NPR: All Songs Considered

Welcome to a brand-new season of New Music Friday! After a few quiet weeks, the flood gates are opening and we've got a whole bunch of essential albums dropping on Jan. 18 to tell you about. This includes the smart, sparkling pop of singer Maggie Rogers, swooning love songs from James Blake, deep introspection from Pedro The Lion's first new album in 15 years, pure joy from Toro y Moi and much more. Host Robin Hilton is joined by NPR Music's Stephen Thompson for this quick sprint through the essential releases for Jan. 18, the first busy drop date for the new year. Featured Albums: 1. Maggie Rogers: Heard It In A Past Life ; 2. Toro y Moi: Outer Peace ; 3. Deerhunter: Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared; 4. Pedro The Lion: Phoenix ; 5. James Blake: Assume Form ; 6. Buke And Gase: Scholars ; 7. Frances Cone: Late Riser; Other Notable Releases: Crane Like The Bird: Crane Like The Bird; Future: The Wizrd; Juliana Hatfield: Weird; Malibu Ken: Malibu Ken; Mike Posner: A Real Good Kid; Sharon Van Etten: Remind Me Tomorrow ; Tender: Fear Of Falling Asleep; The Twilight Sad: It Won't Always Be Like This

It's been a minute since we got together to share some all-new music – not since our Nov. 6 show of last year, in fact. Hopefully you used the past several weeks to dig into our look back at the year in music for 2018, our remembrance of the artists we lost, Viking's Choice, Glaring Omissions and, of course, our annual Holiday Radio Play. But we're back now with a batch of essential songs to start the new year right. This includes a spare and profoundly moving new track from singer Lana Del Rey called "Hope is a Terrible Thing for a Woman Like Me To Have – But I Have It;" a brutally candid critique of toxic masculinity from Stella Donnelly; and the thumping, propulsive sounds of Priests and their new song "The Seduction Of Kansas." Also on the show: Perfect guitar pop from Telekinesis, and the punk-saxophone of Joy On Fire and the sweet harmonies of The Wild Reeds, both of whom pay tribute to a lost mother.

Steve Earle honors his musical hero Guy Clark with an album of his song called GUY.

On this edition of All Songs Considered , we share our favorite discoveries from globalFEST 2019.

Our resident Viking surveys 2018 through Italian doom metal, Chinese post-punk, underwater field recordings and a 24-hour drone.