The most anticipated fall '25 albums

Summary

All Songs Considered (NPR)

Episode: The Most Anticipated Fall '25 Albums

Date: September 2, 2025
Host: Robin Hilton
Guests: Hazel Sills, Sheldon Pierce

---

Overview

In this episode, host Robin Hilton is joined by NPR Music’s Hazel Sills and Sheldon Pierce to get ahead of the curve on the fall 2025 album releases. With their trademark wit, warmth, and deep music knowledge, the trio discuss the buzziest projects, play tracks from standout new records, and provide insightful critical takes on what this season's music has to offer—spanning everything from pop giants to experimental ambient and fresh indie voices. Along the way, they highlight personal favorites, memorable genre trends, and special music moments, ensuring listeners know what’s unmissable this autumn.

---

Key Discussion Points & Highlights

1. Major Fall 2025 Album Releases

Taylor Swift – The Life of a Showgirl

• [00:27 – 01:38]
  • Robin shares the surprise that Taylor Swift is releasing a new album: “Did you all know there’s a new Taylor Swift album coming out?” (00:27)
  • The album, The Life of a Showgirl, is shrouded in secrecy: “Can’t really play it or talk about it because we just don’t have that kind of pull.” (00:47)
  • No singles or details at the time of taping; rumored release date October 3rd.
  • Laughter about “Swift fatigue” and pokes fun at the media buzz: “The Onion actually had the best take… Taylor Swift hints new album could be about her.” (01:21)
  • Tone & Take: Playful skepticism about the overhype and Swift’s continued dominance.

---

2. Indie Standouts and New Artists

Snooper – Worldwide

• [01:58 – 04:37]
  • Hazel introduces Snooper’s album as a “sugar rush” of fun, comparing their sound to ’80s new wave and bratty punk:
    • “I hear so much 80s new wave…Pylon, Devo. But I also hear kind of like a bratty cheerleader kind of style of punk.” (03:28)
  • Robin agrees—they nail the balance of nostalgic and futuristic: “I almost get whiplash zigzagging back and forth when I listen.” (03:51)
  • Sheldon: “There’s something about it that reminds me of the sensation of eating Pop Rocks.” (04:08)
  • “12 songs on the album and they clock in at 28 minutes total. Yeah, it’s a sugar rush.” (04:30–04:37)
  • Release Date: October 3rd

Sudan Archives – The BPM

• [05:33 – 09:23]
  • Sheldon spotlights Sudan Archives’ shift into clubby, house-influenced music: “I think of her as a sort of restless artist…this record feels like the furthest from her wheelhouse as anything that she’s done.” (06:54)
  • Hazel notes the genre trend: “We’ve had so many artists this year…looking to the club…In a way that has really freed them.” (08:37)
  • Robin: “Is this a good starting point?” Sheldon: “Yes, it is, like, very clearly a move to the dance floor for her, but I think it maintains a lot of the most interesting stuff about her music compositionally.” (07:41–07:46)
  • Release Date: October 17th

---

3. Electronic & Ambient Explorations

Claire Rousay – Little Death

• [09:23 – 13:55]
  • Robin introduces a Claire Rousay track, praising the intentionality and texture of her ambient music: “Her work just feels so intentional, so distinctive, even if it’s kind of drifting in the ether. Like, I am so in her universe.” (12:07)
  • Sheldon: “I often think about her music as an artist at the center of a room…compiling everything that’s going on around her.” (12:35)
  • Hazel: “She’s really putting like a magnifying glass to [daily sound fragments] and asking the listener to listen closely…there’s something a little unsettling or weird or mysterious to her work.” (13:04)
  • Release Date: October 31st

Emily Sprague – Cloud Time

• [33:31 – 36:58]
  • Highlighted for her atmospheric, synth-driven solo work (apart from Florist). Robin: “Just so much color and character and…I keep coming back to the word humanity.” (35:12)
  • Sheldon: “It really kind of does feel like hovering over a city, taking in its splendor…there’s this sense that you’re like, astral projecting in a way.” (35:33)
  • Hazel details how the music was improvised on tour in Japan, contributing a “sweeping and enveloping” quality. (35:49)
  • Release Date: October

---

4. Shoegaze, Dream Pop & Indie Folk

Crushed – No Scope

• [15:56 – 20:39]
  • Hazel plays No Scope’s “One Shot,” describing a blend of trip-hop, shoegaze, and late ’90s/early ’00s pop: “They’re really kind of walking this border…There is something very pristine to this music.” (18:01)
  • Robin recounts discovering the band's video game references: “No scope apparently is a reference to shooter video games.” (20:10–20:23)
  • Sheldon: “It’s a term that is used when you have a sniper rifle and you fire…without having to look through the scope because you’re just that good. You no scope them.” (20:23)
  • Release Date: September 26th

