really like wide eyed and totally smart, imaginatively produced album. It's just got these dynamics of tension and release, harmony and dissonance. And I really think it's helped along too by the production work of the talented Casa. Overall, he is a jazz musician and producer from Seattle who I've been very lucky to see perform at Radio Milwaukee. And I think the songs I was drawn to most, like Sacrifice Culture, Rush and Spacey's, all had kind of a hip hop element to that. And I don't know, I think I'm probably going to be listening to more Gerald Clayton in the future. I really thought his music was super imaginative and exciting.
Stephen Thompson
He's surrounded by extremely talented players. Here you have Joel Ross playing vibraphone, you have Elena Pinderhughes on flute, Marquise Hill on trumpet, and. And Kendrick Scott, who's his drummer. And those sounds are blending in beautiful ways. But as you said, there's also this element where it's inspired by turntablism. It's supposed to sound remixed in a certain way. And that's where Casa overall comes in. You have this sense that every second of this song, it's not fussed over In a way that makes it feel like a museum piece. It's fussed over in a way where it all fits together on a track like Rush. This like high tech cocktail razzmatazz that I really love, that feels like a throwback to like a lot of the cocktail jazz of the 50s and 60s. I really dug this record. That is ones and twos, the new album by Gerald Clayton. We highly recommend it. Next up, a new album by the band Real Lies. It's called We Will annihilate our enemies.
Guest Speaker
17 and I met and it was Game Over.
Aaron Wolfe
That's it.
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Aaron Wolfe
Realize was established in the UK about a decade, decade ago. It's the duo of lyricist Kevin Lee Karis and producer Patrick King and they call the new album an 11 track O defining Magic among the madness.
Stephen Thompson
Otis Hart, our producer, recommended. We talk about this record and I was listening to it and I thought, oh, I know why Otis thinks I'm gonna like this record. This is like a EDM version of the band Stars, do you know Stars? That mix of salt and honey. These like acerbic lyrics, but they're also beautiful and catchy. And I felt like this tapped into that kind of vibe really, really effectively.
Guest Speaker
We were just children in the morning Playing grown ups in the room down flats Sat up, drinking back. Cause we both had that, what you call it, wild sign I choose you. The handsome man once said that all the best songs sound like longing. The best people run on it too. Sends them aching, tearing, charging. Relax. I'll spare you that cringe caraway quote.
Stephen Thompson
You've got these tracks that are built on these kind of EDM arrangements, but with talky vocals that are really dramatic and intense and at times deeply sad.
Guest Speaker
Love a dumb world Love a numb world Love a world of pain.
Stephen Thompson
There's a track on this record called Lover World, you know, which is kind of tapping into one of this record's big themes of kind of how, you know, how hard it is to find love in the digital realm. It's really cool and catchy and it's kind of a banger, but it has this undertone of deep melancholy.
Aaron Wolfe
Yeah, it does. It feels very teenagery to me. This record reminded me so much of what I was listening to about 20 years ago. You've got that underworld vibe back in the day, you know, the train spotting soundtrack was all the rage. Romeo and Juliet soundtrack was all the rage. And yeah, there is this like EDM meets Pet Shop Boys kind of ethereality, which makes. I don't know, it just kind of pumps up this romanticized aspect of being in your 20s and being supremely glum, for lack of a better description.
Stephen Thompson
You know, everybody has felt like that. And I think this is music that really does immediately tap into that. But I love the way my favorite kind of dance music, my favorite kind of electronic music, has this sad, pulsating heart at the center of it. I think that that's been true of electronic music for as long as there's been electronic music. One thing that really strikes me about this record is how conversational it is. I used the word talkie a second ago and that gives this record a sense of intimacy that not all electronic music possesses, where it really feels like human beings having a heart to heart conversation.
Guest Speaker
Into the coldest cold Jack Four eyes at the edge of freedom out in the weather bright to me you lift the bridge. The downfalls held us up.
Aaron Wolfe
There is like a sense of poetry about the delivery. They're speaking on themes of alienation, but there seems to be a longing to connect.
Stephen Thompson
Oh, absolutely. And that's one of the big themes of the record. And I appreciate that this release day in music April 11th is expansive enough to include an album called We Will Annihilate Our Enemies and a song called Everything Is Peaceful Love. I just appreciate how much music has to offer us this week.
