Kevin Cole

#45 This is Robyn’s eighth studio album, and first since 2010. The album is a stark contrast to her previous album, the banger-heavy Body Talk, and was written after the death of her close friend and collaborator Christian Falk. On Honey, Robyn primarily collaborated with Metronomy’s Joe Mount and previous collaborator Klas Åhlund.

#44 Produced and recorded with Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Sleater-Kinney, Mercury Rev), Marauder is Interpol’s sixth studio album, and first since 2014’s El Pintor. Paul Banks breaks the album down track by track for Bob Boilen at NPR, and notes of this song, "'The Rover' was one of the first songs we got cooking. Daniel introduced the riff and the rest came very quickly — bass, drums and vocals. I wanted to keep the bass and guitar simple in the verses. I felt that the counterpoint of a drone against Daniel's poppy, sharp progression would provide a bottled-up energy that we release when the chorus arrives and the bass and guitars diverge. The lyrics are about a seductive, charismatic cult leader who has no trouble amassing young followers. His message is one of inclusion, obedience, hedonism, and salvation. The end is nigh, so come and see me." Read the rest here: n.pr

#43 Superorganism formed in early 2017 in London and consists of eight members, including lead vocalist Orono Noguchi, alongside Emily, Harry, Tucan, Robert Strange, Ruby, B, and Seoul. In their early days, Superorganism wrote and created songs over the internet, but all members now live together in the same house in London. We recorded a session with Superorganism during Trans Musicales Festival 2017 in Rennes, France; watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM52w9xrdn4

#42 David Byrne’s seventh solo, American Utopia, marks Byrne’s first solo album since 2004’s Grown Backwards, and his first major release since his Love This Giant, his 2012 collaboration with St. Vincent. It was made in collaboration with producers Brian Eno and Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, King Krule), as well as contributors Oneohtrix Point Never, Jam City, Doveman, Jack Peñate, and others. The first released from the album, “Everybody’s Coming to My House,” was co-written with Brian Eno and includes contributions from Sampha.

#41 Wye Oak released their sixth album The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs on April 6th, and is their first release since 2014’s Shriek. Singer Jenn Wasner wrote and released an essay along with the song “Lifer,” drawing inspiration from a conversation she had with her friend about choosing gratitude over guilt. This album sees a re-introduction of guitar into their sound after spending a few years focusing on electronics; in many ways, this record embodies a distillation of all of their albums up to this point.

They recorded a gorgeous set of songs from this album here in our studio back in July: bit.ly

#40 Florence’s sixth studio album, produced by Emile Haynie, is more orchestral than her previous, more rock-esque album, 2014’s How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. Of High As Hope, Florence said: “There is loneliness in this record, and there's issues, and pain, and things that I struggled with, but the overriding feeling is that I have hope about them, and that's what kinda brought me to this title; I was gonna call it The End of Love, which I actually saw as a positive thing cause it was the end of a needy kind of love, it was the end of a love that comes from a place of lack, it's about a love that's bigger and broader.”

At over 30 million views, here is her performance of "Cosmic Love," recorded in our Dexter Live Room in 2010: bit.ly

#39 Led by Jason Corbett, post-punk outfit ACTORS hail from Vancouver, BC.

Watch as they recently performed a number of tracks from their lushly atmospheric album in KEXP’s Live Room: bit.ly

#38 The breakout retro gospel/R&B singer returned with his sophomore album, Good Thing, on May 4th, to follow up his critically-beloved 2015 debut, Coming Home. Nominated for Best R&B Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, its top singles are “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand,” “Bad Bad News,” and “Beyond.”

#37 Produced by John Congleton, this eighth studio album from The Decemberists sees experimentation with new instrumentation, including several synth-based compositions inspired by New Order and Depeche Mode. The album's lyrical content was, in part, influenced by the US 2016 presidential election and its immediate aftermath.

