From WQXR and Carnegie Hall comes Classical Music Happy Hour, a new podcast hosted by me, pianist Maniacs. Each episode will speak with a special guest, listen to musical gems, play music-inspired games, and answer questions from our listeners. The first episode drops March 4th. Listen on the NPR app! Happy Friday everyone! I'm Hazel Sills, an editor at MPR Music, filling in for Stephen Thompson this week. Each week on New Music Friday, we speak to a member of the MPR Music Network, and today, March 20th, I am here with Francesca Harding from KCRW in Los Angeles. Hey Francesca! Hi Hazel, thanks for having me. This is a really big release day. I feel like there are a lot of A-listers releasing music today. Did you, did you feel that way? I felt the exact same way. Lucky us, it was not easy to whittle down. Yeah, huge releases out today. Some of my favorite releases of the year are out today, but we have to start by talking about a major release that dropped today. Unfortunately, we didn't get in advance for it, but we can tell you what we know, which is the new album by the K-pop boy band BTS. It's titled Ari Wrong. So this is a kind of a major event in music. I mean, this is like the band's 10th album. It's their first album in over three years, and it's also an album that's coming out after a big hiatus for the group. You know, all seven members had to complete their, you know, required military service in Korea. You know, I think that it's an album that is going to give us like, you know, what people really expect from BTS, like huge pop bangers. But I was pleasantly surprised to see the list of contributors for this album. There are some names that I wouldn't expect on a K-pop boy band album, you know, people like Diplo, Floom, Mike Will made it, Kevin Parker of Tamon Pala, all those people working on the production for this album. So it makes me think that BTS is, you know, entering a new era, maybe something slightly more experimental for them. It's also so nice to see that they have contributed so much in their careers, that they're able to take that kind of a hiatus, and people are still waiting for them. No one has moved on. We still want to hear from them. They still have more to say. And at this point in their career, they have earned this right, right, to experiment with different collaborators. And so I think that they've definitely taken that right and spread their wings and good on them. Yeah, people have been waiting. But we should talk about an album that we did get in full. It is the new album from Alex Eisley, and it's titled When the City Sleeps. I'm really excited about this Alex Eisley project, 15 songs and all, which I think number one is interesting. You don't necessarily get R&B projects that are that lengthy. But I listened through a couple of times and she doesn't leave the audience behind. I think every single song is dynamic enough and interesting enough from front to end. Her vocals sound buttery. I think the songwriting is really interesting. So I really enjoyed it. Yeah, buttery is such a great way to describe her music. I mean, she has really cultivated this soft, you know, sultry kind of like 90s R&B sound. And you know, what I loved about this album is that it's sexy, it's slinky, but it's also kind of existential. It's really this kind of like late night thinking album, thinking about relationships, thinking about love. I mean, even the title track, she sings about how she can't sleep at night because there's like too much truth at night, which really spoke to me as someone who regularly has insomnia. I feel like she put that really beautifully. But yeah, you're right that she really never leaves the audience behind. And she even working in a very specific sound, she manages to go in a lot of different directions on this album. One of my favorite stands outs on the record is Mike On. Yeah, there's a swag to it. There's kick to it. But she sounds so again, buttery on the instrumentation. I love the way her voice rides the beat. But it is it's like this songwriting that she delivers. It feels vulnerable. It feels really honest. I like that you called it existential because she is getting a bit ready in the way that she is writing. Yeah, Mike On is one of those songs that it almost feels like an outlier on the album. It's like she's really turning the heat up on that track in a way that I really love and appreciate. It's just a stand out. But yeah, it is a thinky album at times. And I was kind of surprised by that. I mean, there is another song that really stood out to me on this album titled Alone, which is it's a gorgeous track. And it's really a song about kind of anticipating being with someone and sort of like being in your head, thinking about all the things that you're going to do with someone when you finally see them. And it's yeah, the writing on this album is just is very, very strong. I really enjoy that there are so many songs dedicated to Los Angeles songs like West Side and PCH. I love an homage to the city. I'm from Los Angeles, so I am partial to Southern California. And then PCH, I believe, is the only song that has a guest vocalist, Sid of the Internet. She's also