Guest Speaker
Every day you fall in love. Can I make you fall in love?
Stephen Thompson
That is We Will Annihilate Our Enemies by Real Lies. I should note that this album was scheduled to come out today, April 11, but it got pushed at the last minute to this coming Wednesday. So you won't be able to find the whole thing on streaming today, but it is worth worth waiting for. We've got one more record we're going to talk about in depth, but first let's take a quick break.
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Stephen Thompson
From NPR Music, it's NEW MUSIC Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Aaron Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee's 88 9. We've got a lightning round of some of our other favorite records out this week. But first we wanted to talk about one more. It's an EP by a band called Kills Birds. It's called Crave.
Guest Speaker
Hold on.
Aaron Wolfe
Kills Birds is led by vocalist Nina Letty, a filmmaker and Bosnian born Canadian who moved to LA to follow her love of film. And just like a good film, Kills Bird's songs are really epic. I love how crushingly heavy their songs are while still maintaining this dominant melodicism. Modern bands like Mama and Ben Stellar are also really good at making tuneful heaviness too. And it feels like there's a new generation taking the lead on a new brand of hard melodic rock. And unsurprisingly, Aaron Kobayashi Rich, whose work with both Mama and Ben Steller produced this.
Stephen Thompson
The Mama comparison hadn't really occurred to me. Another great LA band that we just talked about on this show last week. That Mama record is one of my favorite of the year so far. And this is a pretty stellar kind of companion piece to that. It's just five songs, just this dose of heaviness I didn't know I needed. As the weather's been starting to get warmer, it's kind of pummeling and potent. Windows down, revving a motorcycle, kind of just like big booming rock. And it's funny, you know, when, when we were looking at the albums that were coming out today, April 11th, Otis Hart, our producer, kind of pulled this out and was like, who is this band? What is the deal? We've never covered this before. And then he found that I had written about them for the Austin 100, this roundup of artists that we would be excited about at south by Southwest each year. And for 2020, this sadly canceled south by Southwest, this band was scheduled and this was one of the bands that I had discovered and then subsequently completely forgotten about. And it was interesting going back and listening to the track that I'd picked for the Austin 100. It was called Volcano. Very good song. Listening to that and then these five songs, you just hear a band that has really tightened up and revved up its sound. They're never drowning out Nina Letty, who just has this volcanic presence at the center of this band.
Aaron Wolfe
Yeah, yeah. Throughout the songs on Craves, she really doesn't compromise her vocals by letting that heaviness deflate those vocals in any way. Instead, they seem to grow stronger the heavier things get. And I get this really strong visual of her screaming into the abyss amid wailing and howling guitars. It was so satisfying to listen to this because it felt like true human catharsis, like fragility in its most chaotic state. I want it, I want it, I.
Guest Speaker
Want it Free Me now.
Stephen Thompson
And like a bunch of the bands that we've talked about, including this band like Mama, this would fit pretty cleanly onto a 90s playlist. This is drawing from a bunch of different sounds, but in many ways it just feels kind of classic and undeniable. Like I could absolutely play this for my metal loving daughter and have her get into this band.
Guest Speaker
He's Walking Away To Be Nothing to say Death by Decay Space Degree the Will to Stay Feel of your.
Stephen Thompson
They have certainly gotten co signs, you know, from other major artists. They toured with the Foo Fighters for a while. Dave Grohl has spoken very admiringly of this band. And Nina Letty, she's definitely been around and connected in the industry for a while, but people need to be hearing her music.
Guest Speaker
My Heart My.
Stephen Thompson
This is a small Investment, people. It's five songs, 16 minutes. They're called Kills Birds. The EP is called Crave. To close out this show, we wanted to do a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today, April 11th. I'm gonna kick us off with the rowdy Americana band Turnpike Troubadours. They've been around on and off for about 20 years now, and today marks the release of its seventh album. There's been vanishingly little advance word about this record, which was announced just a few days ago via a billboard in Stillwater, Oklahoma, but the album is out now and like its predecessor from two years ago, it was produced by Shooter Jennings, which gives you a sense of some of the kind of outlaw country vibes going on here. This record is called the Price of Admission.
