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Stephen Thompson Stephen Thompson is a host, writer and reviewer for NPR Music and Pop Culture Happy Hour. He appears frequently on All Songs Considered and NPR newsmagazines.
Washington, DC - May 03, 2016: Stephen Thompson CREDIT: Matt Roth
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Stephen Thompson

Monday

Tuesday

Review

Song Of The Day

The Gaslight Anthem: A Morbid Summer Jam

There's no shortage of life, death or profundity in "The '59 Sound," a mile-wide, top-down, hook-laden beast of a summer anthem. But as swollen and adrenaline-infused as it is, it's really a song about the last music each of us gets to hear in our lives.

'The '59 Sound' by The Gaslight Anthem

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Monday

The Avett Brothers: Tiny Desk Concert

The Avett Brothers performing a Tiny Desk Concert. Frannie Kelley/NPR hide caption

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Frannie Kelley/NPR

Tiny Desk

The Avett Brothers: Tiny Desk Concert

If The Avett Brothers could put on a three-song acoustic concert at every workplace in America, the band would be a world-beating colossus.

Audio Only: The Avett Brothers' Tiny Desk Concert

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Wednesday

Tuesday

Review

Song Of The Day

Sarah Siskind: Surveying The Wreckage

In "Say It Louder," Siskind second-guesses a failed relationship, her voice exuding the ache of disappointment. Looking back, she's not really wishing she'd done anything differently, so much as she's wishing she'd done more: "If I had the chance to say it again," she sings, "I'd say it louder."

'Say It Louder' by Sarah Siskind

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Monday

Saturday

Friday

Review

Song Of The Day

Metric: Sweet Pop With A Bitter Center

Metric's songs are like candy-coated insects: Once you crack their sugary shells, they're not as sweetly inviting as they appear on the surface. It's clear from the opening seconds of "Sick Muse" that acerbity will reign amid all the cheerfully buzzing guitars and "aaaaah"-ing backup vocals.

'Sick Muse' by Metric

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Thursday

Review

Song Of The Day

Magnolia Electric Co.: A New Kind Of Blues

"Whip-poor-will" is as achingly pretty and strangely catchy as anything Jason Molina has written with Magnolia Electric Co. Propelled by a slide-guitar line that's somehow both sunny and sad, the song finds Molina's sad-sack narrator feeling small and looking helplessly skyward.

'Whip-poor-will' by Magnolia Electric Co.

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Wednesday

Friday

Review

Song Of The Day

Iron And Wine: Springlike And Springy

Iron and Wine's "Belated Promise Ring" finds Sam Beam basking in the sweet spot between darkness and delicacy, turning the melancholy near-misses of a star-crossed couple into four almost impossibly dreamy and graceful minutes of pop music.

'Belated Promise Ring' by Iron and Wine

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Monday

Review

Song Of The Day

John Wesley Harding: Anthem Of An Also-Ran

Clever but not cloying, "Top of the Bottom" documents a pop singer's rise, rapid decline and resurrection to a more mundane new beginning. Harding tells a funny and gripping story about the margins of pop music, while providing a surprisingly convincing look at how and where dreams of stardom often end.

'Top of the Bottom' by John Wesley Harding

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Friday

Review

Song Of The Day

We Were Promised Jetpacks: Irritable Majesty

It doesn't take long for the Scottish band's misleadingly named "Quiet Little Voices" to get where it's going: There's little differentiating between the verses (such as they are) and the bombastic choruses, except that the latter explode into something almost impossibly thick, brash and over-the-top.

'Quiet Little Voices' by We Were Promised Jetpacks

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