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New Music Friday: The best albums out Feb. 14

Bartees Strange's Horror is one of our favorite albums out Feb. 14.
Elizabeth De La Piedra
/
Courtesy of 4AD
Bartees Strange's Horror is one of our favorite albums out Feb. 14.

It's Friday, which means dozens of new albums hit streaming services in the middle of the night. NPR Music's Stephen Thompson welcomes Nate Chinen of Philadelphia's WRTI to New Music Friday to discuss the best records out on Valentine's Day 2025.


The Starting 5

  • Bartees Strange, Horror
  • Denison Witmer, Anything At All
  • Marshall Allen, New Dawn
  • Sullivan Fortner, Southern Nights
  • John Patitucci, Spirit Fall

Other notable albums out Feb. 14

Pop

  • Drake & PartyNextDoor, $OME $EXY $ONGS 4 U
  • Mallrat, Light hit my face like a straight right
  • Alessia Cara, Love and Hyperbole
  • Morgan Saint, Out of the Blue

Rock/Alt/Indie

  • Horsegirl, Phonetics On And On
  • The Lumineers, Automatic
  • Richard Dawson, End of the Middle
  • Califone, The Villagers Companion
  • Cathedrale, Poison
  • Cryogeyser, s/t
  • Das Beat, Frau Fatal
  • Doves, Constellations for the Lonely
  • James Felice, The Little Ones
  • Mereba, The Breeze Grew a Fire
  • Oracle Sisters, Divinations
  • Saint Motel, Symphony in the Sky
  • Thala, Avalanche
  • The Velveteers, A Million Knives
  • The Wombats, Oh! The Ocean

Country/Folk/Americana

  • The War & Treaty, Plus One
  • Chatham Rabbits, Be Real With Me
  • Ron Pope, American Man, American Music

R&B/Soul

  • John Glacier, Like A Ribbon
  • The Altons, Heartache in Room 14
  • Candi Staton, Back To My Roots
  • THEY., LOVE.JONES

Rap/Hip-Hop

  • Brother Ali & Ant, Satisfied Soul
  • OhGeesy, Paid N Full
  • Westside Gunn, 12

Jazz

  • Anna Gréta, Some Other Time
  • Sachal Vasandani, Best Life Now
  • Mathias Eick, Kristjan Randalu, Ole Morten Vågan, Hans Hulbækmo, Lullaby
  • Yuval Cohen Quartet, Winter Poems

Classical

  • Lei Liang, Dui
  • London Symphony Orchestra, Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
  • Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Stravinsky: Pulcinella, Le Baiser de la fée (Divertimento)

Electronic/Out There

  • Raven, GNOSIS
  • BLOND:ISH, Never Walk Alone
  • GAIKO, GAIKO
  • Immersion & SUSS, Nanocluster Vol. 3
  • Jean Claude Vannier, et son orchestre de mandolines

Credits

  • Host: Stephen Thompson
  • Guest: Nate Chinen (WRTI)
  • Producer: Simon Rentner
  • Editor: Otis Hart
  • Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
  • Vice President, Music & Visuals: Keith Jenkins

Copyright 2025 NPR

Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson is a host, writer and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist and guest host on All Songs Considered. Thompson also co-hosts the daily NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created with NPR's Linda Holmes in 2010. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
Nate Chinen
[Copyright 2024 WRTI Your Classical and Jazz Source]