transcript

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Speaker 1:
[00:32] Happy Friday everyone from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with DJ Llu from Vermont Public in Colchester, Vermont. Welcome to the show, Llu.

Speaker 5:
[00:43] Thanks so much, Stephen. I'm really excited to be here.

Speaker 1:
[00:45] Well, I am really excited to have you and you can probably tell based on this release week, why we might have asked somebody from Vermont Public to be on this show.

Speaker 5:
[00:56] Indeed, there's this guy Noah from Southern Vermont that somebody somewhere heard once and now he's a thing.

Speaker 1:
[01:05] Yeah. It's Noah Conde.

Speaker 5:
[01:06] Yeah. It's really exciting to hear this new album. I think people are really going to have a cathartic release listening to this. It's a good one.

Speaker 1:
[01:13] It is a good one and we're going to get to it in just a moment. But we were just talking off mic about, there's something about, Llu, maybe you can speak to this, you live in Vermont, I'm from Wisconsin. There's something about the music that can only come from Northern men with feelings.

Speaker 5:
[01:29] You know, we have a lot of time on our hands for a long time of the year, aka winter stick season. You have a lot of time to reflect, you have a lot of time to get into your feels, and if you have a guitar nearby, what better thing than to start writing songs during to pass the dark times?

Speaker 1:
[01:44] Absolutely. Well, let's hear a little bit of it. Noah Kahan's new album is called The Great Divide. So Noah Kahan has been rattling around for the better part of a decade now. This is actually his fourth album, and first since Stick Season, his huge 2022 breakthrough that really put him all over the map. I should plug here that he just performed his first ever Tiny Desk Concert. We published that a few days ago. He also is helping us kick off our new TikTok feed. I'm sure everyone listening is glued to TikTok at all times. They can search for NPR music and see not only clips from Noah Kahan's Tiny Desk Concert, but some of the behind the scenes stuff that we recorded in the office with him and his delightful band. Llu, I am such a sucker for this guy. I think he is such an incisive lyricist. His music manages to convey so much empathy and warmth and reflection. If you are somebody who likes to listen to music while contemplating your desire to be a better person, Noah Kahan makes music for you.

Speaker 5:
[04:19] Here's the thing, I totally agree with you. So I'm a band geek living in a chorus kid's world. Everybody is always about the lyrics and I'm always about the music. So what I really like about Noah Kahan is that he's able to make an anthem sound with really good lyrics to back it up. You don't always get those two things together in the same musical experience. Sometimes you have a really good songwriter, sometimes you have a really good musician. When you bring those two things together, that's where the magic happens. And I think Noah has found that sound in this album. You are exploring what it's like to be in the Great Divide, right? Of being away from home, famous, trying to come back home, and then that interpersonal experience of that happening too on that personal level. So it does make you really reflect on where you are at any point in your life because this is such a universal experience of both having, wanting to be part of something and being not part of it anymore. You know, this tug that happens.

Speaker 1:
[05:24] You know, one of the singles from this record that kind of came out in the run up to it is called Porchlight. And I remember hearing the song for the first time, and I've probably listened to this song 50 times since it was released as a single. And, you know, now this conversation, I'm a big Noah Kahan fan. I listen to it every time I'm in the car. And my reaction to the song initially, I had this, I was like, wow, this is really scathing. This is really, this is this really cutting look at, you know, somebody who's, you know, who's clearly going through struggles and is clearly, you know, really selfish and has put this, this huge burden on the person singing the song. I wonder who Noah Kahan's singing about. And then you realize he's singing it from the perspective of his own mother about him. One, that's just a really smart songwriting conceit, but two, it establishes my favorite thing about great lyrics. You know, you're a band person. Maybe I'm a little more of a lyrics person. But the way that that song manages to just convey so much empathy and so much reflection and humility, I just can't get enough of that. And that mentality towards songwriting just pervades this record. This is somebody who has thought a lot, not only about his own life, gazing at his own navel, but thinking about his relationships and where he fit into them and where he could have been better within them.

