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National

New Music Friday: Our Top 7 Albums Out July 26

By Stefanie Fernández,  Robin Hilton,  Sidney Madden,  Stephen Thompson,  Anastasia Tsioulcas
Published July 26, 2019 at 2:00 AM PDT
This story was published more than 5 years ago.
Cuco is the solo project of 21-year-old Omar Banos. His album <em>Para Mí</em> is on our shortlist for this week's best new albums.
Courtesy of the artist
Cuco is the solo project of 21-year-old Omar Banos. His album Para Mí is on our shortlist for this week's best new albums.

Spoon is back — with a greatest hits album. Leading off this week's New Music Friday, Everything Hits At Once is a band-curated alternative to algorithm-manufactured playlists, with a stellar new track ("No Bullets Spent') thrown in. Also included on this week's shortlist are Nigerian Afrobeat star Burna Boy's African Giant, a mind-blowing live recording of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's 1985 performance at WOMAD, YBN Cordae's sometimes nostalgic — but always playful — The Lost Boy, and more. NPR's Sidney Madden, Stephen Thompson, Anastasia Tsioulcas and Stefanie Fernández join host Robin Hilton as they share their picks for the best new albums out on July 26.

Featured Albums:

  • Spoon: Everything Hits At Once
    Featured Song: "No Bullets Spent"

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  • YBN Cordae: The Lost Boy
    Featured Song: "Thanksgiving"

  • Burna Boy: African Giant
    Featured Song: "Show and Tell"

  • Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Live at WOMAD, 1985
    Featured Song: "Allah Hu"

  • Mikey Erg: Waxbuilt Castles
    Featured Songs: "Clueless Or Cruel?"

  • Florist: Emily Alone
    Featured Song: "Celebration"

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  • Cuco: Para Mí
    Featured Song: "Keeping Tabs"

    • Other notable releases for July 26: Bill Ryder-Jones - Yawny Yawn; BJ the Chicago Kid - 1123; Of Monsters and Men - Fever Dream; Strange Ranger - Remembering the Rockets; Violent Femmes - Hotel Last Resort; Various: Original Broadway cast recording of Hadestown.

    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.
    Sidney Madden
    Sidney Madden is a reporter and editor for NPR Music. As someone who always gravitated towards the artforms of music, prose and dance to communicate, Madden entered the world of music journalism as a means to authentically marry her passions and platform marginalized voices who do the same.
    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.)
    Anastasia Tsioulcas
    Anastasia Tsioulcas is a correspondent on NPR's Culture desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including the trial and conviction of former R&B superstar R. Kelly; backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; and gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards.
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