Half Japanese, ‘Our Love’
Half Japanese’s video for “Our Love” is a sprawling, energetic celebration of new love. The band’s new album, fittingly titled Overjoyed, is its first in 13 years.
Tag: NPR
Nick Cave: ‘The Creative Process Is An Altered State In Itself’
Cave is the subject of a different kind of rock documentary called 20,000 Days on Earth, which attempts to debunk the creative process for what Cave says it actually is: “just hard labor.”
First Listen: Leonard Cohen, ‘Popular Problems’
Cohen’s 13th album creates a space for slow-moving reflection that expands with each listen. The tarpit-voiced raconteur’s songs unfold like dirty canticles, with room for both jokes and profundities.
First Listen: King Tuff, ‘Black Moon Spell’
On his third album, the D.I.Y. glam-rocker re-brands himself as some sort of demonic teenager. But Black Moon Spell is, at heart, the sound of one guy making sure everyone around him has a good time.
First Listen: Sondre Lerche, ‘Please’
On the Norwegian singer-songwriter’s seventh studio album, the ache and anger of divorce gets re-purposed into a loose, feisty, energetic record that finds Lerche sounding fully recharged.
First Listen: Perfume Genius, ‘Too Bright’
After two solid albums, Too Bright is something shockingly new for Perfume Genius: a set of muscular, magnificently controlled songs that explore darkness inside and out.
First Listen: Tweedy, ‘Sukierae’
The Wilco singer and his 18-year-old son Spencer record a 20-song family-band album together. There’s not much contrivance, not much high-concept, just a dad and his son bashing out tunes.
First Listen: Mapei, ‘Hey Hey’
The rapper turned pop singer’s accessible, soaring voice is propelled by genuine charisma and heart, as she constructs her savvy, sweet pop out of sonically irresistible ingredients.
First Listen: GOAT, ‘Commune’
The Swedish collective makes irresistible trance/dance music that doubles as hypnotic hippie hoodoo. Along the way, GOAT captures the spirit of the ’60s in its guitar meanderings and acid tones.
Mirah, ‘No Direction Home’
Shot in a lighthouse window during a rainstorm, Mirah’s newest video, for the song “No Direction Home,” is a sultry tale of confusion and longing.
Amen Dunes, ‘Splits Are Parted’
The flickering, disjointed images that flash before your eyes in the latest video from Amen Dunes, for the song “Splits Are Parted,” are both beautiful and unnerving.
Justin Townes Earle: Tiny Desk Concert
In advance of his new album Single Mothers, the singer performs two new songs and an old favorite.
First Listen: My Brightest Diamond, ‘This Is My Hand’
Shara Worden’s music sounds both micro-orchestrated and entirely, ecstatically spontaneous. Every song here is a mission statement and a directive; each is propulsive and demanding of full attention.
First Listen: Lowell, ‘We Loved Her Dearly’
The Canadian singer and producer makes user-friendly, irresistible pop music from an expressly feminist perspective. On her first full-length album, she wields many tools to do it.
First Listen: Jason Moran, ‘All Rise: A Joyful Elegy For Fats Waller’
Fats Waller sang, emceed, told jokes, wrote hits, and played mean piano. Decades later, a fellow jazz pianist tries to capture his life-of-the-party spirit with drastically new versions of his tunes.
First Listen: Steelism, ‘615 To FAME’
The debut album by the guitar duo Steelism doesn’t simply tap into all the flavors of country music; it also demonstrates how those flavors blend and complement each other.
First Listen: Lia Ices, ‘Ices’
Ices’ first two albums recalled the work of Cat Power and Tori Amos. But on her third album, the singer-songwriter expands her palette considerably.
First Listen: Moon Hooch, ‘This Is Cave Music’
The New York band, known for its wild performances on subway platforms, abandons its comfort zone in an effort to explore new sounds and recording methods.
First Listen: Karen O, ‘Crush Songs’
The singer’s lo-fi solo debut has the earnest immediacy of Kimya Dawson and the ukulele-driven poignancy of Magnetic Fields. But it’s powered by a subversive, fearlessly revealed rock ‘n’ roll heart.
Ty Segall Rocks Out — Acoustic-Style, And With More Polish
The garage rocker performs stripped-down versions of songs from his new album, Manipulator, and tells NPR’s Arun Rath why the new songs are less rough around the edges than some of his earlier work.