New Music Friday: The best albums out Feb. 21 : All Songs Considered
Sam Fender. The Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood. The newcomer Jesse Welles. NPR Music's Stephen Thompson discussed this week's new albums with country star Kathy Mattea, who hosts NPR's weekly show 'Mountain Stage.'Featured albums:• Sam Fender, 'People Watching'• Patterson Hood (of The Drive-By Truckers), Exploding Trees & Airplane Scream• Jesse Welles, 'Middle'• Sunny War, 'Armageddon In A Summer Dress'• Saya Gray, 'SAYA'Check out the long list of albums out Feb. 21 and stream our New Music Friday playlist at npr.org/music.Credits:• Host: Stephen Thompson• Guest: Kathy Mattea, Mountain Stage• Producer: Simon Rentner• Editor: Otis Hart• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed• Vice President, Music and Visuals: Keith Jenkins
New Music Friday: Nao, Jesse Welles, Sam Fender : All Songs ConsideredSam Fender. The Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood. The newcomer Jesse Welles. NPR Music's Stephen Thompson discussed this week's new albums with country star Kathy Mattea, who hosts NPR's weekly show 'Mountain Stage.'
Featured albums:
• Sam Fender, 'People Watching'
• Patterson Hood (of The Drive-By Truckers), Exploding Trees & Airplane Scream
• Jesse Welles, 'Middle'
• Sunny War, 'Armageddon In A Summer Dress'
• Saya Gray, 'SAYA'
Check out the long list of albums out Feb. 21 and stream our New Music Friday playlist at npr.org/music.
Credits:
• Host: Stephen Thompson
• Guest: Kathy Mattea, Mountain Stage
• Producer: Simon Rentner
• Editor: Otis Hart
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Vice President, Music and Visuals: Keith Jenkins
It's Friday, which means dozens of albums hit streaming services while you were snoozing last night. To help you make sense of the week's new releases, NPR Music's Stephen Thompson and country music star Kathy Mattea — who also happens to host the long-running NPR radio program Mountain Stage — summarize the best New Music Friday has to offer. (Mountain Stage airs on almost 300 stations across the country, so look for it on your local NPR station.)
The Starting Five
Sam Fender. Polydor/UMG
toggle captionPolydor/UMG
Stephen and Kathy give you the backstory and best songs on the following albums:
Sam Fender, People Watching
Patterson Hood (of The Drive-By Truckers), Exploding Trees & Airplane Scream
Jesse Welles, Middle
Sunny War, Armageddon In A Summer Dress
Saya Gray, SAYA
Hear the discussion on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Lightning Round
Tate McRae. Charlie Denis/RCA
toggle captionCharlie Denis/RCA
Five more albums we just had to mention:
Tate McRae, So Close To What
Cristina Vane, Hear My Call
Youth Lagoon, Rarely Do I Dream
Paul Thorn, Life is Just a Vapor
Nao, Jupiter
The Long List
Here's an exhaustive list of new albums out on Feb. 21, organized by genre:
Country/Folk/Americana
Jim Ghedi, Wasteland
Hannah McFarland, Broken Hearts
Bill Medley (of The Righteous Brothers), Straight from the Heart
Chase Matthew, CHASE
Kameron Marlowe, Sad Songs for the Soul
Liam Grant, Prodigal Son
Mike Gangloff, April is Passing
Souled American, Rise Above It: A Souled American Anthology
The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, Honeysuckle
Pop
Imagine Dragons, Reflections (From the Vault of Smoke + Mirrors)
Mike Posner, The Beginning
Isabel Pless, Workhorse
Rock/Alt/Indie
Anxious, Bambi
Basia Bulat, Basia's Place
Baths, Gut
Califone, The Villager's Companion
Chalk, Conditions III EP
David Lee Roth, The Warner Recordings (1985-1994)
Ffa Coffi Pawb, Dalec Peilon
IDER, Late to the World
Luke Sital-Singh, Fool's Spring
Maruja, Tir na nÓg
Pretty Lightning, Night Wobble
Porridge Radio, The Machine Starts To Sing EP
Puma Blue, antichamber
Q Lazzarus, Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus (Music From The Motion Picture)
Ray Bull, Little Acts Of Violence
Silverstein, Antibloom
SPY, Seen Enough
The Limiñanas, Faded
The Murder Capital, Blindness
Trupa Trupa, Mourners EP
Rap/Hip-Hop
BlocBoy JB, The Purple M&M 2
Blockhead, It's Only A Midlife Crisis If Your Life Is Mid EP
Dave East & Ransom, The Final Call
Smif-N-Wessun, Infinity
R&B/Soul
SAINt JHN, FESTIVAL SEASON
Jazz
Jon Irabagon, Server Farm
Electronic/Out There
Masma Dream World, PLEASE COME TO ME
Amulets, Not Around But Through
Apta, The Pool
Bianca Oblivion, Net Work EP
Cici Arthur, Way Through
Colin Self, respite ∞ levity for the nameless ghost in crisis
Ikue Mori, Of Ghosts and Goblins
Jules Reidy, Ghost Spirit
Keiichiro Shibuya, Android Opera Mirror
Laurie Torres, Aprés coup
Mandrake Handshake, Earth Sized Worlds
Motorpsycho, Motorpsycho
Nina Garcia, Bye Bye Bird
Oren Ambarchi & Eric Thielemans, Kind Regards
Rafiq Bhatia, Each Dream, A Melting Door EP
Ralph Heidel, anyways.onto better things
Tim Hecker, Shards
TSHA, Sad Girl Remixes
Wrong Way Up, Totally Right
Credits
• Host: Stephen Thompson• Guest: Kathy Mattea, Mountain Stage• Producer: Simon Rentner• Editor: Otis Hart• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed• Vice President, Music and Visuals: Keith Jenkins