![Image](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_glossy,ret_img,w_1280,h_960/https://www.wjct.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/img20230327_15283245-debfe3037682843ec9eeb9cd32a51c7acc89b75e-scaled.jpg)
The Chicago rapper Lil Durk returns this week with Almost Healed, a sometimes searing, sometimes tender examination of his life after years of loss and survival. On this week’s episode of New Music Friday, we dig into the music, talk about the pain that informs it and how Lil Durk has entered a new period of growth as an artist.
We’ve also got sometimes profound, sometimes comical reflections on surviving your 20s from Arlo Parks and Miya Folick, blood-slowing piano works from Gia Margaret, the mind-bending — and head-spinning — music of drummer, rapper and producer Kassa Overall and more. WBEZ and Vocalo Radio’s Ayana Contreras joins contributor Cyrena Touros, NPR Music editor Sheldon Pearce and host Robin Hilton as they share their picks for the best releases out on May 26.
Featured Albums:
- Lil Durk — Almost Healed
Featured Songs: “Same Side (feat. Rob49),” “Therapy Session,” “Never Again,” “All My Life (feat. J. Cole)” - Arlo Parks — My Soft Machine
Featured Songs: “Dog Rose,” “Bruiseless,” “Purple Phase,” “Pegasus (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)” - Gia Margaret — Romantic Piano
Featured Songs: “Ways of Seeing,” “Cicadas,” “Juno” - Kassa Overall — ANIMALS
Featured Songs: “Clock Ticking (feat. Danny Brown & Wiki),” “Still Ain’t Find Me (feat. Tomoki Sanders, Bendji Allonce, Mike King & Ian Finklestein)” - Miya Folick — ROACH
Featured Songs: “Get Out of My House,” “Oh God,” “Cartoon Clouds”
Lightning Round:
- Alex Anwandter — El Diablo en el Cuerpo
- Anna Thorvaldsdottir — ARCHORA / AIŌN
- Sparks — The Girl is Crying in Her Latte
- Wande Coal — Legend or No Legend
Other notable releases for May 26:
- Bayonne — Temporary Time
- Henry Threadgill — The Other One
- Incendiary — Change The Way You Think About Pain
- Janai Shankar — Hot & Cold
- Kari Faux — REAL B*TCHES DON’T DIE!
- Kevin Morby — More Photographs (A Continuum)
- MeeeZ — [red album]
- M. Sage — Paradise Crick
- Matchbox Twenty — Where The Light Goes
- Mike Oldfield — Tubular Bells – 50th Anniversary Celebration
- Maya Ongaku — Approach to Anima
- Shirley Collins — Archangel Hill
- Simply Red — Time
- Water From Your Eyes — Everyone’s Crushed
- Wolf Eyes — Dreams in Splattered Lines
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Song of the Day | “Empty Trainload of Sky” by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
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The Neighborhood Playlist | July 20
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Jax Music Hour Playlist | July 20
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UK Shoegazers Slowdive to Kick Off New Fall Tour at St. Augustine Amphitheatre
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Flipturn, St. Paul & the Broken Bones Highlight this Year’s Two-Day Florida Fest in Jacksonville Beach
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Song of the Day | “Coast” by Kim Deal
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The Latest Collab from Dillon and Batsauce Serves Up High Quality Production with Kindred Spirit Kool Keith
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Song of the Day | “Lie 95” by Bartees Strange
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Newly-Released Archive Recordings of Neil Young & Crazy Horse, ‘Early Daze’ is a Crucial Document of the Group’s Prime Era
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Jax Music Hour Playlist | July 13
JME Live Music Calendar
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