JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
It is Friday, which means new music. NPR's music editor Daoud Tyler-Ameen and critic and correspondent Ann Powers have listened to a lot of the albums out today, and they have a roundup for us. First up is Sturgill Simpson, who shook up Nashville in 2014 with his album "Metamodern Sounds In Country Music."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN")
STURGILL SIMPSON: (Singing) Go and try and have some fun, showing warmth to everyone you meet and greet and cheat along the way.
DAOUD TYLER-AMEEN, BYLINE: Sturgill has a new album out, although not under his name. Instead, he has a new project called Johnny Blue Skies, which debuts today with a very French-sounding album called "Passage Du Desir."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IF THE SUN NEVER RISES AGAIN")
SIMPSON: (Singing) I've been lonely long as I can remember.
TYLER-AMEEN: And what's the deal? It's Sturgill, but it's not.
ANN POWERS, BYLINE: (Laughter).
TYLER-AMEEN: He sounds a little different. He's going all over the place. What's going on with this? What is he doing with this reset, do you think?
POWERS: I understand your confusion, Daoud. For those who live outside of Sturgill's world, his universe, the guy seems like a wild card, you know? He's always changing since - he basically invented the contemporary alternative approach, I guess, to country music with "Metamodern Sounds." But since then, he's done everything. So we never know what we're getting from Sturgill.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IF THE SUN NEVER RISES AGAIN")
SIMPSON: (Singing) What if the sun never rises again?
POWERS: Honestly, I think there's really no particular, necessary reason for him to do this, except for several years ago, he announced he was only going to make five albums under the name Sturgill Simpson. And as wild as Sturgill is, he is a man of his word. And Johnny Blue Skies is not - I mean, I might have come up with a different nom de plume.
TYLER-AMEEN: (Laughter).
POWERS: I don't know what it would have been, but his first name is actually John. So...
TYLER-AMEEN: Yeah.
POWERS: ...I think that was the motivation behind the Johnny. The Blue Skies, I can't speak to because this record is anything but blue skies.
TYLER-AMEEN: Yeah. Well, so let's get into that because I was a little puzzled over the first couple of tracks on this record. And the place where I clicked in was a track called "Jupiter's Faerie." It's this little orchestral suite. It's the second longest track.
POWERS: Yeah.
TYLER-AMEEN: And it has this kind of fire-and-rain-like story where he says...
POWERS: Yes.
TYLER-AMEEN: ...Today, I read the news that you were gone. You'd left a year ago, chose to check out and move on.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUPITER'S FAERIE")
SIMPSON: (Singing) I hear there's faeries out on Jupiter. And there was a time that I knew one.
TYLER-AMEEN: What do you think is going on here?
POWERS: Here's what I hear. Thematically, this really is an album about desire, about lost and found loves, forgotten loves, salvaged loves. I have no idea and have no reason to suspect this reflects on Sturgill Simpson's personal life. But it definitely runs through the whole record, this story. It's like, here are all my stories of heartbreak. Here are all the ways in which trying to be a good lover messed me up or messed other people's up. And that's - this fire and rain theme on this song I think goes perfectly with that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUPITER'S FAERIE")
SIMPSON: (Singing) I laid alone so many nights without you, spent years just hoping that you were OK. I cried...
TYLER-AMEEN: Next up - Ann, I know you're excited for this one - the new LP by Cassandra Jenkins, titled "My Light, My Destroyer."
(SOUNDBITE OF CASSANDRA JENKINS SONG, "CLAMS CASINO")
TYLER-AMEEN: I kind of want to kick off with the song "Clams Casino" just because it's got one of my favorite lines on the whole record. She says...
POWERS: Oh, it's such a great song.
TYLER-AMEEN: ...I heard someone order the Clams Casino. I said, hey, what's that? They said, I don't know (laughter).
POWERS: Existentialism in a lyric.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CLAMS CASINO")
CASSANDRA JENKINS: (Singing) I don't want to laugh alone anymore - knew it was time to put this suit away when I ripped the knees open...
TYLER-AMEEN: So you've been banging the drum for Cassandra for a minute now, Ann. I'm a little newer to her, so I kind of want to know what's drawn you so strongly to her as a songwriter and where you hear her sort of particular talents coming through in this record.
POWERS: I think it's a combination of elements. One, it's how she composes and works with her team and her producer to use found sound and various synth elements to create this, like, sound field that's not at all flashy. It's very airy. You know, it's very cumulus clouds, but there's a lot happening in every song, even though it's quiet and soft. And then her lyrics, they tend toward the mystical and the uncanny, but they're very emotional as well. And there's a lot of, like, grounding in the body and in nature, but always these sort of surprising turns, like the one you mentioned, you know, I don't know.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CLAMS CASINO")
JENKINS: (Singing) I've been out looking for a silver lining, just found a stray hair in the bedding.
POWERS: And then the third thing is her voice because she has one of those recessive voices that you have to come to it, you know?
TYLER-AMEEN: That's a great word. Yeah.
POWERS: It demands attentive listening. And it really has a feeling of kind of, like, a lullaby effect as well.
TYLER-AMEEN: Well, that's Cassandra Jenkins' "My Light, My Destroyer." And now it's time for a quick lightning round through some of the other releases out today. And this is one of the more nuts lightning rounds we've had in a while. There are so many records by such an incongruous spread of artists at such different points in their career. First up, his name is what? Eminem is back, and love him or hate him, the dude is nothing if not persistent in his vision. Four years after 2020's "Music To Be Murdered By," Eminem's latest album is "The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOUDINI")
EMINEM: (Rapping) Abra-abracadabra - and for my last trick, I'm 'bout to reach in my bag, bruh. Abra-abracadabra...
POWERS: Over a pair of albums, Clairo has carved out a distinctive voice among a huge wave of young female singer/songwriters. Her new album, her third, is called "Charm." It's inspired by '70s folk rock. It's warm and intimate with a serious analog vibe, maybe thanks to her coproducer on the album, Leon Michels of the Dap-Kings and El Michels Affair.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEXY TO SOMEONE")
CLAIRO: (Singing) Sexy to someone is all I really want. Sometimes sexy to someone is all I really want.
TYLER-AMEEN: They're Vermont's favorite sons. They got their own Ben & Jerry's flavor, and legend says they never play the same set twice. Phish adds to their sprawling discography today with a new album called "Evolve."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EVOLVE")
PHISH: (Singing) I paused a moment once in time before the sun began to shine.
TYLER-AMEEN: Next up, two hip-hop veterans, rapper Common and the legendary producer Pete Rock have teamed up for a full album collab. And from the sound of the title, it maybe won't be the last time. Common and Pete Rock's new joint release is "The Auditorium Vol. 1."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DREAMIN'")
COMMON: (Rapping) Do it right. I was hearing melodies and rhythms through the night. This was a dream that felt real like a fight. What made it realer, J Dilla was there...
SUMMERS: That was Daoud Tyler-Ameen and Ann Powers from NPR Music. And you can hear more in their full episode of New Music Friday wherever you get your podcasts.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DREAMIN'")
COMMON: (Rapping) Through the Morris Days and Gladys Knights - whoo (ph). Sheila E. reminded me about the glamorous life. Ali was telling me... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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