The best new albums out May 9

It’s Friday, which means you might be hoping to hear Atlanta rapper Young Thug’s first album since the conclusion of his year-long gang trial. That album, UY Scuti, was supposed to drop today, but the groundbreaking MC announced this week that the project had been postponed to sometime in June.

But don’t fret, because if you’re a hip-hop fan, today delivered what might be the best rap album of the year so far: billy woods’ GOLLIWOG. NPR Music’s Stephen Thompson welcomed WXPN’s John Morrison to New Music Friday to go deep on the dark, dramatic album, as well as new albums by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Gen Z pop star PinkPantheress and much more.

Listen to the show below beginning at 3 a.m. ET and scroll down to see our long list of albums out May 9.

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 Starting Five

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

💿 billy woods, GOLLIWOG

• Recommended If You Like: Saul Williams, Cannibal Ox

💿 Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke, Tall Tales

• RIYL: Radiohead, Sweet Exorcist

💿 PinkPantheress, Fancy That

• RIYL: K-Pop, TikTok

💿 MIKE & Tony Seltzer, Pinball II

• RIYL: Lex Luger, Earl Sweatshirt

💿 Mclusky, the world is still here and so are we

• RIYL: Pere Ubu, Melvins

The Lightning Round

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

💿 The Head and the Heart, Aperture

💿 Jazzanova, In Between Revisited: Jazzanova Live

💿 Cuco, Ridin’

💿 Andre 3000, 7 piano sketches

💿 Cole Pulice, Land’s End Eternal

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

• The Vernon Spring, Under a Familiar Sun
• Kara-Lis Coverdale, From Where You Came
• Joe Goddard, Kinetic EP
• Wilson Tanner, Legends
• Chaos in the CBD, A Deeper Life
• Nils Frahm, Night
• M83, A Necessary Escape OST
• V/A, Planet Mu 30
• Dinamarca and Ángel Ballesteros, pachamami
• QUINQUIS, eor
• Nicolas Bougaïeff, Prime Funktion EP
• Ransum, Road Fever EP

Country/Folk/Americana

• I’m With Her, Wild and Clear and Blue
• Blake Shelton, For Recreational Use Only
• Kristina Murray, Little Blue
• Jack Van Cleaf, JVC

Classical

• Barbara Hannigan, Electric Fields
• Bomsori Kim, Bruch & Korngold

Pop

• Erika de Casier, Lifetime
• Kali Uchis, Sincerely,
• Maren Morris, D R E A M S I C L E
• Kaleo, Mixed Emotions
• Kevin Olusola (Pentatonix), Dawn of a Misfit

Jazz

• Brandon Woody, For The Love Of It All

R&B/Soul

• Brandon, Before You Go

Rock/Alt/Indie

• Little Feat, Strike Up The Band
• Ringdown (Caroline Shaw), Lady on the Bike
• Arcade Fire, Pink Elephant
• Deradoorian, Ready for Heaven
• Sleep Token, Even in Arcadia
• Moon Rituals, Aura
• Preoccupations, Ill At Ease
• Moin, Belly Up
• Sunday (1994), Devotion EP
• Maia Friedman, Goodbye Long Winter Shadow
• The Wonder Years, Burst & Decay (Volume III)
• Npcede, s/t EP
• Spacey Jane, If That Makes Sense
• Unwed Sailor, Cruel Entertaiment
• Xmal Deutschland, Gift: The 4AD Years

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Credits

• Host: Stephen Thompson
• Guest: John Morrison, WXPN
• Producer: Simon Rentner
• Editors: Otis Hart and Elle Mannion
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Vice President, Music and Visuals: Keith Jenkins