NPR: All Songs Considered
In NPR Music's All Songs Considered, host Bob Boilen brings you an eclectic mix of fresh music by emerging and breakout bands and musical icons.
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The Worst Songs Of All Time?
This week on a very special edition of All Songs ...
This week on a very special edition of All Songs Considered ... guitarist, actor, writer (and former Monitor Mix blogger) Carrie Brownstein returns. She joins us, along with NPR Music's Stephen Thompson, to do something we don't normally do: Talk about the songs we really, really don't like. Our mission at All Songs is to bring you our favorite musical discoveries of the week. But after Stephen wrote his Good Listener column examining Starship's widely reviled hit single "We Built This City," we watched the comments pour in like an out-of-control fire hose, and got to talking about all the songs that drive us bonkers. It was so much fun we decided to continue the discussion here, with a look at some of the contenders for worst songs of all time, and why they stick in our craw. These are the relentless earworms — the songs you can't escape once they're in your head — or the annoying novelty songs. "Candyman," anyone? We also look at songs that take themselves too seriously, songs we used to love until they were ruined by a bad personal experience and more.
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Beck On 'Morning Phase': The All Songs Considered Interview
A lot has happened since Beck released his last full-length ...
A lot has happened since Beck released his last full-length studio album. He suffered (and has since recovered from) a back injury that made it difficult to even hold a guitar. He recorded a new album, shelved the whole thing, and launched several other projects online, including an art gallery, mixtapes of his favorite songs, and "Record Club," a series of cover albums performed by Beck and his friends. There was also 2012's Song Reader, an album's worth of new songs released as sheet music for others to perform and record. Beck's last studio release, 2008's Modern Guilt, was a sometimes driving, sometimes trippy rock record, with droning slow-burners and psychedelic guitar anthems. His new album, Morning Phase (out Feb. 25), occupies a different sonic space, one more closely aligned with 2002's Sea Change. That record was among the most distinctive in Beck's catalog: A downtempo, introspective and personal journey. While Morning Phase isn't a direct sequel to Sea Change, it shares many of the same themes and sounds: less space-funk and more lush ballads, with soaring orchestral parts. It was also recorded by the same group of musicians, including drummer Joey Waronker (Atoms For Peace, R.E.M.), guitarist Jason Falkner and keyboardist Robert Joseph Manning, Jr. Beck's father, composer David Richard Campbell, is back as well, providing string arrangements — which you can hear some of in the song "Waking Light," premiered here.
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New Mix: Wye Oak, Ratking, John Lurie, More
On this week's show, host Bob Boilen has new magical ...
On this week's show, host Bob Boilen has new magical powers. He's not sure what's behind these new powers, but it has something to do with a Romanian brass band and Tuvan throat singing. Regardless, Bob uses these new powers to introduce a brand new sound from the rock duo Wye Oak. The band, featuring Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, has built its reputation on massive walls of guitar noise. But on Wye Oak's new record, Shriek, the band trades its guitars in for synths. The album isn't out until April, but you can hear this new direction on a song we're premiering from the record called "The Tower." Wye Oak Album: Shriek Song: The Tower Cheatahs Album: Cheatahs Song: Kenworth Holly Herndon Album: Chorus Song: Chorus Moodymann Album: ABCD: The Album Song: Sunday Hotel Ratking Album: So It Goes Song: Canal John Lurie National Orchestra Album: The Invention of Animals Song: Men With Sticks
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New Mix: Real Estate, Actress, Wax Fang, More
On any given day, All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen ...
On any given day, All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen bombards co-host Robin Hilton with a running list of new ideas for the show. Most of them never see the light of day. But on this week's program Bob explains his latest idea, one that everyone will want to see happen. It's called "The Sole Of A Band" and involves matching photos of the shoes worn by bands with their music. You can hear more about how it works at the top of this week's edition of All Songs Considered. As if that weren't enough, we've also got a great new mix of discoveries for you, including the euphoric Columbus, Ohio band Saintseneca; the joyful, yet otherworldly music of Thumpers; the unforgettable voice of Israeli singer-songwriter Asaf Avidan, and the mesmerizing sounds of producer and electronic musician Darren Cunningham, otherwise known as Actress. Plus sunny new pop from Real Estate, and the epic, conceptual rock of Wax Fang. Saintseneca Album: Dark Arc Song: Takmit Thumpers Album: Galore Song: Marvel Asaf Avidan Album: Different Pulses Song: Different Pulses Actress Album: Ghettoville Song: Rap Real Estate Album: Atlas Song: Talking Backwards Wax Fang Album: The Astronaut Song: The Astronaut Part 1
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Discoveries From globalFEST 2014
This past Sunday was a frenzied and unforgettable night in ...
This past Sunday was a frenzied and unforgettable night in New York City: A dozen bands from as far away as Australia and the Congo (and as close as Mississippi), left it all on the stage for globalFEST, one of the most important world music events in North America, held each January at Webster Hall. The whole thing lasts just five hours, but it's spread over three stages, highlighting the incredible - and always surprising - range and reach of what world music is: Afro-Caribbean carnival music mingles with electronic dance; punk-pop collides beautifully with Ukrainian folk; the sounds of Bollywood, Congolese-Belgian hip-hop, psychedelic cumbia and more. It all comes together at globalFEST. For this week's edition of All Songs Considered, NPR Music's Anastasia Tsioulcas, NPR contributor and Afropop.org senior editor Banning Eyre, and Rob Weisberg of WNYC (who also hosts WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise) join Bob Boilen to revisit some of the highlights and favorite discoveries from this year's globalFEST.