a solo artist in her own right. But the two of them sound like angelic songbirds humming to one another. It's 100% my favorite song on the project. That was When the City Sleeps by Alex Isley. So we're going to go in a different direction next with a new album that I really, really love. It's kind of kooky. It is by an artist known as underscores and the album is titled You, just capital letter U. So underscores is the artist April Harper Gray, a songwriter, producer who originally started, you know, making music in middle school, posting music on SoundCloud, a young artist who really grew up online. And the music definitely sounds very online. It's glitchy. It's clubby. There's a little bit of hyper pop and like dubstep in here. And something that I think is fascinating about this album is that she has kind of described it as being written in these liminal spaces like airports, malls and supermarkets, which those are such boring, stagnant places. And there is absolutely nothing stagnant about this album. It is an album that is just full of energy. I mean, there's a track on this album titled Music that is, you know, basically compares the high of being with someone to the high of like experiencing really great music, which I feel like is just like a thesis statement for this album. I mean, the instrumentation almost sounds like a machine gun. I don't know if that was intentional, but it really is. It's like, Hey, I'm here. I love that she led with that song. But also in general, can I say I stan a woman producer? Oh, of course. A femme identifying producer. I also love that she, you know, she starts out as this dubstep producer. And as she, you know, goes along in her career trajectory, you know, she's beginning to take chances. She's incorporating other genres, other elements into her sound, but not leaving her dubstep core. So I really feel like her production, her music is really a call to the modern listener, because the modern listener is able to take chances once to take chances, doesn't necessarily want one single genre from their favorite band or their favorite artists. They want their favorite bands to experiment. So I really think that she hit the nail on the head with this one. Yeah, it's a really strong statement as a producer, this album, I felt like. I mean, she is a real world builder. And also, you know, before this album, I kind of thought of underscores as this like left field electronic artists, you know, in that dubstep world. And I was really kind of pleasantly surprised at how many songs on this album. They felt like they could be top 40 mainstream pop hits in another universe. Like, there's this song in Nwendo, I Get You, on this album that has this kind of, you know, metallic, aggressive production that reminded me of like early 2000s pop music. Like I hear like, Aliyah's more than a woman or like, Britney's Slave for You, but but the every dial on the track is like turned like it's playing through a broken speaker or something. I love that you are making those comparisons to a Britney to Aliyah. Now that you say something, I think that's such an astute observation. And for example, a song like Love Field is so lyrically rich. And I can 100% again, hear it on, you know, a top 40 station like you're saying. But then again, she doesn't abandon this ability to take risks with her production. And so it feels like her, it feels like an underscores album. So that was the album You by the Artist underscores. We've got to take a quick break here, but coming up we have new albums from artists Zina, Gray Sives and more. From WQXR and Carnegie Hall comes classical music happy hour, a new podcast hosted by me, pianist Maniacs. Each episode will speak with a special guest, listen to musical gems, play music inspired games and answer questions from our listeners. The first episode drops March 4th. Listen on the NPR app. I'm Hazel Sills. It's New Music Friday. I'm here with Francesca Harding of KCRW talking about the best albums out today. Francesca, I'm curious, like what is coming up at KCRW that you can tell us about? We've got so much going on. I mean, one of the things that I love about KCRW, our summer series, we call it summer nights. It's just this wonderful way to connect with, you know, our audience, IRL in real life. Sometimes when you're in the studio and you're talking in the mic, you're like, am I talking to myself? Is anybody out there? Is there an ear on the other side of this mic? So just being able to kind of get out into the community and see people and talk, you know, to faithful listeners, that's amazing. And you also have, you know, your own show. Can you tell me about your show and the kind of artists that you play on that show? I am on weekly every Tuesday beginning at 8 p.m. Pacific time. I'm on for two hours. You can always catch the archive if you don't happen to be awake and buy your radios at that time. But it really is at the core, just a cross-genre show. And I hope that it's a cross-generational show in terms of the listeners that are attracted to the music. When I first started about four and a half years ago, the tagline of the show was music to make you feel, which