New Music Friday: The Top 8 Albums Out On April 3
Thundercat. His latest, It Is What It Is, is one of our picks for the week's best new albums. Parker Day/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
The singer, producer, bassist and songwriter Thundercat is part goofball, part deep-thinker with a gift for crafting adventurous songs that always surprise. His latest solo album, It Is What It Is, reflects on the baffling nature of life with equal parts humor and heartache. We dig into the record on this week's New Music Friday, along with the latest from M. Ward, country singers Ashley McBryde and Sam Hunt, the ambient cello artist Clarice Jensen, the mind-blowing Nnamdi Ogbonnaya and more. Host Robin Hilton is joined by NPR Music's Ann Powers and Stephen Thompson, and host of XPN's Culture Cypher Radio and the podcast Serious Rap S*** John Morrison as they share their picks for the best albums out on April 3.
Featured Albums:
- M. Ward — Migration Stories
Featured Song: "Unreal City" - Ashley McBryde — Never Will
Featured Song: "Martha Divine" - NNAMDÏ — BRAT
Featured Song: "Salut" - Wilma Archer — A Western Circular
Featured Songs: "Last Sniff" and "Killing Crab" - Thundercat — It Is What It Is
Featured Song: "Fair Chance" - Clarice Jensen — The Experience of Repetition as Death
Featured Song: "Day Tonight" - Anna Burch — If You're Dreaming
Featured Song: "Can't Sleep" - Sam Hunt — Southside
Featured Song: "Hard to Forget"
Other notable albums out on April 3: All Time Low — Wake Up Sunshine; Born Ruffians — JUICE; Caleb Caudle — Better Hurry Up; Ellis — Born Again; The Lovely Eggs — I Am Moron; Nina Simone — Fodder On My Wings; Peel Dream Magazine — Agitprop Alterna; Purity Ring — Womb; Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn — Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn; Yves Tumor — Heaven to a Tortured Mind.