Vocalist and guitarist Colin Meloy noted: "[I'll Be Your Girl] celebrates the absurdity of our current predicaments. I think it really is a reflection of my outlook immediately post the 2016 election, where there was immediately this onset of despair. Like real despair. Real depression, and then sort of climbing out of it. Seeing other people feeling the same way, similarly climbing out of their hole and just witnessing events as they came along, rather than with tears. There was almost like an ironic humour but with anger, and those sort of go together. It was about finding the balance between real rage and humour – discovering the wild absurdity in it, but not being blithe."

#36 This debut album from the Melbourne-based rockers was released via Sub Pop on June 15th. Their KEXP session from earlier this year (www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2zuqY8PrUo) just came out as a 12” record. The album title refers to the Hope Downs mine (an iron ore mine located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia), which, according to the band, "refers to the feeling of standing at the edge of the void of the big unknown, and finding something to hold onto."

#35 Featuring appearances from Puff Daddy, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Tei Shi, ASAP Rocky, and narrated interludes from writer and transgender activist Janet Mock, this is the fourth album by Dev Hynes under the Blood Orange moniker. Hynes describes Negro Swan as “an exploration into my own and many types of black depression, an honest look at the corners of black existence, and the ongoing anxieties of queer/people of color. A reach back into childhood and modern traumas, and the things we do to get through it all. The underlying thread through each piece on the album is the idea of HOPE, and the lights we can try to turn on within ourselves with a hopefully positive outcome of helping others out of their darkness.”

#34 This is New York-based musician Damon McMahon’s sixth album as Amen Dunes, recorded at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in NYC and at Sunset Sound in L.A., and assembled with numerous notable collaborators, including Parker Kindred (Antony & The Johnsons, Jeff Buckley) on drums, keyboardist Jordi Wheeler, Chris Coady (Beach House) as producer, and Delicate Steve on guitars.

Recorded recently in our Live Room, enjoy McMahon's soulful in-studio session here: bit.ly

#33 This numbers as Chan Marshall’s tenth release as Cat Power, first in six years, and first on Domino Records. It features a collaboration with Lana Del Rey called “Woman,” and a beautiful cover of Rihanna’s “Stay.” On the choice to cover Rihanna, Marshall said “I love the tradition of covering songs. I think it’s one of the highest compliments you can pay another artist. It’s one of the great traditions in American music and one of the true pleasures of music history.”

#32 The debut album of Nashville, Tennessee songwriter Sophie Allison, one of 2018’s breakthrough artists. She began posting home-recorded songs to Bandcamp as Soccer Mommy in 2015, during the summer when she was about to leave for college at New York University. While in college, Allison played her first show as Soccer Mommy, at the community art space Silent Barn in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and shortly after landed a record deal with Fat Possum. She dropped out of college after two years in 2017 to return to Nashville and pursue her music career. Watch her perform songs from this album live here at KEXP: www.youtube.com

#31 The fifth of King Gizzard’s five albums released in 2017, released on New Year’s Eve 2017. Frontman Stu Mackenzie explained in an interview that the songs on Gumboot Soup are "definitely not B-sides or anything. They’re more songs that didn’t work in any of the rest of the four records, or they didn’t fit into any of those categories that well, or they came together slightly after when those records came together."

Watch as the band play a sensational set live in our Live Room earlier this year: bit.ly

#30 Ty’s first release (of three) in 2018. Recorded with the Freedom Band, Mikal Cronin (bass), Charles Moothart (drums) and Emmett Kelly (guitar), alongside Ben Boye (piano), this is his longest album to date. Regarding the album's varied aesthetic, Segall noted, "I'd say that the theme is the anti-theme, and the idea is to be free, hence the name Freedom's Goblin. I have made a lot of records that have had specific restrictions and confinements in the concept, but for this record the idea was that no idea is inappropriate, no space where we're going to record or create is wrong. The more far out, and the more free we get, the better things are.”

#29 Matt Houck’s seventh studio album as Phosphorescent, and first since 2013, he recorded this at his home studio in Nashville, where he moved after the tour for 2013’s Muchacho. He learned carpentry and electronics to build the studio by himself; it took two years. The song “New Birth In New England” is the real story of Matt meeting Jo Schornikow, the keyboard player in Phosphorescent and now his wife and mother of their two children.