Cate Le Bon – Michelangelo Dying

• [20:56 – 24:43]
  • Sheldon calls it “very dramatic,” praises the lush, psychedelic sound: “There’s something almost like shimmer and amorphous about her guitar tone…All of it is, like, disembodied.” (22:16–23:00)
  • Hazel: “Her music has just gotten so much richer and more complicated as she’s grown as an artist and a producer.” (23:00)
  • The hosts agree the story behind the album is less important than the experience—“You listen…you’re like, wow, Cate can really produce a record.” (23:31)
  • Release Date: September 26th

S. Carey – Watercress (EP)

• [24:43 – 29:52]
  • Robin suggests S. Carey, longtime Bon Iver drummer, is now surpassing his main band: “For me personally…I feel like he’s kind of eclipsed Bon Iver.” (25:15–25:31)
  • Sheldon and Hazel reflect on the Bon Iver universe and the virtues of S. Carey’s “grounding” approach to songwriting.
  • Robin: “Sometimes I just want a straight up singer songwriter with an acoustic guitar making beautiful sounds, lighting me up with their words.” (29:20)
  • Release Date: October 3rd

---

5. Folk and Singer-Songwriter Gems

Skullcrusher – And You’d Song Is Like a Circle

• [36:59 – 40:29]
  • Sheldon: “The songs sound sort of like an old manor house that’s haunted by a young ghost…she’s lost and yearning, but not malevolent.” (39:03)
  • Hazel: “This song crushes me like…There is a depth and a darkness to this song and to her music. Like, I think of Helen Ballantyne as being…in the same lineage as, like, Grouper or Julia Holter.” (39:49)
  • Release Date: October 17th

Silvana Estrada – Vendrán Suaves Lluvias (Spanish: There Will Come Soft Rains)

• [40:29 – 43:36]
  • Robin: “We’ve talked about the perfect Sunday morning album…music to calm the nerves…I think this album is both.” (42:13)
  • Hazel: “She really sang with this full throated vocals and there was so much rage and sadness on that album. And even though she was like using her quatro…her sound [on this new album] is much smoother and lighter and like I hear a new side of her.” (42:28)
  • Sheldon: “This record to me feels just a little bit more radiant than Marchita.” (43:00)
  • Robin: “She said she just wanted to seek out and find a softness and a sweetness in the world again. I think she found it.” (43:13)
  • Release Date: October 17th

---

Bonus Mentions & Shout-Outs

• [31:05 – 33:12]
  The team highlights significant anticipated albums, including:
  • Jeff Tweedy’s triple album Twilight Override (Sep 26)
  • Patrick Watson (Sep 26)
  • Florence and the Machine (Oct 31)
  • Matty Diaz – Fatal Optimus (Oct 10)
  • Octo Octa – Sigils for Survival (Oct 24)
  • Halo – Musicality (Sep 19)
  • Bar Italia – Some Like It Hot (Oct 17)
  • JSOM – Belong (Oct 10)
  • Amber Mark – Pretty Idea (Oct 10)
  • Just Mustard – We Were Just Here (Oct 24)
  • Micaiah McRaven – Series of EPs (Oct 31)
  • 50th Anniversary Editions: Patti Smith’s Horses (Oct 10), Tom Waits’ Nighthawks at the Diner (Oct 24)

---

Notable Quotes

• Robin Hilton on Taylor Swift’s new album:
  “Can’t really play it or talk about it because we just don’t have that kind of pull.” (00:47)

• Sheldon Pierce on Sudan Archives’ genre shift:
  “This record feels like the furthest from her wheelhouse as anything that she’s done.” (06:54)

• Hazel Sills on Crushed:
  “I feel like a band like this might run the risk of just being like a vibes curator…but they do what they do so well.” (18:01)

• Sheldon Pierce on Skullcrusher:
  “The songs, to me, sound sort of like an old manor house that’s haunted by a young ghost…and she’s also got great taste.” (39:03)

• Robin Hilton on Silvana Estrada:
  “She said she just wanted to…find a softness and a sweetness in the world again. I think she found it.” (43:13)

---

Conclusion

This preview was packed with genre explorations, playful banter, and a passion for music discovery. The hosts showcased both marquee names and deep cuts, connecting the dots between evolving sounds and personal emotional resonance. From club transformations and ambient masterpieces to haunting folk and pop surprises, Fall 2025 is set to offer fresh colors across the musical spectrum.

---

For a comprehensive release calendar, visit NPR Music's All Songs Considered site.

Transcript

[Sponsor/Announcer]

This message comes from Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.

[Robin Hilton]

We're in the home stretch.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

Hazel Sills, Sheldon Pierce. Hazel, welcome.

[Hazel Sills]

Oh, sorry. I got attracted by something.

[Robin Hilton]

Are you here?

[Hazel Sills]

Yes, I'm here. I'm so sorry.

[Robin Hilton]

Guys, we're getting a jump here on the fall album release. Most excited about it's all songs considered. I'm Robin Hilton. Our fall preview. Did you all know there's a new Taylor Swift album coming out?