Speaker 5:
[07:14] Yeah, and how other people perceive him, right? So I'm so glad you said that about the lyrics, because if you give this as a first listen to and you think it's just from Noah's perspective, you're gonna be confused or you're not gonna quite get it. But if you spend some time with a few of these songs, actually, and you realize who he's singing to or who he's singing about or where he's singing from even, it's a really wildly different listen. There's a poison of presence in each of the songs and he's doing right, I think, by the experience and he's not shying away from it. And through doing that, I'm hoping he's finding that cathartic release.

Speaker 1:
[07:50] Yeah. And I mean, you talk about cathartic release. I mean, one thing about Noah Kahan, he has developed a very, very powerful live show, deep connection with his fans. I got to see him at All Things Go, this fantastic music festival in DC last fall. And just seeing family, parents with their kids and all wearing Noah Kahan t-shirts and that kind of communal experience. And you hear a song like Dashboard. And my immediate reaction to that song was like, people are going to be shouting along with that song at Noah Kahan concerts for the remainder of his career.

Speaker 5:
[08:59] Well, and he said that when he was recording this album, he was recording it with the live show in mind. He wanted this to have that feel, and the way he is on that stage is the way he is here in Vermont, too. He's come back home to do a number of shows, and if you see him live here, that's the vibe. We are all barefoot in the field, dancing outside to Noah Kahan across generations, and again, because of that music component, his upbeat music, it doesn't matter that the lyrics were a little bit of a downer. We're all just there together, having this collective moment, this awe that happens with live music, and Noah's really good at it. The stage presence, his humor, it's something different than just a listened experience about recorded music. He is a live guy. That's, I think, where he's at his best.

Speaker 1:
[09:48] That is Noah Kahan, his new album is called The Great Divide. Next up, Kehlani. Kehlani's new album is self-titled, which is to say, it's called Kehlani.

Speaker 5:
[10:57] So, it's been two years since the last record, I believe, and it's a substantial record. It's 17 tracks, so this is giving us the full freight of beautiful R&B tracks. She's got some great guests on the album this time around. I mean, there's Usher, there's Missy Elliott, there's Brandy on here, and it takes me, at least, right back to the 90s classic R&B vibes, which, as a 90s kid, I am really enjoying the moment that we're in where you're either paying homage to it or you're quite literally bringing the 90s back with it. Kehlani has also really stepped into their voice and into their lived experience in these tracks and singing through the experience of being a queer person unabashedly out and what that is like for someone in her R&B industry. This is not actually, I think, something that I hear often in this kind of music. So it made it an extra fun listen for me as a queer person to hear, again, this throwback to the 90s, which was not a time that anybody was out. We're talking a lot about angst in music, and R&B is angst music too, but it's sexy in some kind of way.

Speaker 1:
[12:03] Absolutely. I've loved to see the story of their rise over the course of the last 15 years that Kehlani has been floating around in this business. This record in many ways feels a little bit like a victory lap. Last summer, they released a song called Folded. That song slowly but surely crept up the Billboard charts, eventually became their first ever top 10 hit. It is still in the top 10 almost a full year later. And to me, that song is such a beautiful, kind of stylish, sleek, subtly effervescent song with this hook that slithers under your skin in such a great way. And then you hear this record, which evokes some of those same vibes. You have songs that are kind of playing with some of that same formula, but then you talk about throwbacks. You know, the song No Such Thing, you know, features Clips, and it's taking you right back to the early aughts. You know, Clips just had a big comeback record last year, but you know that their presence on this record is the product of a life of fandom.

Speaker 5:
[13:26] When you have people guest on a track, I feel like it's the musical version of blurbing, you know, like how authors do it.

Speaker 1:
[13:32] Sure.