Check out this performance he gave in our Live Room five years ago: bit.ly

#28 On her inspiration for the album, Carlile told Rolling Stone: “It's about whatever puts that lump in my throat, because that lump in my throat is a song. And right now, the refugees put that lump in my throat. My little baby, the one on the way, my family and feeling like it's under attack, because I'm gay and because I’m married to a woman that's not a U.S. citizen: those things put a lump in my throat, and I've got to sort that out, or I'm going to get cancer. I've got to write those songs, because there's really no other way to get rid of it."

#27 Young Fathers’ third studio album, Cocoa Sugar, dropped March 9, following the Mercury Prize-winning trio’s 2015 album, White Men Are Black Men Too, and marks a chaotic collection of songs that constantly challenges listeners to consider the coexistence of opposites.

Watch Young Fathers perform a jaw-droppingly passionate set in our Dexter studio five years ago: bit.ly

#26 British post-punk outfit Shame recorded their debut album Songs Of Praise in 10 days. At just 10 tracks and a run time of 39 minutes, it’s a compression of everything they are about. "We wanted our first album to be concise and to the point," says Steen. "No bullsh*t."

They performed two brilliant performances at KEXP this year, including a famous debut session where shirtless singer Charlie Steen not only licked/kissed Kevin Cole mid-song, but also dumped Cole’s tea on himself: bit.ly

#25 The sixth album from the Sheffield, England via Los Angeles outfit, Alex Turner has revealed it’s a concept album of sorts, based on the idea of an expensive luxury resort on the moon. The resort is located on the exact spot where the 1969 moon landing touched down, and has become a high-class and futuristic getaway. Mostly devoid of guitar, the music delivers a slower pace than what we’ve heard from the Arctic Monkeys before. The album draws in elements of jazz, French pop music, and heavy synths.

#24 This marks the thirteenth studio album from the prolific Washington songwriter, and is the first self-produced album in his 20+ year career.

Jurado played debuted tracks from this album in an intimate session on the Morning Show; watch it here: bit.ly

#23 This is the debut album from Portland, Oregon singer-songwriter Katherine Paul, who grew up in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, a reservation right here in the Puget Sound. That sense of place is not lost within the album – the mysterious, longing of the Pacific Northwest looms throughout. Her earliest influences came from singing and dancing at family powwows as well as the bootleg Nirvana and Hole VHS tapes she was given in her early youth.

Paul breaks down each track from the album with KEXP. Of this song, she shares, "This is a love song and a heartbreak song I wrote about queer desire. The lyrics, 'need you, want you, I know you’re taken' – these lyrics are about the desire one has quite often in a relationship. The reason I named it 'Soft Stud' is because in queer culture, you have the term stud but the way I feel about who I am describing in this song isn’t that they’re fully studly, it’s that there is a soft element about them. Like the way a feather gets roughed up in the wind yet still has the dainty nature to it.” Dig deeper here: bit.ly

#22 Written with producer Jacob Blizard in the wake of a breakup, this is Dacus’ second album. Of the songs, she reveals, “They're doing things that are really difficult and I feel them personally, still. But every message ends up with a hopeful thought. Because to me, the songs set up this rule of hopefulness does survive. But even if that's true, it doesn’t make pain hurt any less. It ends on a sad note. But it can't be all sunshine and the album is from the point of view that hope and pain can co-exist. They don't cancel each other out.”

Watch Dacus perform some of her gorgeous, heartfelt songs live, here at KEXP: bit.ly

#21 Khruangbin is a three-piece band from Texas featuring Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald Johnson on drums. Taking influence from 1960's Thai funk - their name literally translates to "Engine Fly" in Thai - Khruangbin’s psychedelic desert rock has become one of 2018’s early critical hits with their second album, Con Todo El Mundo. The record takes significant influence from India’s under discovered funk and the soul sounds of the Middle-East, particularly from Iran.