[Sheldon Pierce]

Who's that?

[Robin Hilton]

Taylor Swift.

[Hazel Sills]

Yeah. I didn't.

[Robin Hilton]

I. Yeah, it's a big one. I hear she's. She's got a lot of fans.

[Hazel Sills]

Interesting. I thought she was kind of like.

[Robin Hilton]

A left field kind of a. Yeah. Up and comer. Her album, the life of a showgirl. Can't really play it or talk about it because we just don't have that kind of poll.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Does anybody? Is the question.

[Robin Hilton]

Nobody?

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

No single.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Her own brother in law hasn't heard it other than. Or brother in law to be, I should say.

[Robin Hilton]

Nothing out yet from it. At least as of this taping. No other details other than it is supposed to come out on October 3rd. That's a pretty big record for this fall. The Onion actually had the best take on it. Did you see the Onion's headline for it? Taylor Swift, hence new album. Could be about her. I don't know.

[Sheldon Pierce]

I guess we'll have to see. It could be.

[Hazel Sills]

It's her most personal record. Her most vulnerable.

[Robin Hilton]

Yes, exactly. Really opens up the life of a showgirl. October 3rd. Tons of other stuff we're excited about for this fall that we can play and tell you all about. Who wants to start?

[Hazel Sills]

Yeah, I want to play a song from an album. It's called Worldwide and it's by a band called Snooper. Incredible band. Wait, why are you laughing?

[Robin Hilton]

You always bring like. They're called snuggle, you know.

[Guest Vocalist or Singer]

Listen, I'm making the band names. It's not me.

[Robin Hilton]

They're called Hug.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Hug.

[Hazel Sills]

Listen, it's 2025. It's 2025. There are only so many things you can name your band. So we're running out of. That's what's happening.

[Robin Hilton]

All right, let's play the title cut.

[Guest Vocalist or Singer]

Push pull side to side this way, that way I can decide. It's pressure pushing it. It flattens me out from end to end as asap. Do you really need me? Excuse. I Need one I'm not having any fun as. Do you really need me? Excuse. I need one I'm not having any Fun left, right, Ms. Worldwide Pressure both sides this way, that way wild, right 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4 left, right, miss worldwide pressure both sides this way, that way Wild, right.

[Robin Hilton]

Good stuff, Hazel.

[Hazel Sills]

I just. There's just so much to love about this band. Like, I hear so much 80s new wave in this group. I hear Pylon, I hear Devo. But I also hear kind of like a bratty cheerleader kind of style of punk. Like, it reminds me of, like, the Go Team, if anyone was a Go Team fan.

[Robin Hilton]

I mean, you name checked everything that I was thinking when I listened to.

[Hazel Sills]

Oh, I Just Stole your.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, no, I mean, I just feel like they really thread that needle between old and new. Really, really well. Like, it's like I almost get whiplash zigzagging back and forth when I listen. Like, oh, this is classic new wave punk. But then, no, this is like something totally from the future.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah. Yeah. There's something just so fun loving and light about it as well. Even as it's really snappy, really riffy. It's like, there's something about it that reminds me of the sensation of eating Pop Rocks.

[Guest Vocalist or Singer]

Do you really need me? Excuse. I need one. I'm not having any asap. Do you really need me? Excuse. I need one. I'm not having.

[Robin Hilton]

12 songs on the album and they clock in at 28 minutes total.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah, it's a sugar rush for sure.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, sugar rush. Very easy to listen to, and it's all just this breathless sprint. So Snooper Worldwide is the album, October 3rd, the release date. Sheldon, you want to do that Lana Del Rey album you've been chasing all year?

[Sheldon Pierce]

If only we could. It's called Stove now, by the way.

[Robin Hilton]

I would have gone with, like, Lamp, maybe, or Sandwich, but stove's good. Stove's pretty good. Is it? It is stove.

[Sheldon Pierce]

It is stove. Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

What was it before that?

[Sheldon Pierce]

What was the old stove?

[Hazel Sills]

Well, I think at one point it was lasso. Yeah, it's another. Another point. It was something else.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, well, I think we talked about that maybe on the spring preview or summer preview, because we thought maybe it's coming.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah, that's how.

[Robin Hilton]

Still don't have it. What's your safety then, since we can't do that.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah. Instead I'm going to go to the singer, songwriter and violinist, Brittany Parks, who records as Sudan Archives. She's got a new album, her first since 2022. It's called the BPM and I want to listen to my type.

[Hazel Sills]

And her shirts and her blue brown jeans right.

[Guest Vocalist or Singer]

In our slots and her name is.

[Hazel Sills]

Blossom she bought a boat just so.

[Guest Vocalist or Singer]

Better folks can't enjoy the scene her.

[Hazel Sills]

Mind is broken she's trying to smoke.

[Guest Vocalist or Singer]

And I'm trying, trying to do.

