New Music Reviews (9/3)

Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates (joined this week by DJ Alex) shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what's coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from Lana Del Rey, Rapsody, Whitney, and more.

Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell (Interscope)
This LA-based artist’s powerful sixth album is her finest release yet, combining a brooding, psych-tinged dream-pop sound with provocative, sharply crafted lyrics of loss and regret that read like a requiem for America. — DY

Rapsody – Eve (Jamla)
This North Carolina rapper describes her excellent third album as a “love letter to all black women,” with the album’s 16 songs named after various heroes of hers, from Maya Angelou and Sojourner Truth to Nina Simone and Serena Williams. With production by 9th Wonder and a few of his in-house producers, the album combines an impressive variety of banging beats with her confident, elastic flow and razor-sharp rhymes about struggle, success and resilience. Special guests include Leikeli47, D’Angelo, GZA, SiR, JID, Queen Latifah, J Cole and other notables. — DY

Whitney – Forever Turned Around (Secretly Canadian)
This Chicago duo’s second album is another gorgeous set of ‘70s-steeped folk-pop inflected with soul, psych-pop and other styles. The album’s warm, subtly executed orchestral sound combines soaring horns, aqueous guitars, lush strings and more with Julien Ehrlich’s delicate falsetto. — DY

Frankie Cosmos – Close It Quietly (Sub Pop)
The fourth Frankie Cosmos studio album from New York artist Greta Cline & co. is a sharply crafted set of concise, folk-tinged indie-pop songs combining dreamy guitar lines and atmospheric synths with her intimate lyrics. — DY

Sequoyah Murray – Before You Begin (Thrill Jockey)
This Atlanta vocalist/multi-instrumentalist/producer’s debut full-length is a strong set of eclectic avant-soul with an adventurous sound combining a variety of electronic beats with psych-tinged textures and various West and North African influences with his powerful three-octave vocals. — DY

Final Body – Nothyng (self-released)
This Seattle band’s debut album is a potent set of goth-tinged post-punk with ominous synths, atmospheric guitars, driving rhythms and gloomy vocals. — DY

Velvet Negroni – Neon Brown (4AD)
The second Velvet Negroni album from Minneapolis artist Jeremy Nutzman is a potent blend of spectral R&B, funk, dub, hip hop and adventurous electronic grooves, combining an atmospheric, at times disorienting sound with his throaty vocals and playfully sensuous lyrics. — DY

NAVVI – 2502 EP (Hush Hush)
This Seattle duo’s latest release is a potent EP of dance-friendly electro-pop, combining propulsive house rhythms and beeping synths with ethereal vocals and hypnotic song hooks. — DY

Ezra Furman – Twelve Nudes (Bella Union)
This Oakland-based artist’s fourth album ramps up the energy with a fierce set of punkish, anthemic rock reminiscent at times of a more boisterous Kyle Craft, combining a raucous throwback rock sound with often-angry vocals and politically charged lyrics. — DY

Joan Shelley – Like the River Loves the Sea (No Quarter)
This Kentucky artist’s fifth album was recorded in Iceland with a combination of American and Icelandic musicians including Bonnie “Prince” Billy and guitarists James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg. It’s one of her finest sets yet of intimate, acoustic-oriented folk-pop combining finger-picked guitars, moody strings and occasional steel with her crystalline vocals and lyrics of love and regret. — DY

A. Billi Free – I Luma (Tokyo Dawn)
The debut album from this Chicago-bred, New Mexico-based vocalist is a brilliant set of expansive R&B that's infused with soul, hip-hop, funk, jazz, and electronic influences. Produced by Chicago-based production duo Tensei, I Luma serves as a vibrant and addictive coming-out party for A. Billi Free and her expressive, elastic, enveloping vocal style that yields one of the strongest R&B/soul albums of the year. — AR

Common – Let Love (Loma Vista)
This veteran Chicago rapper’s 12th album is a companion volume to his recently released memoir Let Love Have the Last Word. Featuring an often-somber, soul-steeped sound, the album finds him reflecting on the ups and downs of his life with assistance from an impressive supporting cast including Leikeli47, BJ Tha Chicago Kid and Daniel Caesar. — DY

Daisies – What Are You Waiting For? (Perennial/K)
Daisies are a new Olympia-based group featuring Chris McDonnell (CCFX, TransFX) and David Jaques (CCFX, CC DUST) along with newcomer Valerie Warren. Heavily influenced by Saint Etienne, their debut release is an impressive set of nostalgic beat-driven dream-pop that beautifully taps into the spirit of 1990s trip-hop, alt-pop, psych, and dance-pop. — AR

Taylor McFerrin – Love's Last Chance (AWAL)
This LA-based producer/composer’s second album is a smooth blend of soul, funk, jazz and electronic grooves that also features his own vocals for the first time. — DY

!!! – Wallop (Warp)
The eighth album from this veteran NYC-based band led by Nic Offer finds them recasting their sound for a solid set of sparkly, ‘90s-influenced dance-pop that features more prominent synths along with house and other club rhythms. — DY

Purple Pilgrims – Perfumed Earth (Flying Nun)
The sophomore album (and Flying Nun debut) from Purple Pilgrims – aka New Zealand sisters Valentine and Clementine Nixon – is a nice set of fuzzy dream-pop and celestial psych-pop. Sandwiched in between the album’s vocal tracks is the gorgeous instrumental song "Delphiniums in Harmony / Two Worlds Away." — AR

Noah Gundersen – Lover (Cooking Vinyl)
This Seattle artist’s fourth solo album finds him continuing to recast his emotive folk-pop with more polished production, prominent electronic elements and airy pop melodies. — DY

Parsnip – When the Tree Bears Fruit (Trouble In Mind)
This Melbourne, Australia band’s debut album is a fine set of playful indie-pop inflected with surf, funk and other styles, combining jangly guitars and bright keyboards with nursery-rhyme melodies and lyrics of hope and transcendence. — DY

Via Combusta – Via Combusta EP (self-released)
The debut EP from this Seattle band featuring former members of The Hands is a potent 4-song set of punkish surf rock combining twangy surf guitars and driving rhythms. — DY

Resavoir – Resavoir (International Anthem)
Resavoir is a Chicago-based jazz collective led by trumpeter/composer Will Miller (a member of Whitney's live band) and featuring highly active musicians in Chicago's fertile jazz community who have collaborated with Noname, Chance the Rapper, Makaya McCraven, Jeff Parker, Saba, Nick Mazzarella, Mavis Staples and many more. Their debut album is a solid set of groovy, exploratory, cerebral jazz arrangements that boasts a pair of strong highlights in "Taking Flight" (featuring NYC harpist Brandee Younger) and "Escalator" (featuring Chicago jazz rapper Sen Morimoto). — AR

Boy Scouts – Free Company (ANTI-)
The third Boy Scouts album from Oakland artist Taylor Vick features production from Stephen Steinbrink and appearances from a few guest artists for her fullest-sounding recording to date, highlighted by her tremulous vocals and well-crafted lyrics of heartache and loss. — DY

Ensemble Entendu – Music For The Densely Populated, Vol. 2 (Astro Nautico)
The second release from this collaborative project of Astro Nautico co-founder Sam O.B. (f.k.a. Obey City) and label artist Photay (aka Evan Shornstein) is another wonderful set of adventurous electronic grooves dominated by progressive idiosyncratic rhythms, cosmic funk flourishes, and an overarching carefree spirit that keeps things loose, lively, and unpredictable. — AR