New Music Friday: The best albums out Sept. 18
NPR Music
NPR Music's New Music Friday features a deep dive into standout albums released on September 18, including Beck's introspective 'Ride Lonesome,'
Key takeaways
- Beck's 'Ride Lonesome' marks a return to his emotionally rich, orchestral style reminiscent of 'Sea Change,' with themes of loss, aging, and quiet hope.
- Beabadoobee's 'Pylon' successfully fuses 90s pop sensibilities with rock energy, featuring high-profile collaborations from Hayley Williams and Chino Moreno.
Main topics
- New album reviews
- Beck's orchestral return
Notable quotes
'It's his best since Sea Change, and it may even surpass it for me at some point.' – Robert Moore on Beck's 'Ride Lonesome'
Conclusion
The episode celebrates a diverse range of new albums that balance emot
Transcript preview
Speaker 7 (0:00) This is Ira Glass. On This American Life, we tell stories about when things change. Like for this guy, David, whose entire life took a sharp, unexpected, and very unpleasant turn. And it did take me a while to realize it's basically because the monkey pressed the button. That's right, because the monkey pressed the button. Surprising stories every week, wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 6 (0:23) A quick note before the show, this podcast contains explicit language. Speaker 2 (0:34) Happy Friday, everyone, from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. Each week, we talk about the best albums out this week with members of the NPR Music Network. Today, we are talking about new records from Beck, Bebadooby, Carly Rae Jepsen, and more. But first, I want to welcome Robert Moore from Sonic Spectrum on Kansas City's 90.9 The Bridge. Back to the show, Robert. How are things in Kansas City? Speaker 4 (0:58) They're great. The Chiefs won their opener, so the city's happy. Speaker 2 (1:02) Yeah, boy. I really expected that team to circle the drain for longer than they did. And I'm a little resentful. Speaker 4 (1:12) It's good to see Mahomes back. Speaker 2 (1:13) It is. It is. Good for you. It's good that Kansas City Chiefs fans can finally get some good news. Speaker 4 (1:20) Right. It's been a while. It's been Speaker 2 (1:22) a Speaker 4 (1:22) year Speaker 2 (1:22) or Speaker 4 (1:22) so. Speaker 2 (1:23) It's been like Speaker 4 (1:23) a year. All Speaker 2 (1:24) right. Well, let's kick off our discussion round. New album from Beck. Beck's new album is called Ride Lonesome. Speaker 1 (1:32) She is gone. It's wrong. Speaker 2 (2:31) So Beck, for the none of you who don't know, is an artist who has been around for like 35 years now. He has trafficked in everything from kind of lo-fi folk to glossy funk to kind of stately, beautiful orchestral ballads. And this new album, Ride Lonesome, it's his 15th record. It's firmly in the camp of like Beck in this kind of ruminative and extremely orchestral space. Songs that really unfold deliberately and slowly. He's surrounded by strings. These deep, rich, beautiful arrangements. And songs that reflect on a lot of loss. This is a sad record, but it's also a very, very beautiful record. Speaker 4 (3:17) I initially, honestly, was hesitant when asked to talk about the album. Because, I mean, I'm a fan, but I would never have considered myself a massive fan. The last album that really blew me away was Sea Change, like many others. And I think Morning Phase tried to recapture that feel, but didn't quite do so, in my opinion. But upon hearing Ride Lonesome for the first time, honestly, I was speechless at first. I think it's his best since Sea Change, and it may even surpass it for me at some point. Speaker 2 (3:42) Wow, yeah. I mean, as you kind of alluded to, this record is very much in the spirit of the kind of subgenre of Beck music. I sometimes call Beck and Repose. You know, this kind of extremely kind of languorous, thoughtful music. And I'm really glad that he kind of is returning to this really stately sound, because as you said, This has some of his best music in ages. Speaker 4 (4:16) I mean, he's always been a great songwriter, no matter what genre he's playing with. But I think bringing back the band from Sea Change and Morning Phase, as well as returning to United Studios, just that sound in that room, I mean, it really just comes across as just a beautiful recording. And for me, the secret weapon on this recording, honestly, is his father's string arrangements. Speaker 2 (4:37) Yeah, Beck's father, David Campbell, is a very, very veteran film composer. And I love the way that he is able to kind of marry contemporary classical music to folk music. And some of these songs really still feel like folk songs, even as the strings are swelling behind them. You know, a song like Slow Canyon feels like fully folk-kestrel. Speaker 2 (5:19) It's interesting, Robert, my colleague