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Ambien Dreams And Naked Desert Walks: St. Vincent On Her New Album
St. Vincent, out Feb. 25, 2014, is the fourth solo ...
St. Vincent, out Feb. 25, 2014, is the fourth solo album by singer, songwriter and guitarist Annie Clark. Teased late last year in a series of cryptic status updates, the forthcoming self-titled album from St. Vincent is one of the most anticipated of 2014. In a conversation with All Songs Considered hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton, singer and guitarist Annie Clark gets into the stories behind the new record, due out Feb. 25. Though her look on the cover suggests an evil overlord, Clark says but the songs on St. Vincent were born in vulnerable moments —a chemical-induced hallucination starring a dead civil rights activist, and a standoff with a snake in which she literally couldn't have been more exposed, just to name a few. Read an edited version below, or click the audio link to hear the full interview, including exclusive previews of brand-new music.
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New Year, New Mix: St. Vincent, Bruce Springsteen, Damien Jurado, More
Hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are back from their ...
Hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are back from their holiday journey to the heartland, rested and ready to celebrate the new year with a batch of new music from some of their favorite artists, and latest discoveries. Robin kicks things off with a new cut from St. Vincent, an artist who continues to redefine what it means to rock an electric guitar. Her new, self-titled album isn't out until late February, but you can get a good taste of it with the fantastically gritty, disjointed song "Digital Witness." Also on the show: Bruce Springsteen reimagines his somber, acoustic classic, "The Ghost Of Tom Joad," as massive, noisy rock song, courtesy of Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello; Lost In The Trees, a band normally defined by its lush string arrangements, is back with a brand new sound; singer, songwriter Damien Jurado takes us on a journey through an imaginary world where everyone is named "Silver," and Bob Boilen shares some bold and beautiful new discoveries from the Swedish duo I Break Horses and Atlanta-based singer-songwriter Danny Brewer, who writes and records as Besides Daniel. Songs Featured On This Episode St. Vincent Album: St. Vincent Song: Digital Witness I Break Horses Album: Chiaroscuro Song: Denial Damien Jurado Album: Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son Song: Silver Timothy Lost in the Trees Album: Past Life Song: Past Life Bruce Springsteen Album: High Hopes Song: Ghost of Tom Joad Besides Daniel Album: This Marvelous Grief Song: Untouched and Burning
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Viking's Choice 2013: We Saved The Weirdest And Loudest For Last
It's been a couple of years since we last had ...
It's been a couple of years since we last had NPR Music producer Lars Gotrich on the show to highlight the year in metal and what he sometimes calls "outer sound," a nebulous grouping of experimental music. It was time to bring his weird sonic world back. In 2013, the impeccably named heavy metal band Satan came out of the woodwork after a 17-year gap as if nothing had changed in heavy music and made its best album yet. Circuit des Yeux and Jeremiah Cymerman shook hell in their own ways. And, more than ever before, Lars Gotrich looked to cassettes and artists like Giant Claw and Katie Gately for the bizarre, inspired and even euphoric. Over on the Best Music of 2013 blog, you'll find the complete lists of Lars' favorite metal and cassette releases of 2013.
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Bob And Robin's Excellent Holiday Adventure
For this year's annual holiday music show, All Songs Considered ...
For this year's annual holiday music show, All Songs Considered hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton set out on a snowy road trip in search of the true spirit of the season. Their destination: America's heartland, where they plan to celebrate Christmas with Robin's family in Kansas. Join Bob and Robin as they motor across the country in a '71 Volkswagen Beetle, brave an ice storm and meet some special guests along the way, including Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, St. Vincent (Annie Clark), Josh Ritter and more.
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Poll Results: Listeners Pick Their Favorite Albums of 2013
Hear us count down through the top 25 most popular ...
Hear us count down through the top 25 most popular albums in this year's poll. It's always hard to predict how our audience will vote in our year-end polls for the best music. NPR has a large group of listeners with wildly varying tastes. But this year was even harder to call because we had an unusually large pool of contenders for Album Of The Year. In the end listeners picked Vampire Weekend's Modern Vampires Of The City as the year's best album. No other record came close. It drew more than twice as many votes as the next closest record, Arcade Fire's Reflektor. Daft Punk's Random Access Memories followed closely in third place, with The National's Trouble Will Find Me and Lorde's Pure Heroine wrapping up our top five. (You can see the others that made the final list below). Lorde led a trio of debut albums in the top ten, each fronted by female singers (the others were The Bones of What You Believe by CHVRCHES and Days Are Gone by HAIM). Listeners seemed less interested in let's-get-a-band-together guitar rock this year and more interested in studio efforts, like the carefully composed songs from bands such as Vampire Weekend or Atoms For Peace. There was a lot of love for dance and pop, with albums from Daft Punk, Janelle Monae and Justin Timberlake in the top 25. At No. 7, Kanye West's Yeezus was the lone hip-hop album to appear in the top 25 (you'll find more in the top 100 listener picks we list at the bottom of the page). You can hear us count down through the top 25 most popular albums in this year's poll with the link above, or scroll through the list below. You can see the top 100 albums at the bottom of the page and download a pdf of the full list.