Watch Khruangbin perform tracks off this album live here at KEXP earlier this year: bit.ly

#20 Gorillaz’ sixth studio album, recorded in London, as well as numerous hotels across North America, is primarily the effort of Damon Albarn and producers James Ford and Remi Kabaka. It was recorded within a short timeframe so the band would have new material to play at upcoming festivals and is, in part, why it’s the project’s least guest-heavy album to date.

#19 This marks the band’s fourth studio album, first in five years, and named for the hurricane of current events that swirled around its creation. The band was approximately halfway through recording when the 2016 presidential election took place. Goldwasser recalls, en route to producer Dave Fridmann’s studios in Buffalo, New York, “Up until that point we had our own self-imposed rules for how much a song should be about a specific thing. When the election happened it was like, here’s this very real thing that has a direct impact on us and a lot of people. It sort of eliminated the question of what we were writing about.”

#18 The debut album from Baltimore’s Lindsay Jordan, another one of 2018’s breakout musicians. Growing up in suburban Maryland, Jordan began playing at the age of 5, talking her parents into letting her take classical guitar lessons. “I thought, ‘Avril Lavigne plays guitar — that looks cool.’ So I did that.” She eventually took lessons from an indie-rock legend, Mary Timony (Helium and Ex Hex), and started Snail Mail at age 15. Two weeks after the first band practice, she was playing a local punk festival with established bands like Sheer Mag, Screaming Females and Priests.

Recorded live here at KEXP in September, watch her fantastic in-studio session featuring songs from this album: bit.ly

#17 This album, the fourth studio release from Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, was produced by Tucker Martine and features contributions from R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Wilco's Glenn Kotche and Midlake's McKenzie Smith. It was written after the pair took their first break since starting the band. After about a year apart, the sisters reconvened in California, writing the record in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree.

Enjoy this live performance from our vaults, recorded in 2014 in our lush and sparkling Dexter Live Room: bit.ly

#16 Jenn Champion released her fifth solo album Single Rider on July 13, and is her first since dropping the moniker, “S.” On her shift in style, Champion noted, “I feel like a door got opened in my mind with electronic and digital music. There was a room I hadn’t explored before and I stepped in. I couldn’t pull myself away from the synthesizers and I realized the record I really wanted to make was more of a cross between Drake and Billy Joel than Blue Oyster Cult.”

Here is Champion performing as S in our studios back in 2014; enjoy: bit.ly

#15 Thunderpussy signed to Stardog/Republic Records in late 2017 and decamped to Ashland, Ore. to record with producer Sylvia Massy (Tom Petty, Tool). The band was unaware of Massy’s legendary status at first, but connected with her inadvertently through a referral from longtime Seattle DJ Marco Collins. They lived at Massy’s studio for about a month during the recording process and Massy requested that they write at least twice as many songs as the 15 they had prepared.

Watch as the band perform fruits of that labour in our snazzy Live Room: bit.ly

#14 The Los Angeles saxophonist and bandleader’s second album, clocking in at two-plus hours, was recorded in two and a half weeks in the middle of the lengthy tour behind Kamasi’s previous album, The Epic. Of its recording, he said, “It was May 2016, in the middle of tour in the busiest year of my life. We did 200 shows for The Epic, so I had to work to convince everyone to jump in the studio! This topic we’re talking about now was what we were talking about on tour: 'Why are all these things happening? Why? Why? Why?' So when I started recording I saw connections in the songs that I didn’t see before. It’s who I am and it was there, and I had to decipher it. Music has its own agenda, and I try to serve the music more than have it serve me.”

Physical copies of the album (CD and vinyl) have a hidden EP called The Choice that can only be accessed by cutting open part of the packaging.

#13 Death Cab’s ninth studio album and their first with new members Dave Depper and Zac Rae (and their first with no involvement from Chris Walla), it was inspired in part by Ben Gibbard reflecting on Death Cab’s longevity as a band: ”I think over the past two or three albums, I’ve tried to reconnect with what is it that I love about this band? And what is it that the fans love about this band? Those tend to be a lot of the same things.”