[Robin Hilton]

So I went back and I listened again to some of the earliest Sudan archive stuff to try to see, like, should I have seen this clubby sound coming? Was it there all along? And I just didn't see this coming. Like, some of her early stuff is. It's almost quirky.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah. I mean, I think I think of her as a sort of restless artist, like never sort of doing the same thing twice. But to your point, this record feels like the furthest from her wheelhouse as anything that she's done. I mean, 2022, slap natural brown Prom Queen was one of our top 10 albums of that year. It's like, really was such an evolution for her in a different way. Eclectic, self assured soul. It was so big, so bold, so audacious. This record, it. I mean, it changes the state of play. Again, to your point, in a very clear way. It's like digified club forward. There's some like, housey stuff on here. Almost kind of like four to the floor.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah. So I wonder if this is. I haven't heard the whole thing. Like, is this a good starting point?

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yes, it is, like, very clearly a move to the dance floor for her, but I think it maintains a lot of the most interesting stuff about her music compositionally. She's obviously very skilled, she's classically trained. And there is this elevated aspect to it that you get with all of her records. But as a person who probably takes themselves too seriously, I'm always, like, awestruck by a serious musician. Then, like, figuring out how not to wait.

[Robin Hilton]

Did you take yourself too seriously? I do. I. Sheldon.

[Hazel Sills]

That's crazy, because neither of us do. Sheldon, seriously. At all. So every time.

[Robin Hilton]

I know why you are. When I come on the show, I think I'm barely interested in what I have to say. I. I don't know how anyone else.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Could be, but hey, I'm trying to get there.

[Hazel Sills]

We've had so many artists this year like Amore, FK Twigs, who are looking to the club, looking to that music for their own projects in a way that I feel like has really freed them. And I think the same thing seems to be happening on this album where it's like, you know, I think club music gets a bad rap sometimes for being overly Simplistic or repetitive or, you know. And I think, like, for these artists, like, including Sudan Archives, it can be this vessel through which you explore your loosest impulses. Like, what makes you feel good? Like, what. What makes you feel like you're having fun. There's just a sense of experimentation and freedom and, yeah, I definitely hear it.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, I've definitely come around to club music more than at any other point in my life because of all of the artists you just mentioned. Sudan Archives, the BPM that is out October 17th. I want to do something totally, totally different. There is so much great electronic and ambient music coming this fall. There's one from Emily Sprague that I'm excited about called Cloudtime. I think we're going to talk about that one a little bit later on in the show. Carolee's Coverdale. We talked about her on our spring preview. She had an album in May. She has another one in September. She's got a third one coming in November. All these gorgeous electronic and ambient albums from Carolise Coverdale. But I want to go with the latest from Claire Rousey. Claire Rousey also releasing her third album of the year at the end of October. It is called Little Death. I mean, don't you want to follow every little sound? Yeah, just flitting around. What is that? What is that? What is that sound? How's she doing that? So this song from Clare Rousey's upcoming album, the song is called Just. I think this music is actually really, really hard to do. To do well, I should say so much. I'm gonna call this ambient music, although I don't really know what it's.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Ambient.

[Robin Hilton]

I mean. Ambient. Yeah, ambient music. Experimental soundscape, whatever you want to call it. So much of it, I think, just ends up being wallpaper. Like, almost mindless in a way. Like, you forget it's even there. And maybe that's partly the intent of a lot of this kind of music, just to not get in the way too much. But Claire Rousey, I don't know, her work just feels so intentional, so distinctive, even if it's kind of drifting in the ether. Like, I am so in her universe.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah. I mean, I often think about her music as an artist at the center of a room, sort of like compiling everything that is going on around her, as opposed to, like, a lot of ambient music specifically exists in the background.

[Robin Hilton]

Of a life, or she's taking that background and pulling it forward and turning it into.

[Sheldon Pierce]

But there's also. I mean, there are, like, strains of conversation, like, occurring in her music. I think the process for her is much more active.

[Hazel Sills]

Yeah, like, yeah. And I think she asks that of the listener, which I think is important, which is not. I mean, we've talked about the wave of ambient music in the last few years and kind of the rise of it on Spotify and this kind of like lean back listening that so much ambient music, you know, requires of listeners nowadays. And I think that when she takes, you know, these fragments of sound from her daily life, she's really putting like a magnifying glass to them and she's asking the listener to listen closely. Like Robyn, I think to your point about like wanting to follow her, I think that's why her approach to ambient music is so interesting and compelling. To me, it's not just pretty background noise. There's something a little unsettling or weird or mysterious to her work. And yeah, similarly, like anything she does, I'm very interested.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, Claire Rousey's on a roll. Three albums this year, been doing lots of collaborations. Tour this album, Little death out on October 31, the very end of the month and it follows one she had in March, a March album called no Floor, and then another one called Quilted Lament that came out in May.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

