JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
It's time for New Music Friday. For this week's mix of music out today, we hand it over to Ann Powers and Hazel Cills from NPR Music, who start with an homage to the home state of country star Miranda Lambert.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOOKING BACK ON LUCKENBACH")
MIRANDA LAMBERT: (Singing) Looking booking back on Luckenbach kind of makes me want top pop a top, sit and listen to the guitars play, puts my heart in another state of mind.
ANN POWERS, BYLINE: Miranda's releasing her 10th album this week. It's called "Postcards From Texas." She is, to my ears, really the most accomplished and consistently great artist in contemporary country music. This album is interesting because she has relocated spiritually, if not completely, to Texas, where she's from. She's really identifying with Texas, and this album is driven by the concept of her life in Texas. What do you think, Hazel? How did this album strike you? Did it feel like a refresh, like a change?
HAZEL CILLS, BYLINE: Yeah. There's a real simplicity to this record that really made me feel like, oh, this is an album that proves, as you said, that she's, like, a backbone of country, that, like, she can make these really beautiful, minimalist country songs that just kind of, like, get to the heart of very clear, concise ideas about, like, love and homeland and...
POWERS: Are you thinking about "I Hate Love Songs"? That's a pretty basic idea about love right there.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I HATE LOVE SONGS")
LAMBERT: (Singing) Have you ever loved somebody like a preacher loves Sundays, from the deepest part of your tattered heart?
CILLS: I love when - I mean, especially someone like Miranda, who has so many notes in her discography of being this kind of fiery, like, revenge-filled figure and...
POWERS: Right. Literally...
CILLS: Literally (laughter).
POWERS: ...Like, "Kerosene." But then "I Hate Love Songs" is a totally different kind of kind of thing, right?
CILLS: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. It's like it's - to hear her sing a song like that where, you know, the message of it is really so plain spoken and vulnerable. What does it feel like to need someone, to love someone and then that get taken away from you and there not really being this drama to it? It really feels like she's kind of zeroing in on this very clear, simple idea. And it's just beautiful to hear her in that mode.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I HATE LOVE SONGS")
LAMBERT: (Singing) I did one time, and it wrecked my life. Everything went wrong now that I'm gone. I hate love songs.
POWERS: That's "Postcards From Texas" by Miranda Lambert. And next, we are going to talk about the album "Foxing" by the band "Foxing." This track is called "Greyhound."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GREYHOUND")
FOXING: (Singing) I've been feeling like I can't come up for air for these last 10 years. What's wrong with me? What's wrong with us? What's wrong with us?
CILLS: So Foxing is a Missouri-based band. Their music has always had this, you know, kind of, like, nervy emo quality to it. But I don't think I've ever heard their music be this intense.
POWERS: Right.
CILLS: Like, there's a grandiosity and a drama to this work that I personally hadn't heard in their music before. The reason I love this song "Greyhound" - That song is eight minutes long. Like, it is an epic.
POWERS: Right.
CILLS: But there is such a beautiful kind of, like, softening and, like...
POWERS: Yeah.
CILLS: ...Hardening and, like, you know, slowing it down, building it up. And it feels like eight different songs in one song.
POWERS: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GREYHOUND")
FOXING: (Singing) It means nothing to me.
POWERS: I was reading about this record. And Conor Murphy, the singer, was saying they went through a lot of inter-band tension while they were making this record. And, A, I applaud them for getting through it. And, B, I applaud them for putting that tension into the music 'cause I feel like you can really hear - I mean, it's not a mess. You just can hear the struggle, though. It's an intense listen, just - let's just say.
CILLS: Yeah. There's a darkness to this album. And it is interesting to me that, yeah, as you said, you know, as they were making it, the band, like, thought they would break up.
POWERS: Right. Right.
CILLS: But they came together to put this out. And yeah, it's definitely - I feel like it's a massive step forward for them and their sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GREYHOUND")
FOXING: (Singing) We'll get fooled again. We will get fooled again.
POWERS: That was "Foxing" by Foxing. We have one more album to talk about today, something extremely different, Hazel, am I right, this next record we're going to talk about?
CILLS: Completely different.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FIGHT THE REAL TERROR")
MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND: (Singing) On the day she died, a storm came in. It cut down the trees with a force.
CILLS: The next album that we're going to talk about is by the artist My Brightest Diamond. It is the project of multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Shara Nova. It's titled "Fight The Real Terror," and it has a very interesting backstory. It was written and recorded over a four-day power outage immediately after the death of Sinead O'Connor, whose life and art serves as an inspiration on many of the tracks on this record. But this album is very intense. I texted you, this album goes so hard.
POWERS: It does go - it's relentless, really.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FIGHT THE REAL TERROR")
MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND: (Singing) And whose picture am I going to get up tonight? And who's going to stand with me shoulder to shoulder?
POWERS: First, I was so happy that Shara Nova made this album because so many of us mourned Sinead so hard, the death of Sinead O' Connor. It was an absolute tragedy. And from the very first track on this record, I'm hearing rage, you know., I'm hearing keening. There's a an Irish term for mourning and creating a work in the spirit of mourning, and it's keening. And I feel like this record is genuine keening. But then it goes on to do other things as well.
CILLS: Yeah. Yeah. There's so many inspirations on this album besides Sinead's life that sort of filter through. There's a song that is inspired by the Bernini sculpture the Ecstasy Of Saint Teresa.
POWERS: Yeah. There's, like, a funny one that's about all the kinds of lovers you should avoid if you're going back into the dating pool...
CILLS: Yes (laughter).
POWERS: ...Which sounds out of context, but it somehow works. I mean, there's a theatricality about everything that Shara Nova does. But it also feels immediate, and that's what makes it work, I think.
CILLS: Yeah. Yeah. Theatricality and almost, like, a spiritual intensity or quality...
POWERS: Yes.
CILLS: ...To a lot of the music. It's a really stellar record that made me feel a lot of feelings.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAVE YOU EVER SEEN AN ANGEL")
MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND: (Singing) Have you ever seen an angel in a desperate hour when nobody's picking up the line?
SUMMERS: That was Ann Powers and Hazel Cills from NPR Music. And you can hear more in their full episode of New Music Friday from the podcast All Songs Considered. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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