is very broad because every single type of emotion, you know, can be elicited by different types of genres. But I play everything, you know, world music, a lot of indie bands from LA. If it moves me, you'll hear it on the show. Hell yeah. So I want to go next to an album that I know that you are a big fan of, which is an album titled Temescan from the jazz duo Zina. Just what she said you are. I have been so excited about Zina since I heard about their existence. I think it was last December. So they, you know, are very recently on my radar, but they're everything that I want in music. They blend different genres. They're a duo based in London, an ethio jazz kind of outfit. That's taking Ethiopian traditional rhythms and blending it with R&B and soul and funk and, you know, kind of jazz sensibilities. Wherever Zina goes, I will follow. Yeah, it's, you can really hear that wide range of influences on this album because yes, I know they're a band that is very invested in kind of excavating and playing like Ethiopian music. And, but I also, I read an interview with them where they talked about, you know, growing up listening to D'Angelo and like Parliament Funkadelic. And I really hear that on this album. I mean, there's a song titled, you know, Long Time No Speak that feels like a very, like, chill, extremely laid back, funky song. And so it's just really interesting to hear them take all of these influences that they've grown up with and put it together for a really beautiful album. So I'm very happy that you mentioned Long Time No Speak. So that song begins the first minute is this conversation, I think, between maybe two former lovers, but it's so sexy. It's just a sexy song. And I heard that they were trying to explore even the sexier side of Ethiopian music, a side that we don't necessarily hear all of the time. So I think they do a really brilliant job of that for sure. They employ a lot of synths that synth sound in their music. That's just so dreamy. The project itself is not long. It's a five song project, but I really do think that those five songs pack a punch. It starts with a self titled song called Xena, which is like the shortest song on the EP that's very spacey and outer world. You know, it just takes this big chance, but lets you know that they're willing to be left of center. Yeah, cosmic was, you said spacey with the synths and cosmic was a word that kept coming up for me, especially on that, you know, song Xena. I just felt like I was being lifted up into a spaceship or something when I was listening to it. The synths on it are very tangerine dream. So it's, yeah, it is a very, it's an exciting project because they are just taking, you know, it's kind of like with the underscores album that we talked about, you know, young artists who are really sort of collaging all of these different influences like across the world and through different genres into a really exciting release. And the keyboardist is a part of coca roco. And I'm a big coca roco fan. I've been following them for a while. So I'm not surprised that this side project I'm such a fan of. But yeah, I just think that this very short project EP has something for everybody. That was Xena with their EP, Temiskin. So the next album I want to talk about is from an artist named Grace Ives. And this album is titled Girlfriend. I stopped the ending to my favorite song and it shouldn't even matter but I can't let it go. And I want, want, want and I take, take, take feeling sorry and I'm sorry for the mess that I make. Ah, come down like another lunch. This is where I came from. So Grace Ives is this, you know, kind of alternative pop artist. You know, I first discovered her when she released her second album, Janky Star, back in 2022. And what I love about her music is how kind of small scale it is. You know, she kind of demos and makes a lot of her songs with Roland MC 505. And it gives the music this really kind of whimsical, you know, minimalist quality. But what's really interesting about this new album from her girlfriend is that I feel like Grace Ives really kind of gets out of that indie pop, you know, bedroom pop comfort zone. I think that she takes really big swings on this album without sacrificing that kind of intimacy of her earlier work. I mean, there's a song on here titled My Manz, which I just loved. And it has this insanely epic chorus with this like dramatic piano where she, you know, is singing about how she, you know, needs a lover who can love her right back. And it just feels like such a big track for her. Epic is spot on. I was feeling the same thing as I was listening through this record. Sometimes, unexpectedly, there would be strings incorporated into a song like On Fire that I wasn't expecting. And then all of a sudden, I'm like, wait, this feels so cinematic. You know, this feels almost dramatic. And I think that she's just an artist who knows what she's doing. I can't imagine that artists enjoy being compared to other artists who were maybe, you know, came before them or more established. But I kept coming back to this idea that she feels like this generation's Annie DeFranco, just really honest. Yeah. And