First Listen: Horse Feathers, ‘So It Is With Us’
The chamber-folk band’s fifth album feels unerringly graceful — a quality that transcends tempo and tone, infusing every song with enough beauty to overwhelm sadness.
Tag: NPR
First Listen: Kindness, ‘Otherness’
British singer Adam Bainbridge doubles down on his many ’80s influences (disco, ’80s boogie and R&B, house music, go-go) while still making them sound refreshed.
First Listen: Stars, ‘No One Is Lost’
The Montreal band recorded its new album within earshot of a since-closed discotheque, and it shows. No One Is Lost prioritizes lightness and bittersweet uplift over the devastation of past records.
First Listen: Meatbodies, ‘Meatbodies’
Meatbodies’ Chad Ubovich has learned to put his personal spin on the surf-strum mutant beach party championed by California psychedelic rock bands like Thee Oh Sees, Wand and Bleached.
Recommended Dose: The Best Dance Tracks Of September
The final weeks of summer brought us new music from two of the biggest names in dance music, the return of post-rock, and a remix of Black Box’s “Everybody Everybody.”
Bio Ritmo: Tiny Desk Concert
The 10-piece salsa band has burnished its reputation on dance floors, where it never fails to make people move. So push some furniture out of the way, press play on this video, and enjoy.
First Listen: Godflesh, ‘A World Lit Only By Fire’
In the late ’80s, the Birmingham duo made guitar-pounding, drum-machine-and-bass industrial metal capable of melting Terminators. This is classic Godflesh, unadorned and even flayed in its rage.
First Listen: Ex Hex, ‘Rips’
Mary Timony’s ebullient new project fixates on the joys of punk. There’s enough energy on Rips to fuel a small country, and all of it is rooted in clean-burning enthusiasm.
First Listen: A Winged Victory For The Sullen, ‘Atomos’
An ambient-minded neoclassical duo that likes its sounds intensely measured, contemplative and slow, A Winged Victory For The Sullen works hard to make listeners feel eerily, gloriously lost.
First Listen: Trent Reznor And Atticus Ross, ‘Gone Girl (Motion Picture Soundtrack)’
Gone Girl is Reznor and Ross’ third soundtrack collaboration under the direction of David Fincher. As with their past work together, the music suits the story that inspired it perfectly.
Garage-Rocker AJ Davila Unplugs In A Hair Salon
An exciting underground music scene has sprung up in Puerto Rico, and Davila is at its helm. Just in time for fall, watch him perform a summery song called “Es Verano Ya.”
A Rational Conversation: Is PC Music Pop Or Is It ‘Pop’?
The dizzy, saccharine music of the London-based record label PC Music is invested in the most addictive pop of modern history, but the label’s songs feel detached, almost cynical.
Tweedy: Tiny Desk Concert
With his drummer son Spencer, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy performs three songs from their new album, Sukierae — plus a cover of “You Are Not Alone,” which the elder Tweedy wrote for Mavis Staples.
Microphone Check Live: The Stories Of The Notorious B.I.G.
On Sunday, Sept. 14, 20 years and one day after Biggie Smalls’ debut album Ready to Die was released, we gathered four of the musician’s friends in Brooklyn to recall the man they knew.
Carl Newman And Neko Case On What Makes a Pop Song Work
NPR’s Steve Inskeep met the two musicians at the historic Brill Building to talk about their new album with The New Pornographers, Brill Bruisers.
First Listen: Lucinda Williams, ‘Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone’
In terms of pure expression, no singer in popular music can touch Williams when she’s calling from the lonely outskirts of Despairville.
First Listen: Brooklyn Rider, ‘The Brooklyn Rider Almanac’
The adventuresome string quartet asked a huge range of musicians to create new pieces modeled on artistic idols. Hear pieces inspired by figures ranging from John Steinbeck to James Brown.
First Listen: Electric Wizard, ‘Time To Die’
Electric Wizard has spent two decades playing ridiculously heavy, misanthropic doom metal. On Time To Die, the band gets more room to explore than ever.
First Listen: Electric Youth, ‘Innerworld’
Innerworld is awash in ’80s earmarks, but it also conveys a sense of wistfulness; a sense of childlike splendor in danger of succumbing to the ravages of adulthood.
First Listen: John Luther Adams, ‘Become Ocean’
The winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for music is both an unforgettable seascape and an urgent call to action. Hear the Alaskan composer and environmentalist’s sweeping symphonic work.