New Music Friday: The best albums out May 3
NPR Music
NPR
4.3 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 3 May 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
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Summary
The songs on Radical Optimism are mostly in the vein of Dua Lipa's earlier work, but that itself might be reason to keep a militantly sunny attitude: A parade of hits from her last album, Future Nostalgia, proved to have incredible staying power — "Levitating" hung around in the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 chart for nearly a year — and she contributed to last year's cultural juggernaut Barbie with "Dance the Night." Still, Hazel and Nate say the new album offers hints of a few surprising artistic developments in her sound.
Radical Optimism isn't the only album out this week that demands attention. New records by the inimitable folk songwriter Jessica Pratt and the always ambitious jazz maestro and saxophonist Kamasi Washington focus their own sounds in new and highly rewarding ways.
Featured Albums:
• Dua Lipa, 'Radical Optimism'
• Jessica Pratt, 'Here in the Pitch'
• Kamasi Washington, 'Fearless Movement'
Other notable albums out May 3:
• Willow, 'empathogen'
• Mdou Moctar, 'Funeral for Justice'
• Steph Richards, 'Power Vibe'
• Charlotte Day Wilson, 'Cyan Blue'
• Luke Stewart's Silt Trio, 'Unknown Rivers'
• 4batz, 'u made me a st4r'
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| 0:18.6 | Hazel, it's a good week to not be Drake. It is an incredible week to not be Drake. I am so so happy that I am not Drake this week. |
| 0:25.6 | Those superpowers get neutralized I can only watch in silence the famous actor we |
| 0:30.7 | once knew was looking paranoid and now I'm spiraling. |
| 0:33.4 | You're moving just like a degenerate. Heavy antique is feeling distasteful. |
| 0:37.3 | While calculation that is calculated, I can even predict your angles. |
| 0:41.2 | Fabricate stories on the family front because you heard Mr morale |
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| 1:06.0 | euphoria I was I put it on and I was just gasping multiple points what |
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| 1:21.0 | Do you have a favorite moment in that track? Oh, absolutely. What is it? I might |
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