understanding, well, maybe not taking herself too seriously that she has a voice, she has something to say, and that what she contributes is important. So that was kind of my feeling as I moved through the album. But she knows what she's doing. I kept thinking, you know, this is an album of like big feelings, but also like self-awareness of your big feelings. Like I felt like she was kind of, you know, winking at us as listeners a little bit. You know, you mentioned cinematic, like that is also something that I felt listening to so much of this album. And you mentioned that song Fire, which is such a great track, but it almost has this kind of like heartbroken cowboy, like almost like spring steam, like swagger. Yeah. It's interesting because she has said that, you know, she wanted to keep her instrumentation really small early on and kind of minimalist early on because she wanted to hold on to her fans and kind of have them grow with her. And, you know, I hear this album, it's not really a pivot so much as it is like a growth of what she was doing before. And you said the word feelings, I have a note that was listening to dance with me. And the note is I'm feeling all the feelings. Yeah. So we were on the exact same page. This is an album for feeling all of your feelings. 10 out of 10, no notes, no skips. So that album was titled Girlfriend by the artist Gray Sives. We had to take a quick break, but when we come back, some more of our favorite albums out today. So another album that I wanted to talk about today is Saw You Out With The Weeds from a band I was not super familiar with until this release. The band is titled Souter. So this is a band from Cleveland, Ohio. This is their second album. And it is just a very addictive, like post-punk influenced rock album. And something that I think is so fascinating about it is that it was recorded live. And it just retains the energy and the rawness of live performance in the music itself in a way that I really love and appreciate. I feel like lead singer Emma Shepard's vocals and the band's instruments, they kind of bleed together at times in this wall of sound, which is, you know, I really love. I hear that especially on a track like Model Actress. Like sometimes we kind of lose her in the mix, but it all works for me because I feel like I'm like standing in the venue watching them perform altogether and I just feel like enveloped in their energy. Their sound is just so cohesive. I believe they formed in 2020, their debut album dropped in 2021. I would have thought that they were a band much longer because their sound just blends so well together. Also not surprised that they're from Cleveland. There's a lot of talent coming out of Cleveland. Tell me more. What? I didn't know. James Gang, anybody? Kid Gutty? I think Nine Inch Nails might be from Cleveland, Ohio. I mean, I've never been to Cleveland myself, but I just imagine it as this bastion of kids just, you know, taking chances with their electric guitars and doing, you know, wild things with their instruments that most of us would never dream of. So I really enjoy Souter. When I'm on air on KCRW, I'm always yearning for songs with a little kick and a little drive and pace. And so Souter, this new album has everything that I really want. Kick is a good way of putting it. It's an album to like wake you up. And, you know, they are a band that is kind of part of, I guess, this like post-punk revival that's been, you know, happening for a few years now in Indie Rock. You have bands like Horse Girl, Dry Cleaning. You know, what I think is really distinctive about, you know, Souter is they're kind of working in that space, but there's also something kind of like messy in a good way, like sludgy about their music. Like, I listen to a song called Generator and it doesn't have that like rhythmic post-punk sound so much as it has kind of like a almost like a shoe gaze edge to it. And so there's definitely like, you know, breadth on this album, even for this, you know, very specific sound that they're cultivating. Yeah, they're definitely coloring outside of the lines a little bit and Generator felt so dramatic. Emma's voice sounds a bit haunting. And then there's like this drum and bass pattern that just feels so relentless. It almost feels like you're getting chased through like a darkened circus and you don't know where the exit is, you know, but in this great way. So I do appreciate that they're able to kind of just do things on their own terms. Being chased in a haunted circus, I didn't realize that that's actually what I want from most music, but you're making me realize that that is a vibe that I'm missing and need more of in my life. I also do want to shout out something interesting about this album is that it was recorded with members of another favorite, you know, kind of punk band of mine sweeping promises. And they are a very like also in kind of this like, you know, noisy post-punk school. And I really feel like you can hear their influence on this recording process and this album, especially in songs like, you know, in the country, which is another one of those like, wit fast, super tight, very punk, like a song to start