NPR: All Songs Considered

Our shortlist of the best new albums out this week includes a visionary work from The National, the pop wisdom of Carly Rae Jepsen, Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion and more. FEATURED ALBUMS: 1. The National: I Am Easy to Find; 2. Duckwrth: The Falling Man; 3. Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram: Kingfish; 4. Carly Rae Jepsen: Dedicated; 5. Megan Thee Stallion: Fever; The Head and the Heart: Living Mirage. OTHER NOTABLE RELEASES FOR MAY 17: Alex Lahey: Best of Luck Club; DJ Khaled: Father of Asahd; Injury Reserve: Injury Reserve; Josephine Wiggs: We Fall; Olden Yolk: Living Theater; Slowthai: Nothing Great About Britain; Steel Pulse: Mass Manipulation; Tyler, The Creator: IGOR.

On this Guest DJ edition of All Songs Considered a conversation with Joe Talbot. Joe is a passionate force behind the British band IDLES. They are a band that at once are both fierce and compassionate. IDLES are one of the best live rock bands I've seen, creating mosh pits and community with their noise and humanity. They have two albums out, Brutalism from 2017 and the summer of 2018, the beautifully titled, Joy As An Act of Resistance. The band was in D.C. and just played a Tiny Desk Concert. I begin our conversation with Joe Talbot curious what music plays in their van as they tour around the U.S. That conversation has us playing everything from old soul music to modern British hip-hop with Radiohead in between.

Our shortlist of the week's best new albums includes a career-defining release from singer Jamila Woods, the sparkling guitar rock of Charly Bliss and Holly Herndon's genius work with the AI "Spawn."FEATURED ALBUMS: 1. Charly Bliss: Young Enough; 2. Holly Herndon: Proto; 3. Jamila Woods: Legacy! Legacy!; 4. HÆLOS: Any Random Kindness; 5. Tim Hecker: Anoyo; 6. Lowland Hum: Glyphic. OTHER NOTABLE RELEASES FOR MAY 10: A.A. Bondy: Enderness; Ciara: Beauty Marks; Dehd: Water; Lydia Ainsworth: Phantom Forest; Mac Demarco: Here Comes the Cowboy; Maps: Colours, Reflect. Time, Loss.; Radiator Hospital: Sings Music for Daydreaming; The Get Up Kids: Problems; Mourning A BLKstar: Reckoning.

This week's episode of All Songs Considered is a show of contrasts — cotton-candy pop one moment (from mxmtoon), raging punk sung in Farsi the next (from Khiis) — and then calming, instrumental, prog rock courtesy The Quiet Temple. For All Songs Considered's nearly 20 years, we've tried to live up to our namesake and on this show, we consider more drastic ends of the song spectrum than we have in recent memory. This week I'm joined by NPR Music's Lars "Vikings Choice" Gotrich and Joshua (cotton candy) Bote for five tunes that explore the rich polarity of making music in 2019. — Bob Boilen

Host Robin Hilton is joined by NPR Music's Lars Gotrich and Stephen Thompson as they share their picks for the week's best new albums. FEATURED RELEASES: 1. Judah & The Lion: 'Pep Talks,' 2. Caroline Spence: 'Mint Condition,' 3. Big Thief: 'U.F.O.F.'; 4. SYML: 'SYML,' 5. Vampire Weekend: 'Father of the Bride,' 6. Joy Williams: 'Front Porch,' 7. Rhiannon Giddens: 'There is no Other,' 8. Unwed Sailor: 'Heavy Age,' OTHER NOTABLE RELEASES FOR MAY 3: Barrie: 'Happy to Be Here;' Empath: 'Active Listening, Night on Earth;' Fury: 'Failed Entertainment;' Jesse Mac Cormack: 'Now;' L7: 'Scatter the Rats;' Lucy Spraggan: 'Today Was a Good Day;' Protomartyr: 'No Passion All Technique;' Tacocat: 'This Mess is a Place;' Tank and the Bangas: 'Green Balloon.'