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National

New Music Friday: Our Top 7 Albums Out On April 5

By Robin Hilton,  Stephen Thompson,  Ann Powers
Published April 5, 2019 at 2:00 AM PDT
This story was published more than 5 years ago.
<em>Titanic Rising, </em>from the artist known as Weyes Blood, is on our short list for the best new albums out on April 5.
Kathryn Vetter Miller
/
Courtesy of the artist
Titanic Rising, from the artist known as Weyes Blood, is on our short list for the best new albums out on April 5.

We open this week's New Music Friday with a quick spin of Love Keeps Kicking from the self-described queer, straight edge, vegan, anarchist punk band Martha. One of the week's best guitar rock albums, it's bursting with hooky melodies and memorable meditations on (among other things) the end of times. Also on the show: the insanely talented R&B singer and songwriter Khalid returns with his sophomore full-length Free Spirit, veteran soul singer Lee Fields delivers an ode to enduring love, and the artist known as Weyes Blood drops Titanic Rising, an album of celestial pop that will likely end up on a lot of year-end, best-of lists. Hear those and more as host Robin Hilton, NPR Music's Lyndsey McKenna, Ann Powers and Stephen Thompson run through their picks for the best new albums out on April 5.

Featured Albums:

  • Martha: Love Keeps Kicking
    Featured Song: "Heart is Healing"

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  • Khalid: Free Spirit
    Featured Song: "Twenty One"

  • Lee Fields and the Expressions: It Rains Love
    Featured Song: "A Promise is a Promise"

  • Weyes Blood: Titanic Rising
    Featured Songs: "Movies" and "A lot's Gonna Change"

  • PUP: Morbid Stuff
    Featured Songs: "Morbid Stuff" and "See You At Your Funeral"

  • Molly Tuttle: When You're Ready
    Featured Song: "Take the Journey"

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  • Ages and Ages: Me You They We
    Featured Song: "Just My Luck"

    • Other notable releases for April 5: Brooks & Dunn: Reboot; Girli: Odd One Out; Idlewild: Interview Music; Lady Lamb: Even in the Tremor; Lissie: When I'm Alone: The Piano Retrospective; Priests: The Seduction of Kansas; Reba McEntire: Stronger Than the Truth.

    Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

    National
    Robin Hilton
    Robin Hilton is a producer and co-host of the popular NPR Music show All Songs Considered.
    Stephen Thompson
    Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. 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.)
    Ann Powers
    Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music programs.
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