The Best Music Of August: NPR Staff Picks
NPR Music
NPR
4.3 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Songs heard on this episode:
• James Blake: "Life is Not the Same" from Friends That Break Your Heart
• Foxing: "Beacons" from Draw Down the Moon
• PinkPantheress, "Just for me"
• Lucas Debargue: "Nostalgie du pays" from Zal — The Music of Miłosz Magin
• Injury Reserve: "Knees" from By the Time I Get to Phoenix
• Lee Morgan: "Absolutions (Friday, Set 2)" from The Complete Live at the Lighthouse
Follow the #NowPlaying blog for the NPR Music staff's favorite new songs.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For amp-your music, you're connected to all songs considered. I'm Bob Boylin. It's time for the NPR staff to pick their favorite music from the month gone by. |
| 0:08.0 | So it's the best of August. And we begin with NPR Music's Gabrielle Pierre and her pick of James Blake. |
| 0:16.0 | As Summer comes to an end and we begin to welcome Fall, I find myself walking a fine line between embracing change and grieving the familiarity of the past. |
| 0:26.0 | Grammy nominated singer-song writer James Blake struggles with this idea. As he explores the changing nature of relationships on his new single titled Life is not the same. |
| 0:36.0 | The track, co-produced by Take a Day Trip, Joji and Kushy, takes the listener on a fever dream filled with self-screwtiny, with Blake using translike melodies, ghostly harmonies, and even changes in his vocal pitch to chronicle the grief of a relationship lost. |
| 0:52.0 | The track keeps you enveloped in emotion, leading you on a progressing exploration of the haunting intricacies of both vulnerability and disconnect. |
| 1:02.0 | Life is not the same eerily anticipates yet surrenders to the seasonality of the heart. |
| 1:08.0 | The latest single offers upcoming album Friends That Break Your Heart. This is James Blake with Life is not the same. |
| 1:24.0 | I played the ones you know, I took you all the way, that was yesterday. I wore your favorite clothes, I said the things you'd say, that was yesterday. |
| 1:50.0 | So if you left me so much, why'd you go? |
| 2:00.0 | Keep yourself there, keep my mind up, I can only be your name. |
| 2:20.0 | Life is not the same, if we're miles away. |
| 2:32.0 | I wish a champion, I bid everything your way. |
| 2:46.0 | We both swim out to sea, if you lost me when you were in me, that was yesterday. |
| 2:58.0 | You knew it would get dark, you made sure I wouldn't need you in that every way. |
| 3:18.0 | Keep yourself there, keep my mind up, I can only be your name. |
| 3:36.0 | Darling, smiling, life is not the same, if we're miles away. |
| 3:52.0 | I wish a champion, I bid everything your way. |
| 4:06.0 | Life is not the same, if we're miles away. |
| 4:24.0 | I did everything to the new state. |
| 4:42.0 | It's not like boxing hasn't already gone big. |
| 5:02.0 | Spending a month peaccine and walking long had forever proved |
... |
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