Ben Gibbard recently treated KEXP listeners to an intimate performance in our Live Room. Watch it here: bit.ly

#12 Josh Tillman’s fourth album as Father John Misty and second in two years. In addition to regular collaborator Jonathan Wilson, the album—Josh Tillman’s fourth album as Father John Misty and second in two years—was made with contributions from Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado, Mark Ronson, The Haxan Cloak, and Weyes Blood, among others. A return to the hyper-personal songwriting that was at the core of 2015’s I Love You, Honeybear, he’s yet to do an interview about the record, but it’s clear that it’s a document of a man going through a period of intense struggle.

Watch as Tillman performs a charming in-studio session here in KEXP's Live Room: bit.ly

#11 This is Case’s seventh solo album and first since 2013’s The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You. One of her most collaborative albums, she recorded a significant amount of it in Stockholm with producer Bjorn Yttling in an attempt to focus on the record.

“I was trying to leave my comfort zone, so I ended up leaving my comfort zone for Bjorn’s comfy comfort zone. There were challenges, but there weren’t hardships—just dodging, weaving, and syncing up the treadmills of our work ethics. Being in an unfamiliar place takes a lot of pressure off of you. There’s nothing you can do about what’s going on at home, so staying in a hotel and working on a project can be the greatest thing that’s ever happened to you. The noise is turned down, and it can’t distract you. But there’s also beauty and wonder, and your senses are really open, so ideas come slammin’ in.”

#10 Songwriters Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus are boygenius; the trio wrote and recorded this album in justs four days at Sound City Studios in L.A. earlier this year. The project began as an extension of an organic friendship made through seeing each other backstage at festivals and shows.

Boygenius recently recorded a mesmerizing in-studio session here at KEXP; while we eagerly await the video team to produce the clip, here are few performances recorded live here at KEXP to tame the wild beasts within: Julien Baker (bit.ly), Lucy Dacus (bit.ly), and Phoebe Bridgers (bit.ly)

#9 An acoustic reworking of Annie Clark’s 2017 album Masseduction, and was recorded in two days with producer Thomas Bartlett and performed in the reverse order of the original tracklisting. Changing things up,the arrangements are primarily led by piano, rather than Clark’s signature guitar.

Here is St. Vincent performing intimate renditions of songs from this album on acoustic guitar in our Live Room earlier this year: bit.ly

#8 This is Vile’s eighth solo album, featuring contributions from Kim Gordon, Mary Lattimore, Stella Mozgawa, Barbara Gruska, Vincent Nudo, Cass McCombs, Joe Kennedy, and Farmer Dave Scher, among others. Like his previous album, Bottle It In was recorded in between tour stops with various producers, giving it a sort-of Kurt Vile Mixtape feel.

Incidentally, Vile will be playing an acoustic set here in KEXP’s Gathering Space tomorrow at 3pm; come join us! For a teaser of what to expect, here you go: bit.ly

#7 The title comes from a phrase coined by Mitski to encourage herself in the album making process: “I definitely wasn’t thinking about the real working cowboy that exists today. I was thinking more of the Marlboro commercial cowboy, that incredibly exaggerated myth of the western cowboy. The album title kind of came from the fact that I would always kind of jokingly say to myself, “Be the cowboy you wish to see the world,” whenever I was in a situation where maybe I was acting too much like my identity, which is wanting everyone to be happy, not thinking I’m worthy, being submissive, and not asking for more. Every time I would find myself doing exactly what the world expects of me as an Asian woman, I would turn around and tell myself “Well, what would a cowboy do?”

Here is Mitski performing some of her glorious songs here: bit.ly

#6 This is the re-recorded version of Will Toledo’s 2011 album of the same name, and was created in-between tours throughout 2016-17. (The original album has since been subtitled (Mirror To Mirror) and the new version is (Face to Face.)) On his decision to remake the album years later, Toledo shared, “It’s really about getting it perfect,” he says of the focus and energy he’s dedicated to the project. “It’s coming out right at a certain peak in my career where a lot of people are going to be listening to it, and I think it’s going to be around for a while, so I just really wanted to make sure that I could go in and listen to it five years from now and not really regret any of the decisions I made production-wise.”

