First Listen: Blonde Redhead, 'Barragán' — npr.org

Blonde Redhead's new album, Barragán, comes out Sept. 2. Courtesy of the artist hide caption Blonde Redhead's new album, Barragán, comes out Sept. 2. You can't really apply just one catch-all adjective to the New York band Blonde Redhead, which just entered its third decade and will soon release its ninth album, Barragán. When it began, the group fit somewhere in the literal and figurative neighborhood of Sonic Youth, as its free-jazz-inflected noise-rock kept one foot neatly planted in art school. But the last decade or so has seen a marked softening in Blonde Redhead's sound, to the point where the quietest moments on Barragán don't sound like songs so much as vapors infused with tunes.

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