Speaker 5:
[13:32] I think it's a way that helps people pay attention to the album in a whole other way. If you haven't heard of Kehlani, maybe this is your first time, it's like, it gives you that extra cred, like, hey, Usher's on this, Brandy's on this, Missy's on this. It's an exciting way to kind of cross-reference that I really appreciate when people do that for each other.

Speaker 1:
[13:49] It absolutely is like blurbing and it absolutely is co-signing. I also always say about Gateways that Gateways go both ways. Kehlani is currently in the top 10, Kehlani is very current, has a great single, played to Tiny Desk within the last two, three years. There are definitely audiences that are familiar with Kehlani, but when they hear a song like Back and Forth, that may be their introduction to Missy Elliott. I love the way that this record moves around the continuum of pop, R&B and hip-hop of the last 35 years. Kehlani, Kehlani's new album is self-titled. We've got some more records we're gonna talk about in depth this week, but first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with DJ Llu from Vermont Public. Llu, tell us what's going on at the station.

Speaker 5:
[15:14] Yeah, Vermont Public has a lot going on. We are both the public radio station for the entire state of Vermont, and we are the PBS affiliate, so the public television station for all of Vermont. A handful of years ago, those organizations came together and merged, and now we're able to do this really great synergy of TV, and web, and radio, and podcast, and be a one-stop shop for Vermont to get their news, and views, and locally curated content, and that's where music comes into it. We've got a couple of great local hosts here who do shows that are jazz or folk, and then we've got the new music show, which is what I do, and another music discovery show that's like, you might probably miss this, let's do a deep dive into music. And so we're really calling in Vermont to take a break from the headlines and listen to some music and just discover something new, which is a fun way to do it. So yeah, that's Vermont Public in a nutshell. Lots of great podcasts as well. If people want to listen more nationally, there's a really nerdy one for kids called But Why, and then there's a very great storytelling one. If you really want to hear the stories of Vermont and what it's like to live here, listen to Rumble Strip. That's another great podcast that comes out of here. So yeah, it's a great small but mighty public radio station.

Speaker 1:
[16:29] Nice. And you can find that at vermontpublic.org?

Speaker 5:
[16:32] Yep.

Speaker 1:
[16:32] That was just a guess. I love it when I can guess.

Speaker 5:
[16:35] We keep it simple here.

Speaker 1:
[16:36] Exactly. Excellent. All right, well, let's move on with the show. New album from Metric. It's called Romanticize The Dive. So, Metric, great Canadian band, been around for a really long time. Now, formed in 1998, their first album came out in 2003, and I've been a fan probably dating back maybe to that record. I feel like I've loved this band longer than I've been alive. Singer Emily Haynes, such a distinct, knowing voice. She put out this incredible solo record like 20 years ago. It's so great to have this band back, and this is their 10th album full of kind of hard-charging synth pop, synth rock, electro pop, all just kind of swirling together with these lyrics that just feel extremely lived in.

Speaker 5:
[18:23] You know, Stephen, we're kind of cut from the same cloth. We're pretty close, I think, in age here. So Metric was also one of those bands where it was like my alt rock origin band, you know, like being introduced to it. Again, the proximity of Vermont to Canada, it's like any Canadian band, it just gets on your radar pretty much automatically because you get a chance to go see them in the big city of Montreal when they're touring and playing and at the time playing small venues. So one of those first Metric albums, I remember going up to Montreal to see them. It was just like, I'm at a rock show and I feel like I'm having a very fun experience in just a crowd that is like smushed all together. And I had that feeling listening to this album again because part of what I love about this is that they are unapologetically going back to that sound. They really want to kind of replug in with almost their origin story over these years. And they never went away. I mean, they are one of those hardest working bands in the room that just like have stayed together, have continued to make album after album. We've been talking about being nostalgic and going back to the 90s. And so like I just, I love it when a band just goes back to something that they did really well and are doing it with much more kind of like poise and-

Speaker 1:
[19:31] Lived experience.