Watch Toledo and his band (aka Naked Giants) play these sounds in our sparkling Live Room: bit.ly

#5 The New York band’s sixth album in seven years, recorded with Danger Mouse in an attempt to get out of their comfort zone. Band member Andrew Savage noted, "I personally liked the fact that I was writing a record that is indebted to punk and funk, and Brian’s a pop producer who’s made some very polished records. I liked that it didn’t make sense… There's this duality between joy and anger that I find to be really interesting, and that's something the record kind of deals with at large. I always thought it was really interesting how hardcore could be such an angry music form but could make you feel so positive. There's a lot of moments on the record when all of us are singing at the same time and I guess that's something I kind of associate with hardcore, or Funkadelic.”

#4 Janelle Monae’s third album and first in five years, featuring collaborations with Brian Wilson, Pharrell, Grimes, as well as longtime collaborators Nate Wonder and Chuck Lightning. It came out with a simultaneous release of a 46-minute short film of the same name, dubbed an "emotion picture" by Monáe, and follows Monáe's android character, Jane 57821, as she attempts to break free from the constraints of "a totalitarian society [that] forcibly makes Jane comply with its homophobic beliefs. In the film, Monáe's character is trying to assert her individuality, which makes her the enemy of a soulless regime – a common tension in dystopian sci-fi." Reflecting on the making of the album and the world it was created in, Monae remarked, “I need to go through this. We need to go through this. Together. I’m going to make you empathize with dirty computers all around the world.”

#3 This marks Beach House’s seventh studio album. On the significance of the title, Victoria Legrand notes, “It’s standing alone in space the way a ‘1’ does. It’s sort of pointing in a direction, but you don’t know where. ‘7’ contains everything that words could not for this album.” The duo took a different approach to recording this album, and went into the studio to put down live takes during multiple sessions over the course of 11 months.

#2 This is the Bristol band’s second album, and probably the breakthrough album of the year. Its cover features a photograph of a fight at a 1968 wedding singer Joe Talbot found online, and the songs were primarily written after the death of Joe’s daughter in childbirth and overcoming a struggle with addiction. Talbot said the album’s thesis was “an attempt to be vulnerable to our audience and to encourage vulnerability; a brave naked smile in this shitty new world.”

IDLES played absolutely stunning versions of their incendiary and heartfelt songs here in our Live Room; check it out here: bit.ly

#1 The Melbourne songwriter’s second studio album, and was recorded with the same team as with her debut: producers Burke Reid and Dan Luscombe, as well as drummer Dave Mudie and bassist Bones Sloane. Courtney has remarked that the record is partially “me trying to do an amateur psychological study of myself... I realised in the process of making this album that I’m not a pessimist, and I’m not so full of anger. I came out of it feeling quite strangely positive. Even though it sounds like a really negative album, it’s kinda more about being grateful and recognising the good things.”

Freshly produced by our stellar video team, here is Barnett’s most recent in-studio session recorded in October, and featuring songs from this album: bit.ly

Time to dance. All funk and soul tonight!

This record on my top 10 albums 2018. What are yours?

One of those bands you just might not hear except for KEXP, DAG was a funk band from Raleigh, North Carolina. www.allmusic.com

Funk pioneer Nile Rodgers with a recent track. Best known for his work in Chic. www.nilerodgers.com

Local artist Grace Love! She will be playing The Tractor Tavern at the end of the month Friday and Saturday Dec 28/29! www.missgracelove.com

Chicago soul/funk outfit pulls out the happiest Wilco cover version ever. Live video from their last in-studio session www.kexp.org

Co-written with her husband Don Bryant. Covered by Tina Turner on her 1984 album "Private Dancer".

Soul track from Ray Lamontagne! tour.raylamontagne.com

Live from SXSW www.youtube.com

Formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. From Greensboro, NC. rhiannongiddens.com

KEXP live video. www.kexp.org

The original translation of the French lyrics was thought to be too racy for TV so when Labelle had a broadcast performance, it was changed to "Voulez-vous dancer avec moi, ce soir" or "Would you like to DANCE with me tonight?"

