New Music Friday: The best albums out March 20

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🗓️ 20 March 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

BTS. Alex Isley. Dubstep-infused hyperpop from underscores. NPR Music's Hazel Cills chats with Francesca Harding of member station KCRW in Los Angeles about their favorite albums out Friday, March 20. Plus, a handful of NPR Music writers and critics offer personal picks in our lightning round.

The Starting 5

(00:00) Introduction & BTS, 'ARIRANG'
(02:28) Alex Isley, 'When The City Sleeps'
(07:52) underscores, 'U'
(15:38) ZENA, 'TEMESGEN'
(20:39) Grace Ives, 'Girlfriend'
(26:16) Suitor, 'Saw You Out With The Weeds'

(32:23) The Lightning Round

- Ali & Charif Megarbane, 'Tirakat'
- Naomi Scott, 'F.I.G.'
- Samara Cyn, 'Detour' EP
- Immanuel Wilkins Quartet, 'Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol.1'
- Luke Combs, 'The Way I Am'

Sample the albums via our New Music Friday playlist and see our Long List of notable releases on NPR.org

Credits:
Host: Hazel Cills
Guest: Francesca Harding, KCRW
Audio Producer: Noah Caldwell
Digital Producer: Dora Levite
Editors: Otis Hart, Elle Mannion
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Special thanks to Rodney Carmichael, Ann Powers and Stephen Thompson

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Happy Friday, everyone. I'm Hazel Sills, an editor at NPR Music filling in for Stephen Thompson this week.
0:14.4	Each week on New Music Friday, we speak to a member of the NPR Music Network, and today, March 20th, I am here with Francesca Harding from KCRW in Los Angeles.
0:24.5	Hey, Francesca. Hi, Hazel. Thanks for having me. This is a really big release day. I feel like there are a lot of
0:31.5	A-listers releasing music today. Did you feel that way? I felt the exact same way. Lucky us.
0:37.4	It was not easy to whittle down.
0:39.1	Yeah.
0:39.7	Huge releases out today.
0:41.0	Some of my favorite releases of the year are out today.
0:44.3	But we have to start by talking about a major release that dropped today.
0:50.0	Unfortunately, we didn't get in advance for it, but we can tell you what we know, which
0:54.1	is the new album by the K-pop boy band, BTS.
0:57.3	It's titled, ARI-Rong.
0:58.6	So this is a kind of a major event in music.
1:11.6	I mean, this is like the band's 10th album.
1:14.6	It's their first album in over three years.
1:17.6	And it's also an album that's coming out after a big hiatus for the group.
1:21.6	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, required military service in Korea.
1:31.1	You know, I think that it's an album that is going to give us, like, you know,
1:35.5	what people really expect from BTS, like huge pop bangers.
1:39.6	But I was pleasantly surprised to see the list of contributors for this album.
1:43.5	There are some names that I wouldn't expect on a K-pop boy band album. You know, people like Diplo,
1:46.1	Flume, Mike Will Made It, Kevin Parker of Tamun Pala, all those people working on the production
	...

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