the pit with. Pest in the time, pest in my mind, there's a program on, there's a fire in the dark, shampoo in the shirt, slime naked, a pistol water, a retiree. And that was Saw You Out With the Weeds from the band, Souter. So now we're going to go to a lightning round to talk about, you know, some more incredible releases out today, you know, some picks from people across the MPR Music team and universe. But Francesca, I want to start with you. What is another album out today that you want to talk about? I want to talk about Ali and Sharif Megherbane's Tira Cat. So Ali, they are a trio out of Jakarta, making Indonesian psychedelic funk and disco grooves. Sharif Megherbane is a composer, multi-instrumentalist out of Lebanon exploring kind of Arabic rhythms. And so they've come together on a collaborative album. It's 13 tracks just full of blending those sensibilities together. I also want to shout out the Habibi Funk label. They are notorious for releasing these compilations that, you know, highlights and push forward Arabic funk music from around the world. But it really is one of my top albums, at least so far in 2026, Ali and Sharif Megherbane's Tira Cat. Very cool. And I have heard that and it is a real, really cool, funky album. I also wanted to shout out an album from the actress and singer Naomi Scott. It's her debut album, Fig, aka Fall Into Grace. It's this really tight sort of 80s influenced pop album. And if anyone listening has seen the horror movie Smile 2, it stars Naomi Scott as a pop star. You know she is insanely talented and I'm really glad to hear her, you know, kind of make music on her own terms here. I'm feeling the truth, make it clean, say it to me, you can't be with the way. Rodney Carmichael, give us your pick this week. What's up y'all? This week I'm digging on the latest from Samara Sin, who is back with a new EP called Detour. And she's been one of the bright spots in hip hop for me over the past year or two, especially since dropping her full-length debut, The Drive Home, in 2024. Stringer hits for the likes of Bruno Mars, Victoria Monet, her. But Samara is also not scared to challenge expectation or push past convention. And Detour is exactly that. It's a seven song EP with melodic rap and gauzy R&B, a little spoken word that dances between alternative and indie pop without ever going overboard on either one of those. It feels like a declaration of independence from an artist who's still introducing herself, but also refusing to be pinned down by any one song. As Samara Sin with Detour. And Anne and Pyramusic critic and correspondent, what do you want to shout out today? My lightning round pick for today is Live at the Village Vanguard, volume one, by the Emmanuel Wilkins Quartet. The Quartet are alongside Wilkins, Quake Usumbri on drums, Rihoma Takanaga on bass, and Micah Thomas on piano. It's the same one that he brought to the Tiny Desk not long ago. So if you love that session, you will absolutely dig this record. They're super locked in. They're able to roll with all of Wilkins' ideas, which play out here in three original compositions and a totally transformed 18-minute version of Alice Coltrane's devotional song, Cherenam. This set expresses what it means to, you know, really develop disciplined interplay that leaves a lot of room for surprises. You can really feel the vibe in the legendary room, the Village Vanguard, and the energy of all the greats who've played there before Wilkins and his crew. Volume one is out this week, and there'll be two more coming in April and May. That's Emmanuel Wilkins Quartet, Live at the Village Vanguard, volume one. And Stephen, who typically hosts this show, what do you want to talk about today? Hey, everybody, and many thanks to Hazel for hosting while I recuperate from covering the Oscars. The country star Luke Combs has become one of the most reliable hitmakers around. He even crossed over to the pop charts a few years ago with his cover of Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. His new sixth album is out today. It's full of vibrant, approachable country songs, many of which have already become hits. Eight of them were released in the run-up to this moment, but the whole record is 22 songs long, so there's lots more to discover. Now that it's finally out, Luke Combs' new album is called The Way I Am. And that is our show for this week. Thank you so much, Francesca, for taking time out of your week at KCRW in Los Angeles to come and talk to me about all of these great albums out today. So fun talking to you. It was my pleasure. We got to make this a weekly thing, just you and I, on our own time. I think we do. I think we kind of do. If you enjoyed this week's show, we always appreciate a positive review on Apple or Spotify or whatever app you're listening to right now. This episode was produced by Noah Caldwell in Al-Manyan and edited by Otis Hart. Our production assistant is Dora Levitt. The executive producer of Empire Music is Sareeha Mohamed. Stephen Thompson will be back next week to discuss new music with Alisa Ali from WFUV in New York. Until then, take a moment to be well and treat yourself to lots of great music.