Aaron Wolfe
North Carolina's Daughter of Swords latest sees them shedding inhibitions and constructs in both music and in person. Their former folk lines takes on some synth pop flair thanks to the production and musical input from Nick Samorn and Amelia Meatham, Sylvan Asso, Alex Sauser Monig spent years in the folk trio Mountain man alongside Meath and Molly Starla, showcasing the true beauty of their joined voices and close harmonies. And on Daughter of Swords new album, Alex there's like this synth pop infusion to that folk pop foundation and it provides some unexpected twists and turns that just sparkle real hard.
Stephen Thompson
The haunting and mysterious UK dream pop duo Jadu Hart has moved through many phases over the course of its nearly decade long career. Right now they're currently kind of building a following in part because they're opening for Fontaine's DC on its latest tour. Another band that has moved through many phases, Jadu Hart has played in masks and with Alter Egos. Now they've kind of taken off those masks and are trying different sounds. Their music touches on everything from electropop to shoegaze to grunge. Jettu Heart is still expanding its sound on its stylish new fourth album. It's called called Post Heaven.
Aaron Wolfe
Toronto band Casper Skulls. I just really appreciate that they're so good at reminding me of things I already love and have loved for years. On their new album KitKat, there's a delightful array of indie rock flavors like the countrified twang on Spindletop. There's just like a grab bag of amazing sounds that I've loved for years. It's also giving me book vibes in a way, like I feel like I'm reading a chapter of a book that's from a different author throughout. But it all just flows and I love albums that make feel like this. This is totally an album I would read again if that makes any sense.
Stephen Thompson
Finally, in 2021, the flaming lips released an album length collaboration with a Canadian 13 year old named Nell Smith. It was a collection of Nick Cave covers called where the Viaduct Looms. Sadly, Nell Smith died in a car accident at 17 last fall and now her family has released a posthumous solo debut. It's full of bright, catchy, immensely promising indie pop songs. Proceeds from this record will go to a memorial fund that supports young musicians. That album from Nell Smith is called Anxious.
Guest Speaker
I Get Anxious. Please delete the freez. Marco Peacock's the Only One who Sees.
Stephen Thompson
And that is our show for this week. Thank you so much Aaron Wolfe, for taking time out of your week at 88.9.
Aaron Wolfe
Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for having me. It's the week of Bon Iver's release is always exciting.
Stephen Thompson
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 Soraya Mohammed and her boss is Keith Jenkins, NPR's vice president of Music and visuals. We'll be back next week to talk about new records from Rhiannon Giddens, Julian Baker and more with WUNC Music's Brian Burns. Until then, take a moment to be well plant a garden and treat yourself to lots of great music.
Guest Speaker
There's nothing about the flowers in the yard, so this must be the place for me to start.
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All Songs Considered: New Music Friday – The Best Albums Out April 11
Introduction
On the April 11, 2025 episode of NPR Music's flagship program, All Songs Considered: New Music Friday, host Stephen Thompson teams up with Aaron Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee's 88.9 to explore the latest releases in the music world. This episode delves into a diverse range of albums, offering in-depth discussions, personal insights, and notable quotes from the hosts. Below is a comprehensive summary capturing the key points, discussions, insights, and conclusions from the episode.
1. Record Store Day Excitement
Stephen Thompson kicks off the episode by highlighting the excitement surrounding Record Store Day, set for April 12. He and Aaron Wolfe discuss their anticipation for exclusive releases and hidden gems that independent record stores will feature nationwide.
Aaron expresses his specific interests, eyeing unique compilations and rare vinyl editions from iconic artists.
Their conversation underscores the thrill and unpredictability of the event, balancing nostalgic desires with the possibility of encountering unexpected releases.
2. Bon Iver's Sable Fable
The first major album discussed is Bon Iver's fifth release, Sable Fable. Stephen provides an overview of the album's evolution from its humble beginnings in a Wisconsin cabin to its current expansive and experimental sound.
Aaron adds depth by sharing insights from his conversation with Justin Vernon, the mastermind behind Bon Iver.