This message comes from Apple Pay. Forget your wallet. It's all good because with Apple Pay you can pay with a simple tap of your iPhone, the wallet you never forget. At millions of places worldwide, including websites, apps and anywhere you see the contactless symbol. Security is built in with face ID so you don't have to worry about your cards getting lost or stolen. And the best part, you still earn the card rewards, points and cash back you love. So say goodbye to the bifold, add your card to Apple Wallet and start paying the Apple way. Terms apply. This message comes from Schwab at Schwab. How you invest is your choice, not theirs. That's why when it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices. You can invest and trade on your own. Plus get advice and more comprehensive wealth solutions to help meet your unique needs. With award winning service, low costs and transparent advice, you can manage your wealth your way at Schwab. Visit schwab.com to learn more. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit wise.com Ts and Cs apply.

This message comes from NPR sponsor Shopify. Start selling with Shopify today. Whether You're a garage entrepreneur or IPO ready. Shopify is the only tool you need to start, run and grow your business without the struggle. Go to shopify.com NPR okay, Hazel, we.

[Robin Hilton]

Are back to you.

[Hazel Sills]

So I want to play a bit from an album that I'm also excited about this year called no Scope. It's from this Law Angeles duo called Crushed, which I feel like me and a lot of other critics really fell in love with this EP they put out a few years ago called Extra Life. Now they're coming back this year, this September, with their first full length album. And they're a very cool band. And I want to play a song from the album titled One Shot.

[Guest Vocalist or Singer]

I dreamt the song My flesh was dull gold and my blood rotted there's something in this world I'm hooked and I just can't let it go Drink it up I want more for you Spit me on the floor I don't get it I don't know what I am holding on for your poison One shot, baby.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah I love the contrast in this one. Like, when it starts off, it is so. It's almost kind of sinister and. And I think, oh, yeah, this is going to be really nice and creepy and then it just instantly bursts into this glittery pop jam.

[Hazel Sills]

Yeah, I think that's kind of why I like them, because they're really kind of walking this border of like trip hop and shoegaze and then just like pure late 90s, early 2000s pop music. And I feel like there are a lot of artists. I feel like working in the same space right now as Crushed, kind of making music that pulls on those trip hop influences. And I think a band like this might run the risk of just being like a vibes curator. I know we were just talking about laid back listening, but I just think that they do what they do so well. Like there is something very pristine to this music. I just feel like when they reach into the past and they sort of play with these sounds, everything I've heard from this album does sound a lot more pop than what they put out on their ep, which I feel like was pretty dark, but I don't know, the songs are just so, so strong.

[Sheldon Pierce]

There's something about it that's very alt radio crossover in 1999.

[Hazel Sills]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sheldon Pierce]

I've seen people describe it as dream pop. It doesn't really feel like floaty or surreal to me in that way. There's something about it that's very firmly planted on the ground and honestly can be kind of somber, to your point about the way that this song starts off, Robin, but it does have this very nice balance.

[Robin Hilton]

I would have been happy if they doubled down a little more on that opening sound a little bit and got a little, like, they could have had a bridge in here. I think, in this song, One Shot, where it just, like, gets weird and dark for a little while before kind of coming back. But, yeah, I. This is one of those bands. I ended up going down this Internet rabbit hole trying to find out more about them because I read this quote from him. They said, this song, One Shot. Well, here's the quote. They say, like SSSniperwolf making her final plea to Solid Snake, One Shot is about lying on the brink of death and begging to be put out of your misery. And I. So I don't know who SSSniperwolf is.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Those are video game characters.

[Robin Hilton]

So then I discovered Metal Gear, the video game series.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Metal Gear.

[Robin Hilton]

And then I.

[Hazel Sills]

Then Robin had to go out and buy the video game.

[Robin Hilton]

I played all of them great series, but they seem to have, like, this real love of video games and fantasy stuff, because no Scope, apparently, is a reference to shooter video games. Sheldon, you're a player. I don't.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah, yeah. It's a term that is used when you have a sniper rifle and you fire on your opponent without having to look through the scope because you're just that good. You no scope them. Yeah, but.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, no scope. The record from Crushed is out September 26th. The first full release day after fall officially starts September 26th. Sheldon, what else do you got for us today?

[Sheldon Pierce]

The Welsh producer and indie polymath Kate Laban has a new record coming out. It's called Michelangelo Dying. That's a very dramatic title. And the song I want to play is called Is It Worth It? Happy Birthday.

[Guest Vocalist or Singer]

Come up in the house, Dress the whole. It's a holiday, It's a birthday. Is it worth it? Is it worth it? Happy Birthday, too.

