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Sarah Jaffe Announces 'Bad Baby,' Her New Album And Video

With 2014's Don't Disconnect, Sarah Jaffe took an artistic left turn, shifting her sound from melancholy singer-songwriter fare to fizzier, more mysterious electro-pop. With its catchy, fascinating songs about the parallels between humanity and machinery, Don't Disconnect captures the sound of a performer sliding cleanly into her best artistic identity.

/ Courtesy of the artist
/
Courtesy of the artist

On July 7, the Texan will return with Bad Baby, whose title track suggests that Don't Disconnect was no mere detour: The song chugs and pulsates to maximally infectious effect, enhanced by a swirl of synths and smooth guitar lines. In recent years, Jaffe has dabbled in hip-hop and film scoring, and her sonic palette has never seemed broader.

"'Bad Baby' was one of the first songs I wrote/demoed in the months prior to recording the record," Jaffe writes via email. "Although the song's subject matter mirrored some personal dilemma, it was also written at the beginnings of a political joke that went too far. I cannot wait for people to hear the entirety of Bad Baby. ... It was a proud moment finishing it with my bandmates, and then in turn thinking about the physical art that would go behind it. I was lucky enough to work with Lindsey Byrnes — a superb photographer out of L.A. that I was introduced to through a mutual friend — and John Lisle, a longtime friend of mine out of Brooklyn who is an insanely talented illustrator."

Bad Baby is due out July 7 via Kirtland.

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Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)