NPR Music

We pick our favorite music released in August 2020, featuring everything from Bartees Strange and Victoria Monét to Bright Eyes and Kelly Lee Owens.

NPR Music picks the best new albums out this week, including unadorned records from Angel Olsen and The Avett Brothers, the genre-bending Georgia Anne Muldrow and more.

Fifteen years ago this week, All Songs Considered launched its first ever podcast episode. Hear how it sounded.

NPR Music's shortlist for the best new albums out this week includes the first full-length from Bright Eyes in nearly a decade, the rapper Lecrae, U.K. jazz wonder Nubya Garcia and more.

Featured Albums:
1. The Killers — Imploding the Mirage
Featured Song: "Dying Breed"
2. The Mavericks — En Español
Featured Song: "Recuerdos"
3. Nubya Garcia — Source
Featured Song: "Before Us In Demerara & Caura"
4. Cidny Bullens — Walking Through This World
Featured Song: "The Gender Line"
5. Bright Eyes — Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was
Featured Songs: "Dance and Sing" and "Pageturner's Rag"
6. Lecrae — Restoration
Featured Song: "Set Me Free"
7. L.A. Witch — Play With Fire
Featured Song: "Dark Horse"
8. Roomful of Teeth — The Ascendant & Just Constellations
Featured Songs: "The Beginning And..." and "The Magic Constellation - Winter"

Other notable releases for Aug. 21: Nas — King's Disease; Alex the Astronaut — The Theory of Absolutely Nothing; Bully — Sugaregg; Chuck Prophet — The Land That Time Forgot; Logan Farmer — Still No Mother; Matmos — The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form; The Front Bottoms — In Sickness & In Flames.

On this week's All Songs Considered, The Swedish duo First Aid Kit covers Willie Nelson's "On The Road Again," reminding host Bob Boilen of how long it's been since he's seen a live show (159 days).

1. First Aid Kit: "On The Road Again"
2. Blu DeTiger: "Figure It Out"
3. Pillow Queens: "Holy Show" from In Waiting
4. Anjimile: "Baby No More" from Giver Taker
5. AMAARA: "Desert Storm" from Heartspeak
6. Ólafur Arnalds: "Back to the Sky"
7. Sonny Singh: "Mitar Pyare Nu"

NPR Music's picks for the best new albums out this week include the latest from Afro-fusion singer Burna Boy, Fantastic Negrito, Jacob Collier, the queer country of Orville Peck and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Burna Boy — Twice As Tall
Featured Song: "Monsters You Made"
2. Jacob Collier — Djesse Vol. 3
Featured Song: "In My Bones"
3. Fantastic Negrito — Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
Featured Song: "I'm So Happy I Cry"
4. Whitney — Candid
Featured Song: "Strange Overtones"
5. Son Lux — Tomorrows
Featured Song: "Plans We Made"
6. Kathleen Edwards — Total Freedom
Featured Song: "Birds on a Feeder"
7. Orville Peck — Show Pony
Featured Song: "No Glory In The West"
8. Ashley Ray — Pauline
Featured Song: "Pauline"
9. Gloria Estefan — Brazil305
Featured Song: "Samba"

Other notable releases for August 14: Poppy — I Disagree (More); Eleven7four — What's the 1174; Biffy Clyro — A Celebration of Endings; Caylee Hammack — If It Wasn't For You; Emma Swift — Blonde on the Tracks; Young Jesus — Welcome to Conceptual Beach.

The singer and author chats with All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen about Jollett's incredible new memoir, Hollywood Park. It's also the title of his latest album with The Airborne Toxic Event.

NPR Music's picks for the week's best new albums include the latest from Portland rapper Aminé, Mary Chapin Carpenter, a posthumous release from Jason Molina, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Aminé — Limbo
Featured Song: "Can't Decide"
2. Mary Chapin Carpenter — The Dirt and the Stars
Featured Song: "All Broken Hearts Break Differently"
3. Jordan Lehning — Little Idols
Featured Song: "Oolaloom"
4. Loyal Lobos — Everlasting
Featured Song: "Whatever it Is"
5. Carmen Canedo — Know It All
Featured Song: "Morrow"
6. Jason Molina — Eight Gates
Featured Song: "She Says"
7. The Microphones — Microphones in 2020
Featured Song: "Microphones in 2020"
8. Immanuel Wilkins — OMEGA
Featured Song: "Ferguson — An American Tradition"

Stay in touch with the NPR Music newsletter. Sign up here.

The musical tastes of the NPR Music crew are a delightful jumble. We pick our favorite music from July 2020, featuring Madeline Kenney, Nubya Garcia and Taylor Swift.

NPR Music's picks for the week's best new releases include Brandy's first new album in eight years, a stunning debut from rapper and singer Dominic Fike, retro-country from Charley Crockett and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Brandy — B7
Featured Song: "Say Something"
2. Alanis Morissette — Such Pretty Forks in the Road
Featured Song: "Smiling"
3. Charley Crockett — Welcome to Hard Times
Featured Song: "Welcome to Hard Times"
4. Dominic Fike — What Could Possibly Go Wrong
Featured Song: "Joe Blazey"
5. Max Richter — Voices
Featured Songs: "Murmuration," "All Human Beings" and "Mercy"
6. Land of Talk — Indistinct Conversations
Featured Songs: "Look to You (Intro)" and "Look to You"
7. Mirah — You Think It's Like This, But Really It's Like This (20 Year Anniversary)
Featured Songs: "100 Knives" and "Of Pressure" performed by Mount Eerie
8. Thanya Iyer — Kind
Featured Song: "My Mind Keeps Running"
9. Charles Tolliver — Connect
Featured Song: "Blue Soul"

Other notable releases for July 31: Fontaines D.C. — A Hero's Death; Madeline Kenney — Sucker's Luch; Makaya McCraven — Universal Beings E&F Sides; Trevor Powers — Capricorn; The Psychedelic Furs — Made of Rain.

Keep up with the latest from NPR Music with our weekly newsletter at www.npr.org/musicnewsletter