[Hazel Sills]

Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

I'm curious to hear more what you think about this album and this song and everything. Sheldon, there are other songs that I like more than this one, but I read that this one is sort of the centerpiece of the album, so I figured maybe we should go with it.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah. This song is sort of the centerpiece of this record. And, you know, it has. The record honestly has a lot of backstory. All of it is very interesting, but personally, I think it's far more moving to go into this record blindly and just sort of live in it a little bit. I Feel like I'm being subsumed in this album when I listen to it. When I hit play. There's something almost like shimmer and amorphous about her guitar tone on a lot of these songs. Something sort of, like, smeared about the vocals. All of it is, like, disembodied a little bit. And I think that is really what drew me to this more than its story, per se.

[Hazel Sills]

Yeah, there's something really psychedelic about this music to me, and, like, to the point about the album title being kind of dramatic. There is such drama to the music on this album. And I feel like her music has just gotten so much richer and more complicated and complex as she's grown as an artist and a producer. And I hear that so much on this album. I hear someone who is using the studio to the fullest extent and really blowing up their sound in this very grandiose way.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah, that's why I'm like, the story of the record, it's, While beautiful and fascinating, is, like, not the draw here, in my opinion. You listen to this record and you're like, wow, Kate can really produce a record.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, what is the elevator pitch of the story of this record? I mean, I know broadly it's about love and lost in that she was sort of reluctant to do it.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah, it was kind of a process of turning herself inside out. Started as a bit of a love story. Ended up in a different place.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, I thought the fact that she was kind of reluctant to go in some of these directions was interesting because I feel like it comes through in the music that. That reticence, like, it. It sounds. When I listen to these songs and try to make sense of the lyrics, it sounds like she's almost writing around whatever it is that she is on her mind instead of, like, coming right at it.

[Sheldon Pierce]

That's kind of what I was getting at with the esoteric of it. It's like there is. There's not a lot of, like, what you would think of as, like, penetrating writing, I would say, across this album, or, like, not a lot of directness in terms of what she was. Is facing.

[Robin Hilton]

So, Kate Le Bon Michelangelo dying that out on September 26th. I think I'm gonna go next to S. Carrie. He's got a new one coming out. You know, I don't know where you all fall on the whole Bon Iver universe. Are you, like, you fans?

[Hazel Sills]

I'm not. Not a fan. I'm just like. I'm not deep.

[Sheldon Pierce]

That was not a ringing endorsement, I will say.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, I mean, he' just not deep.

[Hazel Sills]

In the Bon Iver unit. Like, I didn't really know that much about S. Carrey's work. Like, I'm not deep in the Bon Ivery universe.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, because. So S. Cary's done a lot with Bonaver, been the drummer in the band. But S. Cary has put out a lot of his own solo stuff. He's been doing that for, like, a good 15 years or so now. And for me, personally, I feel like he's kind of eclipsed Bonaver.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Interesting. I feel like I listened to this and I know why you. So we say that, though.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, I mean, I. I appreciate all the different ways that Justin Vernon has pushed and stretched his sound and taken chances. It hasn't always landed for me.

[Sheldon Pierce]

I mean, but. And this is also, like, right in your.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, this is like. I mean, maybe as scary stuff as he's been, I think he's been more consistently great, at least for what I'm wanting to hear, anyway. This new episode, it's not a full length album. An EP from Escarry is called Watercress and this is the title cut.

[Guest Vocalist or Singer]

Sun kissed tangerine sky that helps you grieve in a field it's early fall Once in a lifetime Once in my baby's eyes in these limestone lullabies Try and fix you.

[Robin Hilton]

I don't know. I mean, I think this is really beautiful. It's.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Oh, I'm with you.

[Robin Hilton]

I mean, it's so perfectly produced and arranged. I love his voice. I don't know. What do you think?

[Sheldon Pierce]

I mean, I do think the vocals, they're. They're kind of like Carrie and Lowell coded to me. That's why I'm like.

[Hazel Sills]

I did get that.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Like, this is right in Robin's wheelhouse. Right away, I hit. Hit play on this and I said, robin. He goes for this. And, like, to be fair, it's awesome. Like, I. I love that too.

[Robin Hilton]

All right.

[Sheldon Pierce]

I do think in comparison to Bon Iver and the stuff that Justin Vernon has, Justin Vernon is moving in much weirder directions.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, he's moved away over the.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Over the last. He's done over the last, what, like, seven years? Probably.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, it's been a while.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah. He has been in this space in. In many years. But I do love, like, you could almost take it as ambient in a different sense. Like there. There is.

[Robin Hilton]

Because it's wallpaper for you.

[Sheldon Pierce]

No, no, I think in terms of there being an almost like, incorporeal sense to a translucence to it. I feel like I can, like, almost see through it. Like that is kind of the quality of is in the room here with me, but I'm not sure I could reach out and touch it is the energy that it has given me and I like that kind of thing.