Otis Hart, when he was kind of presenting me with a list of the records that were coming out this week, he mentioned Beck is 56 years old. He's the exact age that Bob Dylan was when Time Out of Mind came out. And like, I still think of Beck as like such a youthful and playful and kind of constantly surprising and self-reinventing figure. But, you know, he's like deep into midlife and making music that reflects that. Speaker 4 (5:49) Yeah, and I think a lot of the lyrics on this record definitely reflect that and somewhat I think he's showing some acceptance of it, but also some remorse about aging. as well as, you know, the heartbreak that he's gone through with the divorce. Speaker 2 (6:02) Yeah, I mean, this definitely feels in some ways like a divorced record, you know, back, you know, split from his longtime wife in 2019, finalized in 2021. And I feel like thematically, that definitely, that kind of mournful quality runs through these songs. But I didn't necessarily find it unrelentingly bleak. There are still these traces of energy and velocity. that kind of come through in different ways. The song It Ends Right Here is maybe my favorite song on this record, in part because as orchestral and beautiful as it is, it also has energy and intensity and even grit. It Speaker 1 (6:42) ends right here Speaker 4 (7:05) You mentioned this album really isn't just bleak or sad. And I think that is the difference between this and Sea Change. I think it comes a lot with, you know, with aging, that he knows life will go on despite this pain, despite what he's going through. There is a theme of hope at the end of the tunnel, I think, in a lot of these songs. Speaker 2 (7:22) Yeah, 15 albums into his career, he's still making gorgeous, gorgeous music. What a career. That is Beck. His new album is called Ride Lonesome. Next up, something pretty different. Beba Doobie is back with a new album. It's called Pylon. Speaker 2 (8:41) So Beba Doobie has been kind of the next big thing for a few years now. She's really been blowing up in recent years. Pylon is her fourth album, and it finds her, you know, kind of fully occupying this space between kind of sunny, sugary pop and big, chunky, 90s-style rock. Speaker 4 (9:01) Right, and the bridge here is playing The Sun Is Set in rotation currently, so we are on that record. I think one of the things that's most impressive about her is that she's released four full-length albums at only 26 years old. Speaker 2 (9:13) Yeah, and she's already been a really prolific collaborator. She's somebody who turns up as a guest on other people's songs. She's been very prolific as a touring artist. And I always say, if you want to get a sense of who... The next big pop stars are, just look to the opening acts on major pop stars tours. Biba Doobie has opened for the 1975. She's opened for Olivia Rodrigo. She was an opener on Taylor Swift's Eras tour. She is extremely well connected in the industry and extremely adept at kind of being a part of the mainstream musical conversation. And one thing that I really love about this record is that You know, as much as she's this kind of budding pop star, she's also a budding rock star. And a lot of these songs have this kind of chunky, anthemic quality that I really appreciate. You know, the collaborators on this record include Hayley Williams from Paramore, who is a clear, you can draw a clear line from Hayley Williams to a lot of contemporary pop stars like Olivia Rodrigo and B. Badoobie. And like Brandon Yates from Turnstile. Speaker 4 (10:22) And let's not forget Chino from Deftones. Yeah. It was a surprise appearance as well. Speaker 2 (10:26) Yeah, and I think that combination of kind of pop instincts and rock execution works really, really well for her. And you take a song like Estranged. It's a sleek pop song, but it's got that kind of 90s influenced kind of quiet, loud, quiet. big shimmery rock choruses, you get a sense that she's tapping into like a lot of pop and rock and alternative music of the last 35 years. Speaker 4 (11:18) For me, the track that stands out, I think it's her strongest vocal performance is the opening track, Pylon. Speaker 2 (11:34) Yeah, Pylon and Sun Has Set both have that kind of chunky anthemic quality that is going to kill in big rooms. Speaker 2 (11:56) I also wanted to mention the song Switchblade, which is a little bit lower, a little grungier, and like... Her vocal is this kind of leavening agent. And, you know, if we're going to throw out 90s signifiers, like her vocal kind of reminded me a little bit of like Veruca Salt. But the arrangement was pure Stone Temple pilots. And I love the way that she's able, kind of like an Olivia Rodrigo, she is able to pull from the past to the present, everywhere in between, and still come up with something that feels very contemporary. Speaker 2