The hosts highlight tracks like "Everything Is Peaceful Love," interpreting it as a testament to embracing joy amidst adversity.
They commend the album's blend of reflective melancholy and uplifting harmonies, emphasizing Bon Iver's growth and the album's heartfelt narrative.
3. Valerie June's Owls, Omens and Oracles
Next, Valerie June's latest work, Owls, Omens and Oracles, receives attention for its genre-blending artistry. Stephen praises June's ability to intertwine psychedelic folk, indie rock, Appalachian bluegrass, and more.
The discussion delves into the album's thematic exploration of sweetness and human connection, particularly in challenging times.
Stephen highlights the production quality, thanks to producer M. Ward, and how it complements June's versatile vocal delivery.
The album is lauded for its poetic lyricism and the seamless fusion of various musical styles, making it a standout release.
4. Gerald Clayton's Ones and Twos
Gerald Clayton's new album, Ones and Twos, marks a significant addition to the jazz scene. Stephen describes the album's adventurous spirit and innovative structure, allowing listeners to experience the music in multiple dimensions.
Aaron appreciates Clayton's compositional brilliance and the album's dynamic interplay of tension and release.
The hosts commend the collaborative efforts of talented musicians like Joel Ross and Elena Pinderhughes, as well as the inventive production by Casa, which infuses hip-hop elements into the jazz framework.
Ones and Twos is celebrated for its rich textures and forward-thinking approach, positioning Gerald Clayton as a visionary in modern jazz.
5. Real Lies' We Will Annihilate Our Enemies
The British duo Real Lies introduces their latest album, We Will Annihilate Our Enemies. Stephen draws comparisons to bands like Stars and Salt-N-Pepa, noting the album's blend of EDM arrangements with emotionally charged vocals.
Aaron reflects on the album's nostalgic undertones, reminiscent of early 2000s emo and indie sounds, while appreciating its contemporary relevance.
The track "Lover World" is highlighted for encapsulating the album's central theme of seeking genuine connection in a digital age.
Despite a last-minute release delay, the anticipation for this album underscores its impact and the duo's creative prowess.
6. Kills Birds' Crave EP
In a quick spotlight, Kills Birds unveils their EP Crave. Stephen and Aaron praise the band's fusion of heavy melodies with potent vocals, drawing parallels to contemporary bands like Mama and Ben Stellar.
Stephen shares his personal connection, having featured them in the Austin 100 lineup, and lauds the EP's cathartic energy.
Crave is recognized for its intense emotional delivery and the seamless integration of heavy instrumentation with melodic hooks.
7. Lightning Round: Additional Notable Releases
The episode concludes with a lightning round, where Stephen and Aaron briefly discuss other noteworthy albums released on April 11.
Turnpike Troubadours' Price of Admission: Celebrated for its outlaw country vibes, produced by Shooter Jennings. Stephen emphasizes the band's longstanding presence and the album's fresh yet authentic sound.
Daughter of Swords' Latest Album: North Carolina's Daughter of Swords experiments with synth-pop infused folk, showcasing their evolved sound and vibrant harmonies.
Jadu Hart's Post Heaven: The UK dream pop duo transitions from masked performances to a more raw sound, exploring genres from electropop to grunge.
Casper Skulls' KitKat: A Toronto band blending indie rock flavors with literary-inspired melodies, creating an album that's as engaging as a captivating novel.
Nell Smith's Anxious: A posthumous solo debut from the late Nell Smith, featuring bright indie pop songs with proceeds supporting a memorial fund for young musicians.
Conclusion
The April 11, 2025 episode of All Songs Considered: New Music Friday offers a rich tapestry of musical exploration, from introspective jazz compositions to electrifying indie rock anthems. Stephen Thompson and Aaron Wolfe provide insightful commentary, blending personal anecdotes with critical analysis to celebrate the diverse sounds shaping today's music landscape. Whether you're a jazz aficionado, indie enthusiast, or EDM lover, this episode serves as a comprehensive guide to the best albums emerging this week.
Notable Quotes
This summary was crafted to provide a detailed and engaging overview of the April 11 episode of All Songs Considered: New Music Friday. For those seeking to stay updated on the latest in music, this episode offers valuable insights and recommendations across various genres and styles.