New Music Friday: Our Top 8 Albums Out Feb. 14 – NPR

February 14, 2020

New Music Friday: Our Top 8 Albums Out Feb. 14 : All Songs Considered : NPR

New Music Friday: Our Top 8 Albums Out Feb. 14 : All Songs Considered Tame Impala, the K-pop band Monsta X and a new solo album from Nathaniel Rateliff top our shortlist for this week’s best new releases.

Featured Albums:
1. Tame Impala — ‘The Slow Rush’
Featured Song: “Is It True?”
2. Monsta X — ‘All About Luv’
Featured Song: “Someone’s Someone”
3. The Ballroom Thieves — ‘Unlovely’
Featured Song: “Unlovely”
4. Carly Pearce — ‘Carly Pearce’
Featured Song: “Call Me”
5. The Heliocentrics — ‘Infinity of Now’
Featured Song: “People Wake Up!”
6. Nathaniel Rateliff — ‘And It’s Still Alright’
Featured Song: “Mavis”
7. Moses Boyd — ‘Dark Matter’
Featured Songs: “Dancing in the Dark” and “Shades of You”
8. Beach Bunny — Honeymoon
Featured Song: “Colorblind”

Other notable releases for Feb 14: Bambara — Stray; Cindy Lee — What’s Tonight to Eternity?; DRAMA — Dance Without Me; EDEN — No Future; Habibi — Anywhere But Here; Huey Lewis and the News — Weather; Justin Bieber — Changes; Katie Gately — Loom; Noah Gundersen — A Raven and a Dove; Puss N Boots — Sister; Tami Neilson — Chickaboom!; Tennis — Swimmer; yMusic — Ecstatic Science.

All Songs Considered

Kevin Parker, aka Tame Impala. His latest release, The Slow Rush, is on our shortlist of the best new albums out on Feb. 14. Neil Krug/Courtesy of the artist

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Neil Krug/Courtesy of the artist

It’s been five years since Tame Impala put out a new album, but the musical project of Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker is back, now with a groove-heavy but introspective banger called The Slow Rush. We kick this week’s show off with the song “Is It True?” We’ve also got new music from the band Monsta X, a K-pop group that’s making a big push for a global audience with its first-ever album in English. Nathaniel Rateliff returns, this time as a solo artist, with what may be his best batch of songs yet. And the percussionist Moses Boyd has a staggering new work called Dark Matter that melds multiple musical worlds in mind-blowing ways. All that plus the country singer Carly Pearce, psychedelic soundscapes from The Heliocentrics, the garage rock of Beach Bunny and more. Host Robin Hilton is joined by NPR Music’s Bobby Carter, Marissa Lorusso and Stephen Thompson, along with contributors Jewly Hight, Nate Chinen of WBGO and Jazz Night in America and John Morrison, host of XPN‘s Culture Cypher Radio and the podcast Serious Rap S***, as they share their picks for the best new albums out on Feb. 14. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Featured Albums:

  1. Tame Impala — The Slow Rush
    Featured Song: “Is It True?”
  2. Monsta X — All About Luv
    Featured Song: “Someone’s Someone”
  3. The Ballroom Thieves — Unlovely
    Featured Song: “Unlovely”
  4. Carly Pearce — Carly Pearce
    Featured Song: “Call Me”
  5. The Heliocentrics — Infinity of Now
    Featured Song: “People Wake Up!”
  6. Nathaniel Rateliff — And It’s Still Alright
    Featured Song: “Mavis”
  7. Moses Boyd — Dark Matter
    Featured Songs: “Dancing in the Dark” and “Shades of You”
  8. Beach Bunny — Honeymoon
    Featured Song: “Colorblind”

Other notable releases for Feb 14: Bambara — Stray; Cindy Lee — What’s Tonight to Eternity?; DRAMA — Dance Without Me; EDEN — No Future; Habibi — Anywhere But Here; Huey Lewis and the News — Weather; Justin Bieber — Changes; Katie Gately — Loom; Noah Gundersen — A Raven and a Dove; Puss N Boots — Sister; Tami Neilson — Chickaboom!; Tennis — Swimmer; yMusic — Ecstatic Science.