You know that mind-expanding feeling when an album — even one that fits solidly in a familiar genre — gives you something that feels brand new? This week on New Music Friday from All Songs Considered, NPR Music's Daoud Tyler-Ameen and Ann Powers find an abundance of brand-new records that push boundaries.
These ambitious albums, all out Aug. 30, represent a range of styles, energies and motivations. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds deliver their sweeping rock epic Wild God (you can also read Ann's interview with Nick Cave). Doechii gives us the shape-shifting Alligator Bites Never Heal. Laurie Anderson's Amelia obsesses with the minutia of flight mechanics while still being capable of inducing swooning emotions as it puts the listener in the cockpit for the final flight of the album's namesake aviation pioneer.
Plus: In the face of all these huge artistic swings, Ann and Daoud consider the state of art-rock, a musical category that has meant many different things to many different listeners over the years.
Featured albums
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Wild God
- Doechii, Alligator Bites Never Heal
- Enumclaw, Home In Another Life
- Ellen Reid, Big Majestic
- Laurie Anderson, Amelia
- Jon Hopkins, Ritual
Other notable albums out Aug. 30
- Emily D'Angelo, Freezing
- AWOLNATION, The Phantom Five
- Big Sean, Better Me Than You
- Shemekia Copeland, Blame It on Eve
- Tycho, Infinite Health
- Zedd, Telos
- Chelsea Wolfe, Undone EP
- Tank & the Bangas, The Heart, The Mind, The Soul
- The Cactus Blossoms, Every Time I Think About You
- Caleb Caudle, Sweet Critters
- Amy Rigby, Hang in There With Me
- Noah Kahan, Stick Season (Live From Fenway Park)
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