The best new albums out Dec. 5
Irish singer Dove Ellis released his debut album, Blizzard, on Friday. He's drawn comparisons to Jeff Buckley, Thom Yorke and Geese frontman Cameron Winter. Xander Lewis/Black Butter/AMF Records hide caption
It's Friday, and that means we've reached our final 2025 episode of New Music Friday. While most of the music internet has moved on to looking backward (including the latest episode of All Songs Considered), we here at New Music Friday didn't want to ignore the musicians who still had something new to say. After all, a critic favorite this list season is Cameron Winter's Heavy Metal, which came out ... the first week of December last year.
Each week, we welcome a member of the NPR Music Network of public radio stations to the show. and this week's guest is Erin Wolf of Radio Milwaukee. She joined NPR Music's Stephen Thompson to discuss their five favorite albums out today, plus a lightning round of other worthy music.
Keep scrolling to see our long list of albums out today and sample the best via our New Music Friday playlists.
The Starting 5
Melody Prochet, a.k.a. Melody's Echo Chamber. Diane Sagnier/Domino hide caption
🎵 Dove Ellis, Blizzard
- Recommended If You Like: Geese, Jeff Buckley
🎵 Melody's Echo Chamber, Unclouded
- RIYL: Stereolab, Air
🎵 Tom Smith, There Is Nothing In The Dark That Isn't There In The Light
- RIYL: Editors, Travis
🎵 TEED, Always With Me
- RIYL: The xx, Four Tet
🎵 Voices from the Lake, II
- RIYL: Jon Hopkins, Orbital
New Music Friday is a feature of NPR's All Songs Considered podcast. Hear the discussion on the NPR App, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Lightning Round
HTRK. Dylan Marriott/Ghostly International hide caption
Five more albums we wish we had time to discuss on the podcast:
⚡ HTRK, String of Hearts (Songs of HTRK)
⚡ Ben Marc, Who Cares Wins
⚡ Isobel Waller-Bridge, Objects
⚡ Mother Soki, Fantasy EP
⚡ Prins Thomas, Thomas Moen Hermansen
Listen to each album's best songs on our New Music Friday playlists on Spotify and Apple, or wherever you stream music.
The Long List
Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason. Sony Classical hide caption
For those who want to dig even deeper, here are the week's new albums sorted by genre:
Classical
- Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, Jane Austen's Piano
- Christine Baranski, Skylark A Christmas Carol
- Kronos Quartet, Forgive Us
Electronic/Out There
- Extrawelt, DYSTORTION
- Alison Wonderland, GHOST WORLD
- Alex Nut, Present Under Construction EP
- Confidence Man, Active Scenes Vol. 1 EP
- Disiniblud, Remixes EP
- DJ Love, DJ Danz and DJ Ericnem, Budots World: 3-Hit Combo!
- Essvus, What Ails You
- Filtrack, Anxiety...My Old Friend EP
- Charles Hayward and Dälek, HAYWARDxDÄLEK
- Infinite Coles, SweetFace Killah
- LEYA, I Remember Nothing (Remixes) EP
- Mr. Tophat & Art Alfie, KVK1200
- Peals, Seltzer
- Soreab, CU
- V/A, TRIBAL 2025 (N.A.A.F.I Records)
- Viiaan, Taiko
- Will Hofbauer, Somewhere Between
Global
- Shallipopi, Auracle
- Bhavi, NO TE ENAMORES DE UN ARTISTA
- Ozuna and Beéle, Stendhal
Gospel
- Maverick City Music, Love Made a Way
Rap/Hip-Hop
- Erick Sermon, Dynamic Duo's Vol. 1
- redveil, sankofa
- Stove God Cooks, GOAT STAMP
Rock/Alt/Indie
- Annie DiRusso, Super Pedestrian Deluxe
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Live God
- Anna of the North, Girl In A Bottle
- Ólöf Arnalds, Spíra
- Bill Fay, From the Bottom of an Old Grandfather Clock (A Collection of Demos and Outtakes 1966-70)
- Crumb, Live!
- Depeche Mode, Memento Mori: Mexico City
- Happy Mondays, The Factory Singles
- Joanna, Hello Flower
- Kira Metcalf, Lessons in Majestic Humiliation
- Lettuce, Cook
- Meet Me @ The Altar, WORRIED SICK EP
- Mercyland, s/t (Reissue)
- Nick & June, New Year's Face
- Retail Drugs, Factory Reset
- Sam Fender, People Watching (Deluxe Edition)
- The Waterboys, The Waterboys Present: Rips From The Cutting Room Floor
- V/A, Passages - Artists in Solidarity with Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers
Pop
- Jade, THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY! THE ENCORE
- Kylie Minogue, Kylie Christmas (Fully Wrapped)
- Milk & Bone & Chromeo, A Little Lucky EP
Country/Blues/Americana
- Zac Brown Band, Love & Fear
- Ryan Charles, Jiggy Buckaroo
- Zeelie Brown, the apocalypse is not the end but the unveiling
Jazz
- Out Of/Into (Gerald Clayton, Immanuel Wilkins, Joel Ross, Kendrick Scott, Matt Brewer), Motion II
- Magnus Carlson & The Moon Ray Quintet, Shadows
- Thomas Strønen, Time is a Blind Guide
Credits:
Host: Stephen Thompson
Guest: Erin Wolf, Radio Milwaukee
Audio Producer: Noah Caldwell
Digital Producer: Elle Mannion
Editor: Otis Hart
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed