New Music Friday: The best albums out Aug. 23

NPR Music's Stephen Thompson and Sheldon Pearce are your guides to seven anticipated albums out Aug. 23. During the second half of the episode, the two dig into the mercurial nature of the album format in 2024.

Featured albums:
- Sabrina Carpenter, 'Short n' Sweet'
- Lainey Wilson, 'Whirlwind'
- Illuminati hotties, 'POWER'
- Fontaines D.C., 'Romance'
- Heems, 'Veena'
- Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, 'Woodland'
- Magdalena Bay, 'Imaginal Disk'

See the longer list of albums out August 23 and stream our New Music Friday playlist at https://npr.org/music.

(Image credit: Alysse Gafkjen)