Speaker 5:
[19:32] Yeah, lived experience. Exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[19:33] And hearing this record, they just still sound, you know, at the top of their game. You get a song like Crush Forever, which the arrangement kind of recalls like that dark, propulsive quality of Depeche Mode. But then there's this synth line and Emily Haines' voice have this way of leavening it at the same time. And then you've got Time Is A Bomb. You know, at first, the lyrics are like, I am always up, I am always down, you know, and it's kind of about romantic availability. But then there's this ambivalence that comes in amid the catchy, you know, it's so catchy and it's so melancholy at the same time. And that's something that Metric has always done so well, that they do so well throughout this record.

Speaker 5:
[21:00] It's another one of those bands that just make you feel something when you're listening. You know who you're listening to, and you know how you want to be feeling when you're listening to a Metric album.

Speaker 1:
[21:09] Yeah. And that feeling is sad at the club.

Speaker 5:
[21:12] Yeah. Packing sardines with everybody else. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[21:17] Exactly. And I love that this record ends with a song called Leave You On A High, which is so appropriately titled because this record is just wall-to-wall bangers, and that last track on the record just really sends you right back to track one. You just want to listen to it again. That is METRIC. METRIC's new album is called Romanticize the Dive. Next up, Gia Margaret. Gia Margaret's new album is called Singing.

Speaker 5:
[22:38] So what I love about Gia's story is that this has been six years in the making for this particular album called Singing. And it's titled this because she had a vocal injury that took her out of being able to really sing anything. So she became an instrumentalist and changed her trajectory for a little bit. In fact, I discovered Gia Margaret and I thought she was just an instrumentalist a handful of years ago. And so for me, like I picked up this story and I was like, oh my gosh, I love a comeback. I am here for these storylines. And like with all these other albums, it's telling the story of what it's like to find your voice again literally and figuratively. And that first track on the album, Everyone Around Me Dancing, it's this moment where you can hear in the story of that song. Everybody's preferably singing around her, dancing around her, doing this thing around her while she is right here trying to figure out like how is she going to actually be able to do this thing? Is she going to participate in the dancing or be able to sing again? And it's about re-grounding herself. I just, I thought that song and so many others were just really thoughtful about what happens when the thing that you're here to do, use your voice and sing and be a singer, you can no longer do for, I don't think she knew how long it was going to take to recover.

Speaker 1:
[24:15] I first heard her kind of around the time she was putting out her debut album There's Always Glimmer, you know, and I saw her at SXSW and kind of picked her as part of our SXSW preview and found her to be this very, very intriguing voice. You know, her stuff is haunting and she's got this dusky, beautiful voice. And then, you know, like kind of checking in with her since, you know, I was like, why? Why would, like I didn't necessarily even know her story, you know, when she was kind of turning to more instrumental music. And then you have this record which brings those two sides together and turning the fear and crisis of losing her voice and turning that into a strength. That's a really powerful story. And I just think this record so like deepens and expands her sound. I think it's the best work she's done. I think she has so clearly, you know, she's learned how to make these kind of ambient soundscapes that are so beautiful and enveloping and welcoming and she still has, you know, now she has reclaimed that beautiful, beautiful voice. There's a track, Alive Inside, that is just an exquisite song. It's kind of the arrangement around her is sort of warped and askew but magical at the same time. And I just, I'm so happy that she was able to reclaim every aspect of her music and kind of bring them all together in such a compelling way.

Speaker 5:
[26:30] And I also have to say, there's another track on here, Good Friend, that has an upbeat feel to it. So it's like, even from such a tough experience, it isn't all just the doldrums of that. It isn't just how heavy that was. It's like, there's still an upbeat, poppy couple of tracks in here that are hopeful, right? That are about friendship and reconnecting, and it made it stand out for me this week.