[Hazel Sills]

It's interesting because I don't know if I feel like I hear translucence to me. Like, if anything, I feel like this song is very grounding to me. Like, and maybe it's because I was listening to the lyrics a lot and, you know, it's clearly so inspired by the natural world and it has this real, you know, kind of simplicity to its imagery. And there's also like a sense of hope as well in it. You know, there's that line like, don't be in your head. Which is also why I thought Robin might connect with this song more than just the way that it sounds.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, I don't know, it makes me think a little bit about the pros and cons of staying in your lane as an artist versus mixing things up. I mean, S Cary definitely has stayed in his lane over the years way more than Bon Iver has. And sometimes I just want that. I just want a straight up singer songwriter with an acoustic guitar making beautiful sounds, lighting me up with their words.

[Sheldon Pierce]

I've been there. And also it's like some artists don't feel like the need to reach beyond that and that should be fine too.

[Robin Hilton]

So escarry watercress that EP is out on October 3rd.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Indeed. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. Indeed's sponsored jobs helps you stand out. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com so terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need.

This message comes from Grammarly. From emails to reports and project proposals, it's hard to meet the demands of today's competing priorities without some help. Grammarly is the essential AI communication assistant that boosts your productivity at work so you can get more of what you need done faster. Just a few clicks can tailor your tone and writing so you come across exactly as you intend. Get time back to focus on your high impact work. Download Grammarly for [e-mail] podcast that's Grammarly.com.

[Robin Hilton]

Podcast all right, we've got the weekly reset coming up at the end of the show. I know we all have one more thing that we want to play. But we should maybe mention some of the other stuff that's coming out that we're not going to get to play. There is a bunch of it. Some of the stuff we've already featured on the show this year when the albums were first announced. I'll just mention some of them. Jeff Tweedy's triple album Twilight override, that's coming September 26th. Patrick Watson's oh, also September 26th. We got the Florence and the Machine album coming out. That's a big one this year. Everybody scream. That's October 31st. Oh, and Matty Diaz. Matty Diaz had one of my favorite albums last year called Weird Faith. Already back with a follow up called Fatal Optimus that is coming October 10th.

[Hazel Sills]

There are so many other albums I could have shouted out and played on. Well, I'm gonna shout them out right now. Let me say that again.

[Robin Hilton]

Just say it.

[Hazel Sills]

Yeah. There's an album coming out October 24th by the Electronic artist Octo Octa that I'm really excited about called Sigils for Survival. There is an album from this Copenhagen based band called Halo that's coming out September 19th called musicality. And then the rock Ban Bar Italia is putting out an album called Some Like It Hot that comes out October 17th. And everything I've heard from it is just like they are trying to be a capital R rock band and I'm very excited for that.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, I knew you were pretty hot on that band.

[Sheldon Pierce]

We played JSOM on a Contenders episode. The record Belong is out October 10th. That same day there's a new record out from the R and B singer Amber Mark. It's called Pretty Idea. The post punk comedy band Just Mustard has an album coming out, it's called We Were Just Here that is out October 24th. And the drummer and composer Micaiah McRaven has a series of EPs coming out. I think there's four of them. They're at October 31st.

[Robin Hilton]

There's a whole bunch of like anniversary albums coming out this fall. Patti Smith's horses, 50th anniversary edition of that coming October 10th, and the 50th anniversary edition of Tom Waits Nighthawks at the Diner that is coming October 24th. But we all have one more thing that we want to play.

[Hazel Sills]

Hazel, Robyn, you mentioned this, I think at the beginning of the show, but Emily Sprague has a new album coming out in October. It's called Cloud Time. I feel like a lot of people probably know Emily as the lead singer of the band Florist but she also makes ambient, kind of synthesis driven work under her own name, all of which I've really loved. And this album sounds like it's going to be no different. And I wanted to play a song off of it called Tokyo 1.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, I think everything that I said about Clara Rousey you could say about Emily Sprague, too. Like, just so much color and character and, I don't know, like, I keep coming back to the word humanity, just like this. Like a humanness in these. These otherwise, I guess, pretty digital artificial landscapes that she sort of imagines and builds up.

[Sheldon Pierce]

There's significantly less movement here, or at least the movement is far more gradual. And it really kind of does feel like hovering over a city, taking in its splendor. Like, there's this sense that you're like, astral projecting in a way.

[Hazel Sills]

She recorded these songs, you know, she performed them, she was improvising them, you know, when she was on tour in Japan and. And, you know, kind of just captured the music on stage and was really, you know, responding to the energy in the room as she was making this music. And there's something very sweeping and enveloping about this music. I feel like the last few Emily Sprague releases, there was kind of an element of, like, quirkiness or like, surprise that I don't hear here. But it's like a. It's a completely different experience. And I feel like almost like a wash in this music where I haven't really felt that way with her music.

[Robin Hilton]

In the past, but still has me locked in, you know, that's what I'm saying. Like, the similarities to Claire Rousey is that it's pretty drifty, but I don't know, it's still. It's not losing me. I'm not forgetting that I'm listening to it, you know. So Emily Sprague, the album Cloud Time. Emily Sprague having a good year, too. The florist record, Jelly Wish. You're a big florist fan.

