All Songs Considered — New Music Friday: The Best Albums Out Aug. 22 (August 22, 2025)

Overview

Hosted by Stephen Thompson with guest Tad Cautious (Vermont Public), this New Music Friday episode of NPR's "All Songs Considered" dives into the eclectic group of albums released on August 22, 2025. The hosts discuss their handpicked favorite new releases—spanning genres from inventive R&B to jazz-infused instrumentals, singer-songwriter gems, indie rock, and experimental sounds—before blitzing through a lightning round of standout projects from both established acts and rising stars. The conversation centers on music discovery, artistic risk-taking, and the joy of finding voices that defy easy categorization.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening Remarks: An Odd Release Week (00:43)

• Stephen Thompson sets the context: this week is “frantic” with many last-minute pop, R&B, and hip-hop releases due to the upcoming Grammy eligibility deadline.
  • “There have been a ton of kind of late breaking titles in pop and R&B and hip hop, which made it tougher than usual to plan… We decided to pick five new records we love, regardless of popularity, and then present a super sized lightning round.” (00:43)

2. Nourished by Time — The Passionate Ones (01:46)

• Artist: Nourished by Time (Marcus Brown), Baltimore-based, self-taught polymath fusing R&B, synth-pop, new jack swing, and more.

Sound & Style

• Stephen: “He combines minimalist R&B, synth pop, new jack swing, lots and lots of different sounds all kind of crashing against each other in really intriguing ways.” (02:12)
• Tad: Praises the courage and originality in genre-melding: “There’s a real bravery to the way that he just sort of blends all those influences.” (02:48)

Artistic Approach

• Self-made, home recording background highlighted (first album recorded in his parents’ basement during COVID).
• Stephen: “There’s really something to this self-taught quality… that still sound in many ways like pop music.” (03:01)

Themes & Lyrics

• The album tackles themes like online isolation, cultish indoctrination, and loneliness.
  • Stephen: “There's commentary about online isolation, about, you know, the loneliness epidemic that so many people are talking about, about… the ways that we get sucked into this stuff online.” (05:27)
• Reference to Prince’s "The Beautiful Ones": “The Passionate One sort of recalls the Beautiful Ones, the Prince song from Purple Rain… operatic melancholy and kind of unhinged emotion.” (Tad, 04:25)

Notable Quote

• Stephen: “How do you get someone out of a cult?... There are many different kinds of authoritarian cults, political cults...” (06:28)
• Tad: “It does feel like he’s grappling with… the slipperiness of online truth these days. It does seem very of the time.” (06:45)

3. Pino Palladino & Blake Mills — That Wasn’t a Dream (07:08)

• Collaboration between two revered session musicians/producers (Pino Palladino: Nine Inch Nails, D’Angelo; Blake Mills: Bob Dylan, Fiona Apple).

Sound & Style

• Instrumental album with “liquid quality," intricate percussion, and diverse textures.

  • Stephen: “There’s a vibe that is more than just a vibe.” (08:15)

• Tad: “Is this a jazz album? It doesn’t really have any of the markers of jazz... but what it does have is that same sort of sophistication and inquisitiveness.” (08:58)

Artistic Process

• Willingness to "follow people down weird alleys," committing to ambitious and sometimes unsettling musical ideas.
  • “The great gift of a true collaborator... you have to be willing to take weird turns and follow ideas...” (Stephen, 11:03)

4. Greg Freeman — Burnover (15:32)

• D.C.-born, Vermont-based singer-songwriter, blending twangy indie rock with alt-country roots.

Sound & Style

• Undefinable, cramming instruments like saxophone, strings, and xylophones into indie-rock landscapes.
  • Tad: “It does sound like a thrift shop being thrown down the stairs sometimes in a rhythmic and exciting way.” (17:15)

Timelessness

• Escapes being tethered to any specific era; evokes a blend of ‘90s indie rock, ‘80s singer-songwriter, and “rambling psychedelic indie rock country.”
  • “Chunky is a good word for a track like gone can mean a lot of things... being unafraid to just dispense massive riffs.” (Stephen, 20:27)

Lyrical Ambition

• Firehose of phrases and images; lyrics presented as a block of text.
  • Tad: “A lot of these lines or images or phrases will just kind of wow you with the sound of them before you really kind of parse out what the actual image is.” (21:27)

5. Kathleen Edwards — Billionaire (22:44)

• Canadian singer-songwriter known for a career of “critics’ favorite” records, with notable hiatuses.