Speaker 1:
[27:11] And we talked about, with the Kehlani record, the cosigns of great guests. And there are some great guests here cosigning her. I mean, boy, just so Stephen-coded. You know, these are just some of my favorites. David Bazan from Pedro the Lion, Amy Millan from Stars, Kurt Weill, S. Carey, Deb Talon from the Weebies, which is just like one of my favorite bands. And, you know, Deb Talon kind of comes in with her in the song, Emotion, which closes the record. And like, oh boy, you're just bringing together two voices that have given me so much comfort with this sonic palette that is so much more expansive. Hook it to my veins. That is Gia Margaret. Her new album is called Singing. Very highly recommended. We've got one more record we want to talk about in depth, as well as a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today, April 24th. But first, let's take a quick break. From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with DJ Llu from Vermont Public. Before we get to our lightning round of some of the other great albums out today, April 24th, we want to talk about one more record. It's by Season 2. It's called Power of Now.

Speaker 5:
[29:54] So Stephen, I picked Season of Two because they stood out very clearly from the rest of the lineup. Just a stripped down, fresh, different kind of sound. This Melbourne-based indie pop band. It's also a band that's like a little mini Frankenstein of other bands in Australia, like Parsnip and a few others. And this is their debut album. So this is like, we're coming at you with what we got. There's five of them in this band. And what I love about it is that it's like, what genre are you guys? Are you Shimmer Pop? Are you Post Punk? Yeah. Is it like, are we like Shimmer Post? Is that like Shimmer Punky? I always have this running gag about like, you can just pick your genres these days and we'll believe you. You're mushing it together and if you can pull it off, then congratulations, you've started a new genre. So we'll see it with this new Shimmer Punk that's coming out of Melbourne. It's kind of a band that I think is like you show up early for the show that you're going to see and you're like, I'm so glad I came for the opener. That's the vibe I get from season two.

Speaker 1:
[30:59] Yeah. I mean, this is their debut album. The band only formed a year and a half ago. So that can sometimes be like, oh, the sound isn't fully formed, but it absolutely is. It just feels like that youth just infuses these songs with energy. You hear Holiday and I just think, I could have heard this song on a college radio station at any point between 1980 and the present and I would love it. That timeless quality to it doesn't detract from a sense of energy and surprise. And as you said, this genre mix, you take What For, and that song is so salty and sweet at the same time. You got big chunky guitars, but also this cacophonous mix of voices. I just, I heard so much energy from this record, I felt so much energy from this record, and I found my own energy levels increased by this record.

Speaker 5:
[32:45] That's the thing, if you're gonna record in a lo-fi kind of way, you gotta have really good content that is gonna back it up, and I feel like that comes through. The song becomes a dream, has an energy for me, that again, I'm right back in that sweaty crowd bopping around, having a great time, and I don't care that I don't know who this band is, because I'm having my awakening moment with them live at the show, and not that we're in Australia here, but I really hope they come tour the US, because I think they're going to find people eager for that kind of experience, like that kind of stripped down, gritty, I'm here for some shimmer rock and roll punk vibes.

Speaker 1:
[33:43] That song is so spiky and so sparkly at the same time. I also appreciate just listening to this record. There's just not a wasted second on it. You look at like kind of the back half of this record, and there are like four different songs that are between a minute and a half and two minutes long. And those songs get in, they get out, they leave you wanting more, and you just feel like this is a band that knows exactly who they are in this moment. And I also can't wait to hear what they do next. All right, that is season two. Their new album is called Power of Now. Llu, we could not even come close to getting through all the records that we wanted to talk about. This was a very busy and very fruitful release week. So we're gonna do a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today. I'm actually gonna kick us off. There were so many good records to choose from. We're not even getting into on this show the new Foo Fighters record, which is called Your Favorite Toy or Freeco's new album of kind of clattering and crowded indie folk. That's a big Robin Hilton favorite. That album's called Something Worth Waiting For. There's a gorgeous Glenn Hansard live record, Talk About Northern Men of Feelings. That record is called Don't Settle, Volume One, Transmissions East. But I'm gonna, I love a preamble where you get to shout out three different records. Instead, I'm gonna go with Quiet Light. It's a project by a singer and producer from Austin named Rhea Mahesh. The songs just sparkle. They're nostalgic and swoony, dreamy and reflective, but still experimental and unpredictable at the same time. Quiet Light's new mixtape is called Blue Angel Sparkling Silver 2.

