The best new albums out Aug. 1

It’s Friday, but for some of you, your new music wishes were granted earlier this week when pop-punk princess Hayley Williams leaked her latest album to her devoted hair salon patrons. (Don’t worry, it’s on streaming services today for the rest of you.)

This week, we crack open THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED, the newest release from Detroit’s ever-elusive, loud and existential band, The Armed. We also reacquaint ourselves with Mal Devisa and her four-disc Palimpsesa, and get to know the soft and wandering New Days by Emily Hines.

Stephen Thompson welcomes Liz Warner from NPR Member station WDET to the show to discuss these albums and two more favorites out this week. Listen to the show beginning at 3 a.m. ET wherever you get your podcasts.

The Starting Five

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Our hosts share the backstories and best songs from the following albums:

💿 Emily Hines, These Days

• Recommended If You Like: Big Thief, Laura Marling

💿 Mal Devisa, Palimpsesa

• RIYL: Noname, billy woods

💿 The Armed, THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED

• RIYL: Turnstile, Refused

💿 Caimin Gilmore, BlackGate

• RIYL: Rachel’s, caroline

💿 Susumu Yokota, Skintone Edition, Vol. 1 (box set)

• RIYL: Brian Eno, Aphex Twin

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

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Five more albums we wish we had time to discuss on the podcast:

💿 Buddy Guy, Ain’t Done With The Blues

💿 Heatmiser, Mic City Sons (30th Anniversary Remaster)

💿 René Najera, Painted Life

💿 Hieroglyphic Being, The Sound Of Something Ending

💿 Spafford Campbell, Tomorrow Held

Listen to each album’s best songs on our New Music Friday playlists on Spotify and Apple, or wherever you stream music.

The Long List

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For those who want to dig even deeper, here are the week’s new albums sorted by genre:

Electronic/Out There

• Peterparker69, yo,
• Sofia Kourtesis, Volver EP
• Mansur Brown, Rihla
• Memotone, smallest things
• Brad Rose, A Live We Once Lived
• Davd Boulter, Whitby
• Lauren Maria, You’re Beautiful
• Ma Sha, Hydrofall EP

Rock/Alt/Indie

• Debby Friday, The Starrr Of The Queen of Life
• The New Eves, The New Eve Is Rising
• Nadeem Din-Gabisi, OFFSHORE
• Rosali, Slow Pain: Live and Solo from Drop of Sun
• Anthony Family, Live From An Ordinary Place
• Everything Else, Another One Making Clouds
• Ex Agent, New Assumptions… EP
• Flowers For The Dead, First Place EP
• Fortitude Valley, Part Of The Problem, Baby
• Freezing Cold, Treasure Pool
• Kayo Dot, Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under Reason
• Kyle Hollingsworth, All We Are
• Laura Groves, Yes EP
• OK Cool, Chit Chat
• QWAM, girls aren’t afraid of blood
• Return to Dust, Speak Like the Dead EP
• Sex Week, Upper Mezzanine EP
• V/A, Maybe I’m Dreaming
• Wisp, If Not Winter

Classical

• Maya Beiser, Salt

Country/Folk/Americana

• Sunny Sweeney, Rhinestone Requiem
• Josh Halper, Schlemiel
• Kalie Shorr, My Type EP
• Morgan Wade, The Party Is Over (recovered)
• The Wood Brothers, Puff of Smoke
• Travis Roberts, Rebel Rose
• Ethan Regan, honey honey honey EP

Global

• Danny Ocean, Babylon Club
• Ali Sethi, Love Language
• Julian Kytasty, Songs of Truth: Music and Song from the Kobzar Tradition of Ukraine

Jazz

• Greg Foat, Opening Time
• Rachael & Vilray, West of Broadway

Rap/Hip-Hop

• araabMuzik, Electronic Dream 2
• Xaviersobased, Once More EP
• $UICIDEBOY$, Thy Kingdom Come
• Babytron, Luka Troncic 2
• Lil Poppa, Almost Normal Again
• Montana 700, The Greatest of All Traps

Pop

• Between Friends, WOW!
• Reneé Rapp, Bite Me

R&B/Soul

• Pink Butter, Can We Go Back

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Credits

• Host: Stephen Thompson
• Guest: Liz Warner, WDET
• Audio producer: Noah Caldwell
• Show producers: Otis Hart and Elle Mannion
• Production assistant: Dora Levite
• Executive producer: Suraya Mohamed