All Songs Considered | The best releases out Oct. 6

Rapper Earl Sweatshirt’s album-length collaboration with producer The Alchemist had been rumored for quite a while. Its first internet release rolled out on a little-known streaming website over the summer. Now, Voir Dire is officially out everywhere — and it’s a remarkable cross-generational collaboration, full of inventive samples and lyrics that can be abstract and dark, but also hopeful.

We’ve also got new albums from the singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens, whose Javelin returns to the lavish arrangements and raw vulnerability for which he’s known, and Jolie Holland, whose Haunted Mountain finds her collaborating closely with Big Thief’s Buck Meek.

This week’s New Music Friday is guest hosted by Stephen Thompson and features NPR Music’s Ann Powers and WXPN’s John Morrison.

Featured Albums

• Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist — Voir Dire
• Sufjan Stevens — Javelin
• Jolie Holland — Haunted Mountain

Lightning Round

• Mary Lattimore — Goodbye, Hotel Arkada
• Jeremy Dutcher — Motewolonuwok
• Say She She — Silver
• Omar Apollo — Live for Me EP

Other notable releases for Oct. 6

• Butcher Brown — Solar Music
• Daniel Villarreal — Lados B
• Darius Rucker — Carolyn’s Boy
• Dogstar — Somewhere Between The Power Lines And Palm Trees
• Hania Rani — Ghosts
• Hannah Diamond — Perfect Picture
• Ida Mae — Thunder Above You
• Joni Mitchell — Archives Volume 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)
• Kirk Franklin — Father’s Day
• Lily & Madeleine — Nite Swim
• Yung Bae — Groove Continental: Side B

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