New Music Friday: The best albums out Jan. 9

All Songs Considered

NPR

Music

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

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Summary

Dry Cleaning. Jenny on Holiday. An introspective debut from Mon Rovîa. Stephen Thompson from NPR Music is joined by Celia Gregory from WNXP in Nashville to talk about their favorite new albums out Friday, January 9.

The Starting 5

(00:00) Intro
(00:31) Dry Cleaning, 'Secret Love'
(06:53) Jenny on Holiday, 'Quicksand Heart'
(15:12) Mon Rovîa, 'Bloodline'
(21:22) Home Star, 'A Binding Life'
(27:07) Kris Davis and the Lutoslawski Quartet, 'The Solastalgia Suite'

The Lightning Round

• Zach Bryan, 'With Heaven On Top'
• The Cribs, 'Selling A Vibe'
• Pullman, 'III'
• Clémentine March, 'Powder Keg'
• Rawayana, '¿Dónde Es El After?'

Sample the albums via our New Music Friday playlist on NPR.org.

Credits
Host: Stephen Thompson
Guest: Celia Gregory, WNXP
Audio Producer: Noah Caldwell
Digital Producer: Elle Mannion
Editor: Otis Hart
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A quick note before the show, this podcast contains explicit language.
0:07.7	Happy Friday, everyone from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson, here with Celia Gregory from WNXP in Nashville. Welcome back to the show, Celia.
0:17.9	Thanks, Stephen. Happy New Year. Can we still say that? Are we within bounds? Or are we too past the point? Oh, I'm going to be writing Happy New Year into my conversations well into March and April. Okay. Happy New Year to you. Happy New Year. All right. Let's kick off the show. We've got a new album from Dry Cleaning. Dry Cleaning's new album is called Secret Love.
0:37.9	You've shown me last now.
0:40.5	I don't want to see anyone anymore.
0:42.9	Schools and hospitals and homes.
0:46.2	People are worse than you think.
0:47.9	There are people who really don't care.
0:53.6	Huh?
0:58.0	My naivety now.
1:06.0	Blood on my skin and hands and nails. And in my eyes as well, I tried to see
1:09.0	just really welcoming, really understanding when you relaxed and
1:13.5	open atmosphere it's usual to put these things to one side well Stephen I've been really excited about
1:22.7	this band for some time there's been a bit of a gap between their second and this, their third LP.
1:45.0	Stump work came out in 2022, but it was worth the wait, I think. This is really a cool thing from this British band because they worked with Kate LaBahn on this record. I knew I would like it once I learned. She had her production touch on it, and I think it does not disappoint. Yeah, and I mean, I think Kate LaBond's a interesting collaborator for them too, because if you listen to Kate Laban's music, it also has that mixture of kind of spare and
1:50.6	deadpan, but also kind of thoughtful and like able to kind of work these like little,
1:58.0	little jagged touches into the, into their sound. And, you know, it's, this is
2:02.9	going to sound like a really weird comparison. I know you've been a fan of dry cleaning for a while
2:06.8	now, and I've, you know, certainly like picked up their records as they've come out and liked
2:10.2	them. I am sometimes reminded listening to this band of the band Lowe.
2:15.6	Hmm, I get that. Even though the music basically sounds nothing alike.
2:20.0	Both artists take what seems like a very limited palette
	...

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