Speaker 5:
[36:03] So my lightning round pick, Stephen, is Kiki Cavazos, and this is like troubadour vibes all across the board. So she, at 16, ran away from home, has been drifting between Alaska and Mexico, and has been clearly writing music along the way when it's coming out in this debut album, Goodbye Blues. So it's a little bit, like I said before, making up your own genre, but it's in this folk tradition, indie tradition. She's also been part of a lot of different bands, so this is not necessarily her first go-around as far as being like a musician and making good music, but it's her first time out solo. And yeah, it's just, it's, to me, it really sounded, again, uniquely, something a little bit different. And a life lived on the road is one that's, I always think, worth singing about. Kiki Cavazos' album, Goodbye Blues.

Speaker 1:
[37:07] Well, to round out our lightning round, we're going to turn to several of our beloved NPR music colleagues, starting with Hazel Cills. Hazel Cills, what do you got for us?

Speaker 4:
[37:17] An album out today that I want to shout out is a new release from the Australian artist, Carla dal Forno, and it's titled Confession. Carla dal Forno makes this kind of spooky, minimal synth pop that I have just loved for years. And this is her fourth album, and she describes it as an album about adulthood, an album that sort of reflects her growing sense of self-awareness as she gets older. And it's just a really beautiful captivating release from an artist who I think just keeps getting better and better. That was Confession by Carla dal Forno.

Speaker 1:
[38:13] All right. Next up, the wonderful Ann Powers. Ann Powers, give us your pick.

Speaker 3:
[38:18] My lightning round pick this week is the album, Lost Cause Lover Fool by The Milk Carton Kids. Joey Roberts and Kenneth Pattengale have refocused after a period of expanding and experimenting with their sound. The gentle and pristine songs here that talk about things like parenting and parenting yourself, falling in love and staying that way, questioning where you are but ultimately settling in and going for the ride that you're on. These songs are just perfectly calibrated. I especially love Blue Water. That's the one that's about being a dad, but also realizing you need some self-care too. I love this album, Lost Cause Lover Fool by the Milk Carton Kids.

Speaker 1:
[39:31] And finally, co-host of NPR Music's Alt. Latino, Anamaria Sayre. Anamaria, what do you got?

Speaker 2:
[39:36] Okay, so this is Argentine rapper Trueno's new album, Turr4Zo. Trueno, to me, is one of the most exciting rising rappers in Latin America right now, which is saying a lot about a region that has a rich history of rap excellence. Argentina as a country is most known for being fundamental to rock en español, but he's been really changing the game in terms of putting it on the map for something else it's actually celebrated for, which is underground, not so underground anymore, rap importance. His last album was an homage to rap tradition, and it covered all these kinds of American styles and R&B and roots. This one feels way more rooted in South America and somewhat in the Caribbean. He always loves to incorporate funk, but he goes hardcore on a lot of the more traditional Argentine folkloric sounds. It's honestly, I'm insanely impressed by the way he's able to consistently make something that feels innovative, smart, like it's changing the game. Trueno is one of my favorite artists honestly in general right now, and his youth, and his energy, and his vibe are all things that are really, really exciting.

Speaker 1:
[41:01] And that is our show for this week. Thank you so much DJ Llu for taking time out of your week at Vermont Public.

Speaker 5:
[41:07] Thank you so much Stephen, it's been a blast.

Speaker 1:
[41:09] It has been such a pleasure. 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 Noah Caldwell and Elle Mannion and edited by Otis Hart. Our production assistant is Dora Levite. The executive producer of NPR Music is Suraya Mohamed. We'll be back next week to discuss more new music with Julie Height of WPLN in Nashville. Until then, take a moment to be well, take a good long walk in what is hopefully nice weather, and treat yourself to lots of great music.