Career Narrative

• Left music to open a coffee shop ("Quitters"), then returned after years away, bringing depth from lived experience.
  • Tad: “I respect so much that choice of your Own. Choosing your own life over some kind of perfect career arc...” (24:50)

Sound & Writing

• Delivers songs with both “instrumental heft” and lyrics reflecting real observation and evolution.
  • Stephen: “You really get this sense of somebody who has spent those years observing the world and finding new things to say and new ways to say them.” (25:41)

Comparisons & Craft

• Compared to Laura Veers and Neko Case for lived-in, conversational songwriting.
  • “Both Laura Veers and Kathleen Edwards are really creating these trajectories that future artists can follow.” (Tad, 29:34)

Memorable Lyric

• “People get worked up about everything. People get worked up about an outdoor cat. People get worked up about a baseball hat...” (Kathleen Edwards, 26:22)

6. Mac DeMarco — Guitar Thought (31:18)

• Indie stalwart, known for DIY ethos and lo-fi sentimental songwriting.

Sound & Recording

• Album written and recorded in 12 days at his LA home—intimate, miniature, focused songs.

  • Stephen: “You really are just getting a portrait of somebody who is really fearlessly presented a side of them that they've... explored before, but really getting it kind of contained in one record...” (34:13)

Maturity & Focus

• Tad: “It really does show you a side of him that is at home… there’s this peacefulness and a side of yourself that you kind of have to get to know.” (33:23)
• Compared to classic, “focused” albums: Pink Moon (Nick Drake), I (Robyn Hitchcock), Blue (Joni Mitchell).

Super-Sized Lightning Round (36:37)

Covering a deluge of notable releases in quick succession, with highlights and soundbites:

Stephen’s Picks:

• Levi — A Matter of Time
  • Icelandic star blending jazz, theater, and the songbook for a Gen Z pop twist.
• Somber — I Barely Know Her
  • 20-year-old TikTok sensation with catchy, genre-smashing pop/rock/R&B.

Tad’s Picks:

• Ami Taf? Ra — The Prophet and the Madman
  • Kamasi Washington-produced, Khalil Gibran-inspired spiritual jazz epic.

More Notables:

• Deftones — Private Music
  • “Thundering, swirly, catchy, hypnotic swirls of metal and shoegaze…” (Stephen, 39:48)
• Big X the Plug — I Hope You’re Happy
  • Country/hip-hop crossover album with huge collaborations.
• The Night Owls — Versions 2
  • L.A. studio funk band covers soul classics in vintage reggae/rocksteady style.
  • Tad: “Just feels like a party and something that you want to own on vinyl.”
• Teyana Taylor — Escape Room
  • R&B polymath’s ambitious comeback with an “army” of diva narrators and big-name collaborations.
• Kid Cudi — Free All We
• Earl Sweatshirt — Live Laugh Love
• Ghostface Killah — Supreme Clientele 2

Final Reflections: The Song That Will Stick (45:00)

Tad Cautious picks:

• “Tossed Away” by Nourished by Time: “It just repeats so beautifully and is so hypnotic.” (45:00)
• “Little Red Ranger” by Kathleen Edwards: “A beautiful, crystalline portrait of a person… beautifully sentimental tribute.” (45:00)

Stephen Thompson picks:

• “My Mind is a Mountain” by Deftones: “How nice it is to just get a little heaviness in your life every now and then, just as a palette cleanser...” (45:55)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It does sound like a thrift shop being thrown down the stairs sometimes in a rhythmic and exciting way.” — Tad on Greg Freeman (17:15)
• “You have to be willing to take weird turns and follow ideas that may not seem like they're gonna work in the moment, but you have faith in your collaborators.” — Stephen on Palladino & Mills (11:03)
• “Both Laura Veers and Kathleen Edwards are really creating these trajectories that future artists can follow.” — Tad (29:34)
• “These songs would work in any era.” — Stephen on Greg Freeman (20:27)
• “There’s this peacefulness and a side of yourself that you kind of have to get to know.” — Tad on Mac DeMarco (33:23)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:43 — Discussion of this week's unique release chaos and approach
• 01:46 — Nourished by Time: The Passionate Ones
• 07:08 — Pino Palladino & Blake Mills: That Wasn’t a Dream
• 15:32 — Greg Freeman: Burnover
• 22:44 — Kathleen Edwards: Billionaire
• 31:18 — Mac DeMarco: Guitar Thought
• 36:37 — Lightning Round barrage of new albums
• 45:00 — Hosts pick their favorite tracks of the week

Overall Tone

Warm, conversational, appreciative of risk, discovery, and genre-blending. Tad and Stephen’s rapport underscores both deep musical knowledge and a genuine enthusiasm for finding the artistry in new work, regardless of commercial stature or trend.

Listeners are encouraged to chase down their favorites from this engaging, genre-defying batch of August releases—with something in the mix for everyone looking to expand their musical horizons.