It’s Friday, and that means we’ve reached our final 2025 episode of New Music Friday. While most of the music internet has moved on to looking backward (including the latest episode of All Songs Considered), we here at New Music Friday didn’t want to ignore the musicians who still had something new to say. After all, a critic favorite this list season is Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal, which came out … the first week of December last year.
Each week, we welcome a member of the NPR Music Network of public radio stations to the show. and this week’s guest is Erin Wolf of Radio Milwaukee. She joined NPR Music’s Stephen Thompson to discuss their five favorite albums out today, plus a lightning round of other worthy music.
Keep scrolling to see our long list of albums out today and sample the best via our New Music Friday playlists.
The Starting 5
🎵 Dove Ellis, Blizzard
Recommended If You Like: Geese, Jeff Buckley
🎵 Melody’s Echo Chamber, Unclouded
RIYL: Stereolab, Air
🎵 Tom Smith, There Is Nothing In The Dark That Isn’t There In The Light
RIYL: Editors, Travis
🎵 TEED, Always With Me
RIYL: The xx, Four Tet
🎵 Voices from the Lake, II
RIYL: Jon Hopkins, Orbital
New Music Friday is a feature of NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast. Hear the discussion on the NPR App, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Lightning Round
Five more albums we wish we had time to discuss on the podcast:
âš¡ HTRK, String of Hearts (Songs of HTRK)
âš¡ Ben Marc, Who Cares Wins
âš¡ Isobel Waller-Bridge, Objects
âš¡ Mother Soki, Fantasy EP
âš¡ Prins Thomas, Thomas Moen Hermansen
Listen to each album’s best songs on our New Music Friday playlists on Spotify and Apple, or wherever you stream music.
The Long List
For those who want to dig even deeper, here are the week’s new albums sorted by genre:
Classical
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, Jane Austen’s Piano
Christine Baranski, Skylark A Christmas Carol
Kronos Quartet, Forgive Us
Electronic/Out There
Extrawelt, DYSTORTION
Alison Wonderland, GHOST WORLD
Alex Nut, Present Under Construction EP
Confidence Man, Active Scenes Vol. 1 EP
Disiniblud, Remixes EP
DJ Love, DJ Danz and DJ Ericnem, Budots World: 3-Hit Combo!
Essvus, What Ails You
Filtrack, Anxiety…My Old Friend EP
Charles Hayward and Dälek, HAYWARDxDÄLEK
Infinite Coles, SweetFace Killah
LEYA, I Remember Nothing (Remixes) EP
Mr. Tophat & Art Alfie, KVK1200
Peals, Seltzer
Soreab, CU
V/A, TRIBAL 2025 (N.A.A.F.I Records)
Viiaan, Taiko
Will Hofbauer, Somewhere Between
Global
Shallipopi, Auracle
Bhavi, NO TE ENAMORES DE UN ARTISTA
Ozuna and Beéle, Stendhal
Gospel
Maverick City Music, Love Made a Way
Rap/Hip-Hop
redveil, sankofa
Stove God Cooks, GOAT STAMP
Rock/Alt/Indie
Annie DiRusso, Super Pedestrian Deluxe
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Live God
Anna of the North, Girl In A Bottle
Ólöf Arnalds, SpÃra
Bill Fay, From the Bottom of an Old Grandfather Clock (A Collection of Demos and Outtakes 1966-70)
Crumb, Live!
Depeche Mode, Memento Mori: Mexico City
Happy Mondays, The Factory Singles
Joanna, Hello Flower
Kira Metcalf, Lessons in Majestic Humiliation
Lettuce, Cook
Meet Me @ The Altar, WORRIED SICK EP
Mercyland, s/t (Reissue)
Nick & June, New Year’s Face
Retail Drugs, Factory Reset
Sam Fender, People Watching (Deluxe Edition)
The Waterboys, The Waterboys Present: Rips From The Cutting Room Floor
V/A, Passages – Artists in Solidarity with Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers
Pop
Jade, THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY! THE ENCORE
Kylie Minogue, Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped)
Milk & Bone & Chromeo, A Little Lucky EP
Country/Blues/Americana
Zac Brown Band, Love & Fear
Ryan Charles, Jiggy Buckaroo
Zeelie Brown, the apocalypse is not the end but the unveiling
Jazz
Out Of/Into (Gerald Clayton, Immanuel Wilkins, Joel Ross, Kendrick Scott, Matt Brewer), Motion II
Magnus Carlson & The Moon Ray Quintet, Shadows
Thomas Strønen, Time is a Blind Guide
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