New Music Friday: The best albums out Sept. 25

NPR Music

Host Stephen Thompson and a network of NPR Music contributors review the most significant new album releases for the week of September 25. T

Key takeaways

• Blondshell's 'Violins' utilizes chugging guitars and poetic lyrics to explore themes of sobriety and growth.
• Julia Jacklin's 'The Gem' blends folk and alt-country influences with a focus on self-excavation.

Main topics

• New album releases
• Indie rock trends

Notable quotes

A little money goes a long way when you don't leave the house.

Conclusion

An essential listening guide for discovering diverse, high-quality new

Transcript preview

Speaker 8 (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 2 (0:29) Happy Friday, everyone, from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. Each week, we talk about the best albums out that week with members of the NPR Music Network. For today, September 25th, we are talking about great new albums from Julia Jaclyn, Leon Bridges, Proto Martyr, and more. But first, I want to welcome Aaron Wolfe from Radio Milwaukee back to the show. Hey, Aaron. Speaker 3 (0:51) Hey, Stephen. Thanks for having me again. Speaker 2 (0:53) Well, we try to have a Wisconsin-based host after every Green Bay Packers win. And thankfully, they came back and beat the Jets. Hey! Speaker 3 (1:03) Yeah, totally. Yeah, this is all about strategery here. Speaker 2 (1:06) That's right. That's right. You know, I think it's because you were scheduled to be here that the Packers won their first meaningful game since December of 2025. Speaker 3 (1:13) Oh, undoubtedly, yeah. Speaker 2 (1:16) Well, let's get into it and kick off this week's discussion round where we talk about five of the best albums out this week, starting with Violins, the new album from Blondshell. Speaker 3 (2:35) New York-born, L.A.-based Sabrina Teitelbaum returns as Blondshell. And this is her third record, Violins. It was produced by L.A.-based engineer and producer Eve Rothman, who's worked with artists like Cherry Glazer, Earth Eater, FKA Twigs, and Kelsey Liu. And over the years, I feel like Blondshell's really become known as a grunge poet of sorts. There's like this... intelligent mind behind her alternative singer-songwriter style. Like, she's got this really amazing blend of words, voice, and chugging guitars. So, you know, many fans, they will feel like an echo of their formative years whenever they hear her. And I feel like she speaks to both young and maybe the older, like, millennials and Gen X alike. Speaker 2 (3:26) Yeah, I think she speaks to a lot of people who are kind of on that Gen Z millennial cusp. You know, she got sober in her early 20s, you know, and her songs have kind of wrestled with, you know, dealing with sobriety, anxiety, seeking strength and community and happiness and kind of a... toxic, violent world. And I think in that way, her songs feel very, very current and kind of wise beyond their years a little bit. And I really appreciate, you referenced the guitars as being, you know, chugging. I think that the guitars here are really doing a lot of work, giving kind of force and shape to songs like the title track, which just leapt out of the speakers for me. Speaker 3 (4:44) You know, there's a lot of awesome wordplay to violence, I think, is a play on violence, I want to say. Sure. She, like, really is exploring, like, themes of growth, pretty much. And as she says, like, her growth has been, like, watching paint dry. But there's really a deep growth that you can hear. It's just like baked into these songs. And yeah, there was equally like the striking video she issued. She's trying to save a ice sculpture from melting. And it really kind of emphasizes like that. act of futility that so many things in life often are, but yet you just keep trying, right? Speaker 2 (5:27) Absolutely. And you know, it's interesting when you look at Blanchelle's origins, you know, when Sabrina Teitelbaum was first kind of starting out, she was focused a little bit more on pop. She had this kind of pop project called Baum. And then, you know, kind of during the pandemic, found her true sound, found her true approach. And I feel like the pandemic still is informing a lot of her songs. You listen to the song Sea Legs, and it's kind of a softer, more of a ballad, but it still has intensity and an edge. And the lyrics include this line, a little money goes a long way when you don't leave the house. And to me, that song spoke to me, first of all, as a growing up. you know, a song about essentially not going out, but also it felt informed by the pandemic and kind of that discovery I think a lot of us made where it's like, if you're, you know, if you were able to keep your job and work from home, you realize like, oh, wow, never doing anything is a real money saver. And so, you know, there's that wisdom, you know, that kind of comes out of that experience is really coming through in these songs. Speaker 3 (7:01) I also feel like heart has to work so hard if we're going to name faves on this record. I just love how it has so much snap to it. And I love, again, her wordplay. You give me pause. Every time I heard it, I thought she meant P-A-U-S-E. But you read the lyrics and it's P-A-W-S. And it's like... It can make sense both ways. You know, you give me pause, you give me pause, you make me feel like a little bit like an animal. Like it's describing like this relationship that's kind of not in a healthy cycle. And the drums really underline that kind of heightened heartbeat kind of vibe. And yeah, this one really spoke to me. It just had a lot of teeth to it. Speaker 2 (8:03) That is Blond Shell. Her new album is called Violins. Next up, another terrific singer-songwriter, Julia Jaclyn, is back with a new album. It's called The Gem. So Julia Jaclyn is an Australian singer-songwriter. This is her fourth album, and her songs kind of meet at this intersection of folk, indie rock, and alt country. There's dreaminess to her songs. but also real heft. And those two tastes taste great together. You know, kind of throughout her career, she's felt like a peer of artists like Angel Olsen, who know that sometimes your songs are at their most intense when they're at their quietest. And so she's really able to play with dynamics in compelling ways. And I really appreciated the mix of these kind of slow burns and just songs that are just like... big and heavy and chunky and lightly twangy, a song like If I Had the Hand of God, you know, that just have these big, billowing guitars to them. Speaker 3 (10:29) And also, like, I want to point out, too, that she realized after Pre-Pleasure, there was, like, a little quote where she said she felt like she was standing in her own way. And so a lot of this record is about her rediscovering herself, returning to herself. excavating who she is as evidenced by like the name The Gem referring to excavation and also directly refers to a place that she did that excavating. It's a bar and a music venue that she lived above and also recorded the record at called The Gem in Melbourne, Australia. Yeah Speaker 2 (11:07) and boy and I think being situated near a club brings out a certain amount of live energy. in these songs. You take, you know, get away from me, parentheses, I think I'll love you soon. And it's just this big... anthem and you can hear it kind of as if it's radiating out of a club. It feels like a set closer. It feels like audience participation. There aren't, I don't think, hand claps in the song, but it feels like there are. Speaker 3 (11:32) Yeah, 100%. Now that you say that, I feel like I could be standing on the street outside of the gym and hear it kind of pouring out through the windows and the doors. Yeah, there is like a lively appeal to it, like a life-affirming kind of vibe. Speaker 1 (11:51) I Speaker 3 (12:03) also like the fact that she kind of gets into this psyche world and also kind of dips into 70s tones.