NPR Music

NPR Music's picks for the best new albums out on Oct. 2 include the latest from West Coast rapper YG, the K-pop group BLACKPINK, Icelandic singer Jónsi and more.

Featured Albums:
1. BLACKPINK — The Album
Featured Song: "Pretty Savage"
2. YG — My Life 4Hunnid
Featured Song: "Laugh Now, Kry Later"
3. Laura Jane Grace — Stay Alive
Featured Song: "Old Friend (Stay Alive)"
4. Eartheater — Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin
Featured Song: "Fantasy Collision"
5. Jónsi — Shiver
Featured Song: "Shiver"
6. Rósín Murphy — Rósín Machine
Featured Song: "We Got Together"
7. Gabriel Garzón-Montano — Aguita
Featured Song: "Mira My Look"
8. Noah Haidu — Doctone
Featured Song: "Steepian Faith"

Other notable releases for Oct. 2: 21 Savage — Savage Mode 2; Aloe Blacc — All Love Everything; Bartees Strange — Live Forever; Born Ruffians — Squeeze; Brent Cobb — Keep 'em On They Toes; Dawes — Good Luck With Whatever; Dawn Landes — Row; Drive By Truckers — The New Okay; Robert Plant — Digging Deep: Subterranea; Shamir — Shamir; Westside Gunn — Who Made the Sunshine

We pick our favorite music released in September 2020, featuring Cuban artist La Dame Blanche, Big Thief's Adrianne Lenker and a reimagined mass.

All Songs Considered's Bob Boilen shares his favorite new tracks, including a collaboration between Kurt Vile and John Prine, queer country from Shamir, the gorgeous harmonies of Fleet Foxes and more.

1. Beabadoobee: "Worth It" from Fake It Flowers
2. Fleet Foxes: "Going-to-the-Sun Road" from Shore
3. Darlingside: "Green + Evergreen" from Fish Pond Fish
4. Kurt Vile with John Prine: "How Lucky" from Speed, Sound, Lonely KV
5. Shamir: "Other Side" from Shamir
6. Told Slant: "Family Still" from Point the Flashlight and Walk
7. Spacial Relations: "Default to Truth" from Talking to Strangers

NPR Music's picks for the best albums out on Sept. 25 include a long-awaited release from Sufjan Stevens, a searing new work from Public Enemy, the pop singer Joji and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Sufjan Stevens — The Ascension
Featured Song: "Lamentations"
2. Public Enemy — What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?
Featured Song: "Grid"
3. Nappy Roots — 40rty
Featured Song: "Do Better"
4. Joji — Nectar
Featured Song: "Pretty Boy"
5. Anna Von Hausswolff — All Thoughts Fly
Featured Song: "Sacro Bosco"
6. Deftones — Ohms
Featured Song: "Ceremony"
7. Sad13 — Haunted Painting
Featured Song: "Hysterical"
8. Lydia Loveless — Daughter
Featured Song: "Love is Not Enough"
9. Botany — End The Summer F(or)ever
Featured Song: "Your Whole Life"
10. The War & Treaty — Hearts Town
Featured Song: "Little Boy Blue"

Other notable releases for Sept. 25: The Band of Heathens — Stranger; Blitzen Trapper — Holy Smokes Future Jokes; Carrie Underwood — My Gift; Diana Krall — This Dream of You; Fleet Foxes — Shore; Idles — Ultra Mono; Shy Boys — Talk Loud; Surfer Blood — Carefree Theater; Sylvan Esso — Free Love; Thurston Moore — By the Fire; Tim Heidecker — Fear of Death; Will Butler — Generations.

In a conversation with All Songs Considered's Bob Boilen, Yusuf Cat Stevens explains how — and why — he decided to re-record his landmark album a half-century after it was first released.

NPR Music's picks for the best new albums out on Sep. 18 include a long-awaited, self-titled release from Alicia Keys, PC Music's A.G. Cook, a rediscovered Thelonious Monk recording and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Alicia Keys — ALICIA
Featured Song: "Me x 7"
2. A.G. Cook — Apple
Featured Song: "Airhead"
3. Anjimile — Giver Taker
Featured Song: "To Meet You There"
4. Butcher Brown — #kingbutch
Featured Song: "Cabbage"
5. Thelonious Monk — Palo Alto
Featured Song: "Blue Monk"
6. Jealous of the Birds — Peninsula
Featured Song: "Pendulum"
7. Sly5thAve — What It Is
Featured Song: "What It Is"
8. Fenne Lily — Breach
Featured Song: "Elliott"
9. Steve Arrington — Down to the Lowest Terms: The Soul Sessions
Featured Songs: "Make A Difference" and "Soulful I Need That In My Life"

Other notable releases for Sept. 18: Ava Max — Heaven & Hell; Body Double — Milk Fed; Cults — Host; Daniel Romano — How Ill Thy World Is Ordered; Deradoorian — Find the Sun; Dig Nitty — Reverse of Mastery; Eastwood — It Never Gets Easy; Eivør — Segl; Elderbrook — Why Do We Shake in the Cold?; Gracie & Rachel — Hello, Weakness, You Make Me Strong; Handsome Ghost — Some Still Morning; Joan Osborne — Trouble and Strife; Johann Johannsson — Retrospective II; Nate Rocket Wonder & Roman GianArthur – Antebellum (Soundtrack); Sarah Davachi — Cantus, Descant; Saunder Jurriaans — Beasts; Semisonic — You're Not Alone; Yusuf Cat Stevens — Tea for the Tillerman; Ziggy Marley — More Family Time.

This week's new mix from All Songs Considered includes solo work from Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, recorded with his sons, a stunning track from Big Thief's Adrianne Lenker, a song for the times from Cautious Clay and more.

Featured Tracks:
1. Kevin Morby "Campfire" from Sundowner
2. Adrianne Lenker "anything" from songs
3. Maple Glider "As Tradition"
4. Jeff Tweedy "Love Is The King" from Love Is The King
5. BONZIE "Alone"
6. Cautious Clay "Agreeable" from Agreeable

NPR Music picks the best new albums out this week, including new releases by The Flaming Lips, Rita Indiana, Waylon Payne and more.

On this week's All Songs Considered, hear new music from great unknowns and old favorites, including The Front Bottoms and Asaf Avidan.

1. Joe Wong: "Dreams Wash Away" from Nite Creatures
2. Frances Cone: "'93 Or '94" (single)
3. The Front Bottoms: "montgomery forever" from In Sickness & In Flames
4. Spacemoth: "Asking For You" (single)
5. Asaf Avidan: "Lost Horse" from Anagnorisis
6. Afel Bocoum: "Dakamana" from Lindé
7. Joe Wong: "Dreams Wash Away (Instrumental)" from Nite Creatures

NPR Music picks the best new albums out this week, including new albums by Big Sean, Tricky, Lomelda, Bill Callahan and more.