New Music Friday: The best albums out Oct. 9

Stephen Thompson (0:07)

Happy Friday, everyone, from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday. Each week on the show, we talk about the best albums out that week with members of the NPR Music Network. And for today, October 9th, we are talking about new records from Troy Savan, Jess Williamson, and more. To kick things off, though, I want to welcome Sheho Letzwallo from KALW in San Francisco.

Welcome back to the show, Sheho.

Tshego Letsoalo (0:30)

Thank you so much for having me. It's always a delight to be here.

Stephen Thompson (0:33)

It is a delight to have you. And we've got some killer records to kind of kick off our lineup, starting with Cameron Winter from the band Geese. His new album, it's a live set called Live at Carnegie Hall.

So Cameron Winter is the lead singer of the kind of arty folk rock band Geese, Live at Carnegie Hall, as is as the title suggests, recorded live at Carnegie Hall. He's one of the youngest artists ever to headline there. He's still only 24 years old. And this concert, when it actually happened, made headlines not only because of the fact that he was playing there, but that Paul Thomas Anderson, the reigning best director at the Academy Awards, turned up with an assist from Benny Safdie to film this concert. There is a concert film of this performance that will be rolling out in North America starting on November 20th. But this record really kind of gives you the Cameron Winter experience, but it is very distilled, very stripped down. It's just him at a piano, and I think he speaks a total of 12 words during this entire set.

Tshego Letsoalo (2:47)

It's amazing. I mean, Geese and Cameron Winter is the group that people either love to love it, or you love to believe that it's a Psy-op.

Stephen Thompson (2:56)

And for me, every successful artist right now is a Psy-op.

Tshego Letsoalo (3:03)

Yeah, everyone's a Psy-op, everyone's an industry plant. But I think just the stripped down of this album, the hymn, just his voice, and the piano in the room is such an in-your-face kind of thing for me of like, whether you like it or not, this is a testament, I think, to his artistry and him as a musician.

Stephen Thompson (3:22)

Absolutely. And you know, there are not a lot of singer-songwriters who could hold attention the way this record holds attention. You know, just like solo with one instrument. That really takes a very expressive voice. It takes very strong songwriting, and it takes kind of a hold over the audience. And you can really feel the audience kind of hanging on every note, hanging on everything that he does. You know, and one of the first things that I thought, Sheho, listening to this record, I had never fully clocked how much he sounds, I think in part because of the piano, but how much he sounds like Rufus Wainwright.

Tshego Letsoalo (3:58)

Ooh, yes, absolutely. That's actually such a spot on comparison. It clicked in my brain. It's very gospel-y, expansive, church-y.

Stephen Thompson (4:08)

A little theatrical.

Tshego Letsoalo (4:09)

Theatrical, yes. Yeah, yeah, it's lovely.

Stephen Thompson (4:12)

And you can hear that from the very first track on this record, It All Fell in the River.

Tshego Letsoalo (4:46)

Zero Dollar is one of my favorite endings of a song ever, as it gets kind of more sparse, and he lets it breathe and move. It's just really beautiful. Again, I think there's gospel elements, and again, I don't know if it's a projection, but even just in the words, there's lots of water, feet, you know, obviously in Zero Dollar, there's God is, the big God is real moment. And I know that he's shied away from these kind of questions around the religious imagery in his music. But again, I think, like you said, speaking to the way that the attention was held in the room, just felt kind of something like spiritual. I can only imagine what it was like to be in the room and feel this power coming from this person.

Stephen Thompson (6:15)

In the Rolling Stones, first of all, this kind of arrangement really highlights his lyrics and his gift for crafting words. But if you listen between the three and four-minute mark of this song, he pulls off this gorgeous falsetto that demonstrates the elasticity of his voice and the ability of that voice to convey emotion in ways that kind of pull the crowd along with him.

That is Cameron Winter, his new album is Live at Carnegie Hall. Next up, Troye Sivan. Troye Sivan is back with a new record called She's the Best.