It’s Friday, and that means dozens of new albums magically appeared on your favorite streaming service at the stroke of midnight — including the return of Bon Iver. SABLE, fABLE is the band’s first album in almost six years and finds Justin Vernon in a markedly less dour mood.
NPR Music’s Stephen Thompson welcomed fellow Wisconsinite Erin Wolf of Milwaukee public radio station 88Nine to discuss the new Bon Iver album, as well as a handful of other new releases worthy of your attention.
The Starting 5
Stephen and Erin give you the backstory and best songs on the following albums:
💿 Bon Iver, SABLE, fABLE
- RIYL: Bon Iver, Bruce Hornsby
💿 Valerie June, Owls, Omens, and Oracles
- RIYL: Hurray for the Riff Raff, Joanna Newsom
💿 Gerald Clayton, Ones & Twos
- RIYL: Geri Allen, The Flaming Lips
💿 Real Lies, We Will Annihilate Our Enemies (out April 16)
- RIYL: Underworld, The xx
💿 Kills Birds, Crave EP
- RIYL: Soundgarden, Helmet
New Music Friday is a feature of NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast! Hear the discussion on the NPR App, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Lightning Round
Five more albums we wish we had time to discuss on the podcast:
💿 Turnpike Troubadours, The Price of Admission
💿 Daughter of Swords, Alex
💿 Jadu Heart, Post Heaven
💿 Casper Skulls, Kit-Cat
💿 Nell Smith, Anxious
Listen to each album’s best songs on our New Music Friday playlists on Spotify and Apple.
The Long List
For those who want to dig even deeper, here are the week’s new albums sorted by genre:
Global
- Charif Megarbane, Hawalat
- HHY & The Kampala Unit, Turbo Meltdown
- Kuunatic, Wheels of Omon
- Kwashibu Area Band, Love Warrior’s Anthem
- Salif Keïta, So Kono
- Savina Yannatou, Watersong
Rock/Alt/Indie
- Bedridden, Moths Strapped To Eachother’s Backs
- Cassia, everyone, outside
- Clutter, Loves You EP
- Cold Specks, Light for the Midnight
- Dead Pioneers, Po$t American
- Eyedress, Stoner
- fantasy of a broken heart, Chaos Practitioner EP
- Grandmas House, Anything for You
- HONEYMOAN, Pink Hell
- Idle Heirs, Life is Violence
- Johanna Warren, The Night of the Wind
- Joni, Things I Left Behind
- key vs. locket, i felt like a sketch
- Magnolia Park, Vamp
- Mamalarky, Hex Key
- Maria Usbeck, Naturaleza
- OK GO, And the Adjacent Possible
- Painting, Snapshot of Pure Attention
- Public Body, Finger Food
- Spin Doctors, Face Full of Cake
- Tapeworms, Grand Voyage
- Tara Nome Doyle, Ekko
- Teen Mortgage, Devil Ultrasonic Dream
- The Album Leaf, ROTATIONS
- The Mars Volta, Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos Del Vacio
- The Wrecks, Inside EP
Country/Folk/Americana
- Billy Strings & Bryan Sutton, Live at the Legion
- Jon Pardi, Honkytonk Hollywood
- Kolby Cooper, Love You, Goodnight
- Muscadine Bloodline, …And What Was Left Behind
- Trousdale, Growing Pains
Rap/Hip-Hop
- Berner, Carbon EP
- Deem Spencer, yung EP
- Ken Carson, More Chaos
- V/A, Gangster Music Vol. 3
R&B/Soul
- Galactic and Irma Thomas, Audience With the Queen
- ADJA, Golden Retrieve Her
Electronic/Out There
- Briain, Cognitive Dissonance
- Carlita, fabric presents Carlita
- Guilherme Granado Goat Unity, Ghost Parades
- isolee, Chopstick! EP
- James Bright, Imaginal
- Joshua Bonnetta, The Pines
- Konalgad, Club Dream
- Larum, The Music of Hildegard von Bingen Part Two
- Lullahush, Ithaca
- Martinou, Linked EP
- Olivia Font, Invictam
- Riccardo La Foresta, ZERO,999…
- Röyksopp, True Electric
- set dressing, i can’t be alone tonite EP
- Tim Hodgkinson, Haiku in the Wide World
Classical
- Kyiv Virtuosi, Alexey Shor: Composer’s Notebook, Vol. 3
- Leif Ove Andsnes, Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works
- Nicola Benedetti, Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61
Jazz
- Ingrid Laubrock, Purposing the Air
- Poppy Daniels, Keep On Going
- V/A, Chet Baker Re:imagined
Credits
- Host: Stephen Thompson
- Guest: Erin Wolf, Radio Milwaukee’s 88Nine
- Producer: Simon Rentner
- Editor: Otis Hart
- Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Vice President, Music and Visuals: Keith Jenkins