New Music Friday: The best albums out March 7

It’s Friday, which means dozens of new albums, EPs and mixtapes hit streaming services last night. The NPR Music team listened to almost 80 albums to prepare for this week’s New Music Friday, and the two records that stood out the most both came from Nashville, so we had to have Celia Gregory, the incredible morning host at public radio station WNXP, on the podcast.

Celia introduced us to Annie DiRusso, whose Super Pedestrian might be our favorite album of the bunch, and explained the significance of Jason Isbell’s first acoustic solo album.

The Starting Five

ASTROPICAL.

Courtesy of the artist

hide caption

toggle caption

Courtesy of the artist

Stephen and Celia give you the backstory and best songs on the following albums:

• Annie DiRusso, Super Pedestrian (Stream)
• Jason Isbell, Foxes in the Snow (Stream)
• SASAMI, Blood on the Silver Screen (Stream)
• Divorce, Drive To Goldenhammer (Stream)
• ASTROPICAL (Bomba Estéreo + Rawayana), s/t (Stream)

More on ASTROPICAL from NPR’s Isabella Gomez Sarmiento: Bomba Estéreo and Rawayana unite to celebrate lesser-known Caribbean sounds

New Music Friday is a feature of NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast! Hear the discussion on the NPR App, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Lightning Round

JENNIE of BLACKPINK

Columbia Records

hide caption

toggle caption

Columbia Records

Six more albums we wish we had time to discuss on the podcast:

• Lady Gaga, Mayhem
• JENNIE, RUBY
• Vundabar, Surgery and Pleasure
• Bob Mould, Here We Go Crazy
• Swervedriver, The World’s Fair EP
• Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, Fantasie

NPR’s Ann Powers covered Lady Gaga’s latest earlier this week: Pop needs freaks. Thankfully, Lady Gaga is back

Listen to each album’s best songs on our New Music Friday playlists on Spotify and Apple.

The Long List

Icewear Vezzo.

Iced Up

hide caption

toggle caption

Iced Up

For those who want to dig even deeper, here are the week’s new albums sorted by genre:

Rock/Alt/Indie

• Arny Margret, I Miss You, I Do
• Ben Edge, Children of Albion
• Esme Emerson, Applesauce EP
• Franc Moody, Chewing the Fat
• Fust, Big Ugly
• Hamilton Leithauser, This Side Of The Island
• HOUSE Of ALL SOULS, s/t
• HotWax, Hot Shock
• Jad Fair & Samuel Locke, Ward Pure Candy
• Jethro Tull, Curious Ruminant
• Kinski, Stumbledown Terrace
• LAKE, Bucolic
• Marina Zispin, Now You See Me, Now You Don’t
• Michael Cera Palin, We Could Be Brave
• Moreish Idols, All In The Game
• Orchid, The Skull Sessions
• Pale Blue Eyes, New Place
• SIYAHKAL, Days Of Smoke And Ash
• SKLOSS, The Pattern Speaks
• Snails, Just Look Around
• Spiritbox, Tsunami Sea
• The Tubs, Cotton Crown
• Will Stratton, Points of Origin

Andrew Thomas Huang/courtesy of the artist

Country/Folk/Americana

• Benmont Tench, The Melancholy Season
• Caylee Hammack, Bed of Roses
• Clara Mann, Rift
• Gabrielle Pietrangelo, Back to the Heart
• Lisa Knapp & Gerry Diver, Hinterland
• Mackenzie Carpenter, Hey Country Queen
• Mike Farris, The Sound of Muscle Shoals
• Rose Betts, There Is No Ship
• Sierra Hull, A Tip Toe High Wire
• The Wiggles, Wiggle Up, Giddy Up!
• Tobacco City, Horses

Rap/Hip-Hop

• 3House, Terminal 3
• 6ix, Homebody
• Apollo Brown, Elevator Music
• Big Zuu & Capo Lee, Signed & Delivered
• Cookin Soul & ANKHLEJOHN, The Michelin Man
• Doodlebug and 80 Empire, A Galactic Love Supreme
• Evilgiane and Harto Falion, The Hurtless
• Fredo Bang & TEC, 8 Legged Gorilla
• Icewear Vezzo, UNDEFEATED EP
• KenTheMan, Kinda Famous
• Lord Finesse, The SP 1200 Project: Sounds & Frequencies in Technicolor
• Mg Lil Bubba, Bub’s Burgers
• V/A, Benny the Butcher Presents: The Outcome

Global

• CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso, PAPOTA
• Lagartijeando, 7 Caminos
• Los Pirañas, Una Oportunidad más de triunfar en la vida
• Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian, Noor-e Vojood

Electronic/Out There

• Alabaster DePlume, A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole
• EARTH BALL, Actual Earth Music Vol 1 & 2
• Eats Everything, We Lost Ourselves and Found a Family
• Flutter Ridder, s/t
• Forest Swords, Bolted (Deconstructed)
• Haroula Rose & oliver hill, Cycles
• Hundred Waters, Re: Communicating
• Jimi Tenor & Freestyle Man, Sinus Amoris (Songs from the Bay of Love)
• JJULIUS, Vol. 3
• Joseph Schiano di Lombo, Le tact
• Kedr Livanskiy, Myrtus Myth
• Kraftwerk, Autobahn – 50th Anniversary Edition
• Lust For Youth & Croatian Amor, All Worlds
• Machinedrum, 3RMX82
• Megabasse, Flamenca
• Monde UFO, Flamingo Tower
• Raisa K, Affectionately
• SoFTT, NEW HaRDD EP
• Sunju Hargun, The Golden Triangle
• Tokimonsta, Eternal Reverie
• Upsammy, Open Catalyst EP
• Zombie Zombie, Funk Kraut

Credits

• Host: Stephen Thompson

• Guest: Celia Gregory, WNXP

• Producer: Simon Rentner

• Editor: Otis Hart

• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed

• Vice President, Music and Visuals: Keith Jenkins