Saun & Starr were Sharon Jones' back-up singers, and performed at KEXP's fundraising 2017 Yule Benefit.

This track was the first ever released for the Jackson 5 by Motown and marks the very beginning of the incomparably epic career of Michael Jackson. www.michaeljackson.com

"Everybody's got a little light under the sun." georgeclinton.com

Local soul/funk outfit. Killer song!

This is my top album of 2018. Full list here. www.kexp.org

Also an accomplished actress, Jill Scott appears in the TV series FRINGE www.jillscott.com

Request for some vintage soul. Stevie killing it on the clavinet - an electrically amplified clavichord.

Evelyn "Champagne" King was discovered singing in a washroom while her mother, a cleaning lady, was working at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia.

Here on Friday Night we love championing artists from the LGBTQIA community. All hail the immense talent of Sylvester!

A funk song from Janelle. Her new record "Dirty Computer" is on my top albums 2018 list. See the full list here. www.kexp.org

This is the original, later covered by Soft Cell. Gloria Jones was married to T Rex's Marc Bolan.

Toots and the Maytals, from Jamaica, are one of the best known ska and rocksteady vocal groups. www.tootsandthemaytals.net

This soul original later covered by Love and Rockets. Video here. www.youtube.com

Full live performance at the KEXP studios. www.youtube.com

Malibu is Anderson Paak's second full length album. www.andersonpaak.com/

Beatles cover. www.bettyelavette.com

So percussively sung...impressive. www.iamduffy.com

Remix of Sugar Pie Desanto and Etta James. www.dj-kicks.com

One of the top-charting Native American bands of all time.

Adele is one of the greatest soul singer, songwriters of all time! By request.

Another request. Have a suggestion? Email dj@kexp.org or interact @djmichelemyers #kexp!

Famous recent performance that made President Obama cry in 2014: www.youtube.com

Stay tuned!

Part of Stas THEE Boss' top 10 albums of the year. More here: www.kexp.org

Stream the debut album from Seattle's Knife Knights (Ishmael Butler + Erik Blood + OCnotes) here: knifeknights.bandcamp.com

Another from Stas's top 10 albums! Watch JusMoni perform songs from this album live on KEXP! www.youtube.com

Watch the video for Ravyn Lenae's lead single off her 'Crush EP' here: www.youtube.com

Stream the 'Crush EP' from Ravyn Leane, executive produced by Steve Lacy, here: soundcloud.com

Brand new album from Anderson .Paak available to stream on www.andersonpaak.com!

Watch Cavalier's video for 'Open Season' here: www.youtube.com

Stream more of Cavalier's 2018 release 'Private Stock' here: cavaliervmc.bandcamp.com

Brand new album from Seattle's Porter Ray available to stream here: porterray.bandcamp.com

Stream the latest album from Playboi Carti here: open.spotify.com

Travis Scott's 'ASTROWORLD' available to stream on travisscott.com.

Watch the video for this 2017 song from group Little Dragon here: www.youtube.com

Listen to the new album 'Some Rap Songs' on all platforms here: smarturl.it

Vince Staples will be at Showbox SoDo on Mon. March 25h! www.vincestaples.com

Noname will be doing two nights of shows at Showbox SoDo on Sat. March 9th & Sun. March 10th! www.nonamehiding.com

Produced by Q-Tip.

Watch Nicki Minaj's video for 'Barbie Dreams' off her 2018 album 'Queen' here: www.youtube.com

WOKE is a group consisting of Flying Lotus, Shabazz Palaces & Thundercat. Stream more of 'Brainfeeder X' here: brainfeeder.bandcamp.com

Stream Lil Wayne's long-awaited album 'Tha Carter V' on Spotify: open.spotify.com

New single from Cardi B! open.spotify.com

Stream the new album from Georgia Anne Muldrow here: georgiaannemuldrow.bandcamp.com

Watch the video for Ari Lennox's single 'Whipped Cream' here: www.youtube.com

Freddie Gibbs will be performing at Neumos tomorrow Sat. Dec. 15th! www.neumos.com