New Music Friday: The best albums out May 22

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🗓️ 22 May 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

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Summary

Aja Monet. Jack Antonoff's Bleachers. Radiohead's Ed O'Brien. Guest host Ann Powers chats with Aurora McGuckin of MVY Radio in Massachusetts about their favorite albums out Friday, May 22. Plus, a handful of NPR Music writers and critics offer their personal picks in the lightning round.

The Starting 5

(00:00) Bleachers, 'everyone for ten minutes'
(06:55) JPEGMAFIA, 'EXPERIMENTAL RAP'
(12:49) Ed O'Brien, 'Blue Morpho'
(19:01) aja monet, 'the color of rain'
(25:19) Lowertown, 'Ugly Duckling Union'

(30:35) The Lightning Round

- Alela Diane, 'Who's Keeping Time?'
- Mexican Institute of Sound & Meridian Brothers, 'Ruido Tovar'
- Balming Tiger, 'Gongbu'
- Bill Orcutt & Mabe Fratti, 'Almost Waking'
- Traumprinz, 'Life'

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

Credits:
Host: Ann Powers
Guest: Aurora McGuckin, MVY Radio
Audio Producer: Noah Caldwell
Digital Producer: Dora Levite
Editors: Otis Hart, Elle Mannion
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Special thanks to Lars Gotrich and Robin Hilton

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A quick note before the show, this podcast contains explicit language.
0:12.9	Happy Friday, everyone.
0:14.7	I'm Anne Powers and I have the absolute joy of hosting New Music Friday today.
0:23.8	I am here with the wonderful Aurora McGuckin from MVY Radio in Massachusetts. Hi, Aurora. Hi, Ann, thank you so much for having me.
0:31.0	How are things in your world? Are you having a wonderful weekend planned?
0:35.3	Honestly, it's going to be a pretty chill one.
0:38.3	I kind of forgot that it was Memorial Day.
0:40.3	I'm going to be avoiding all the traffic and the chaos.
0:43.3	Well, I believe in holidays as a time for rest and reflection
0:47.3	and listening to music, and we have so much great music to talk about this week.
0:52.3	Even more than we're going to have time for. It's a good problem to have.
0:56.0	Definitely. We've narrowed down the field and there are some very big releases this week and we're
1:00.7	going to start with one of the biggest from maybe the most famous or buzzed about or certainly
1:06.7	the hippist producer at the moment in certain circles. and that's Jack Antonoff. He's back with
1:12.1	his project, Bleachers and their album, Everyone for 10 minutes. Let's hear a little bit of, I think,
1:18.0	the catchiest song on the record. It's called The Van. Pulled until a Wawa in Philly in 2000,
1:24.7	Blue Magic coming from the speaker at the gas bomb all jersey kids we never
1:29.5	learned a punk ass so we sat there with the soundtrack met him all in the winged firehouse
1:36.0	glory days packed the van and spun through being cool man those drive-through years really
1:42.5	went slow while our lights in the rear view was making it
1:46.5	The pack my van!
1:48.0	The time is there
	...

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