New Music Friday: The best releases out on April 7
Yaeji. Dasom Han/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Canadian R&B star Daniel Caesar broke into the mainstream on the strength of collaborations such as 2016's "Get You" (with Kali Uchis), 2017's Grammy-winning "Best Part" (with H.E.R.) and Justin Bieber's 2021 chart-topper "Peaches." But his new album, Never Enough, doesn't pile on the big-name guests, opting instead to lay down soft-focus showcases for Caesar's rich falsetto.
We've also got new albums from the guitar-heavy country-shoegaze powerhouse Wednesday, the inventive (and Madlib-approved) Virginia rapper Fly Anakin, the boundary-stretching electro-pop singer and producer Yaeji and the mellow, dreamy, harp-forward, R&B-inflected jazz of Brandee Younger. On this week's New Music Friday episode, Artimacy podcast host Keanna Faircloth, WXPN's John Morrison and NPR Music's Lars Gotrich join guest host Stephen Thompson.
Featured Albums:
- Daniel Caesar — Never Enough
Featured Songs: "Do You Like Me?," "Ocho Rios," "Let Me Go" - Wednesday — Rat Saw God
Featured Songs: "Chosen to Deserve," "Hot Rotten Grass Smell," "Bull Believer" - Fly Anakin — Skinemaxxx (Side A)
Featured Songs: "Blicky Bop," "Love Song (Grand Marquis Version)" - Yaeji — With a Hammer
Featured Songs: "Fever," "Passed Me By," "Ready or Not" - Brandee Younger — Brand New Life
Featured Songs: "Livin' and Lovin' in My Own Way," "Brand New Life," "Dust"
Lightning Round:
- Walter Smith III — return to casual
- Shame Gang — Better Late Than Never
- Braid — Frame & Canvas (25th Anniversary Edition)
- Overcoats — Winner
- Daughter — Stereo Mind Game
Other notable releases for April 7:
- Billie Marten — Drop Cherries
- Blondshell — Blondshell
- Cub Sport — Jesus at the Gay Bar
- Desire Marea — On the Romance of Being
- Ellie Goulding — Higher Than Heaven
- Genevieve Stokes — Catching Rabbits
- Heather Woods Broderick — Labyrinth
- Jana Horn — The Window Is the Dream
- Mudhoney — Plastic Eternity
- µ-Ziq — 1977
- NF — HOPE
- Oracle Sisters — Hydranism
- Rae Sremmurd — Sremm 4 Life
- Robbie Fulks — Bluegrass Vacation
- Ruston Kelly — The Weakness
- Susanna Hoffs — The Deep End
- Thomas Bangalter — Mythologies
- Tim Hecker — No Highs
- Worriers — Warm Blanket