[Sheldon Pierce]

I brought Jellywish to the.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, that was back in April.

[Sheldon Pierce]

And like, I mean, the next thing I want to bring is sort of in the florist vein. It's the folk singer songwriter Helen Ballantyne, who performs as Skullcrusher. Not a very folk name, but. But she's got a new record and it's called and you'd song is like a circle. I want to hear Exhale.

[Guest Vocalist or Singer]

Come, Sam.

[Robin Hilton]

Can I be honest?

[Sheldon Pierce]

Sure.

[Robin Hilton]

I don't think I knew what Skull Crusher is. I think I heard Skull Crusher. And I immediately thought of the Yule song Skull Crusher, which sounds more like what you would think it would sound like based on the name.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

And so I thought, oh, oh, great, we're gonna play Skullcrusher. It'd be good to get a little. Get some noise in there, kind of rock out a little bit. And then I heard this, and I thought, okay, I'm clearly completely off track here with Skull Crusher. I mean, this is gorgeous. I love it.

[Sheldon Pierce]

But, I mean, there is something about this release that sounds like it can be even more beat driven. I feel like there are, like, more dynamic shifts across this record. In particular, more variation than you usually get on a whispery folk album. The shifts can be, like, very subtle, but they're there. The songs, to me, sound sort of like an old manor house that's haunted by a young ghost. And she's lost and yearning, but not malevolent. And she's also got great taste.

[Robin Hilton]

Wow, that's so specific. You really thought that through. You've got the whole narrative there.

[Sheldon Pierce]

The vocals sort of like wafting around in the background, really make for such an ethereal experience, coming to a theater.

[Hazel Sills]

Well, Sheldon just explained probably why this is going to be one of my favorite albums of the year. I. I can't even tell you how many times I've listened to Exhale in particular. I. I think it is so insanely beautiful, and it just builds in this intense way. I mean, yeah, you see, you read the word Skull Crusher and you're like, well, this is like folk. Whatever. This song crushes me like this. There is a depth and a darkness to this song and to her music. Like, I think of Helen Ballantyne as being, like, you know, kind of in the same lineage as, like, Grouper or, like, Julia Holter. There's an intensity here.

[Robin Hilton]

So that album from Skullcrusher and you'd song is like a Circle, is out on October 17th. That is a very busy release day. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff coming out that day, including the one that I want to play. And we can wrap the show up after this one from Sylvana Estrada, singer, songwriter from Mexico. She's got this new album called, called Vendran Suaves Juvias. There Will Come Soft Rains. Every track I've heard from this album has just been so lovely. The one I want to play is.

[Guest Vocalist or Singer]

Called Note Vayes Sin Saberamu Stalvi.

[Robin Hilton]

We've talked about the perfect Sunday morning album on the show. We've talked about music to calm the nerves. I think this album is both of those things, wouldn't you say?

[Hazel Sills]

Yeah. There's a lightness to it that I was actually kind of surprised by.

[Robin Hilton]

How so?

[Hazel Sills]

Because. So Sylvana Estrada put out her first album, Marchida, in 2022, and it was such an intense record. She really sang with this full throated vocals and there was so much rage and sadness on that album. And even though she was like using her quattro, which is like a Venezuelan small guitar, and it was so beautiful. But I feel like this album, her sound is much smoother and lighter and like I hear a new side of her in this music.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah, this, I mean, this record to me feels just a little bit more like radiant than Marchita. Like there is like a brightness, a blooming list to it that that record didn't have.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, I mean, she said I I mean, apparently she's went through quite a bit in the years leading up to making this record. Like she had some bad spinal injury. A friend of hers was killed, which is like, I mean, God, I can't even imagine. And she said that she just wanted to sort of seek out and find a softness and a sweetness in the world again. I think she found it.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Yeah.

[Hazel Sills]

Yes.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, this whole album is really, really gorgeous From Silvana Estrada, Vendran Suaves juvias Again, that is out October 17th. Tons more that we could mention. Of course. We'll put a more complete list of what's coming out this fall up on our site, npr.org allsongs but we'll go out on this. Hazel Sills, Sheldon Pierce, thanks as always, for the hang.

[Hazel Sills]

Thank you.

[Sheldon Pierce]

Always a great time.

[Robin Hilton]

And for NPR Music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's All SONGS Considered.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Shopify, the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all E commerce in the US get started with your own design studio. Sign up for your $1 per month [e-mail] NPR this message comes from Warby Parker.

What makes a great pair of glasses At Warby Parker, it's all the invisible extras without the extra cost, like free adjustments for life. Find your [e-mail] or visit one of their hundreds of stores around the country. This message comes from Bombas. Nearly 30% of marathoners end their race blistered Bombus running socks are strategically cushioned to help. Say bye to blisters. Run to bombus.com NPR and use code NPR for 20% off your first purchase.