Music Reviews : NPR

All The Parts Fit Together Like Clockwork On Allison Miller's 'Glitter Wolf'

Fresh Air

February 28, 2019 • Miller's band, the sextet Boom Tic Boom, keep good time — and appear to have a good time — on their new album. "You can hear how much her crew enjoy playing this music," critic Kevin Whitehead says.

All The Parts Fit Together Like Clockwork On Allison Miller's 'Glitter Wolf'

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With 'This Is How You Smile', Helado Negro Transforms Familial Relations Into Beauty

Helado Negro's This Is How You Smile drops March 8 on RVNG Intl. Anna Groth-Shive/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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With 'This Is How You Smile', Helado Negro Transforms Familial Relations Into Beauty

February 28, 2019 • Ecuadorian-American producer Robert Carlos Lange builds his sound on ambient electronics, Latin American rhythms and instrumentation that allows each element to bounce and reverberate.

Patty Griffin Unfurls The Power Of Exploring Inner Selves On Her Tenth Album

Patty Griffin's self-titled 10th album comes out March 8 via Thirty Tigers. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Patty Griffin Unfurls The Power Of Exploring Inner Selves On Her Tenth Album

February 28, 2019 • The brilliant, openhearted singer-songwriter's 10th album showcases her gift for imagining the untamed forces of people's inner lives.

Amanda Palmer Divines A Grand Statement Of Empathy On 'There Will Be No Intermission'

Amanda Palmer's There Will Be No Intermission is out March 8 via 8ft Records/Cooking Vinyl. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Amanda Palmer Divines A Grand Statement Of Empathy On 'There Will Be No Intermission'

February 28, 2019 • At 74 minutes, Palmer's new album is almost unfathomably ambitious, fueled by radical empathy and made by and for feelers of grand feelings.

Flight Of The Conchords Reunite — Wit And Charm Intact — On 'Live In London'

Flight of the Conchords' live album Live In London is due out March 8 on Sub Pop. Colin Hutton/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Flight Of The Conchords Reunite — Wit And Charm Intact — On 'Live In London'

February 28, 2019 • The New Zealanders' new recording combines live performances of Conchords classics with loose tracks that the duo has performed over the years but never officially released.

Townes Van Zandt's 'Sky Blue' Offers Insight Into A Mercurial Mind At His Prime

Townes Van Zandt's Sky Blue is due out March 7 — Van Zandt's 75th birthday — on Fat Possum. John Lomax III/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Townes Van Zandt's 'Sky Blue' Offers Insight Into A Mercurial Mind At His Prime

February 28, 2019 • A new collection of unearthed solo recordings from 1973 offers a tantalizing glimpse at the creative process of a legendarily mercurial artist.

'Modern Sounds' Re-Release Revives Ray Charles' 1962 Venture Into Country

Fresh Air

February 25, 2019 • Fifty-seven years ago, Charles released two albums that helped extend the reach of country music. Though initially perceived as a novelty, a re-release of the albums proves they were anything but.

'Modern Sounds' Re-Release Revives Ray Charles' 1962 Venture Into Country

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Della Mae Flexes Its Collective Bluegrass Muscle on 'The Butcher Shoppe EP'

Della Mae's The Butcher Shoppe EP comes out March 1 via Rounder. Ryan Nolan/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Della Mae Flexes Its Collective Bluegrass Muscle on 'The Butcher Shoppe EP'

February 21, 2019 • Returning from hiatus, the bluegrass band showcases its combination of playfulness and muscle as a performing unit.

Stream Ryuichi Sakamoto's 'BTTB (20th Anniversary Edition)' Now

Ryuichi Sakamoto's BTTB (20th Anniversary Edition) comes out March 1 via Milan Records. nss (zakkubalan)/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Stream Ryuichi Sakamoto's 'BTTB (20th Anniversary Edition)' Now

February 21, 2019 • The composer and multi-instrumentalist's newly reissued 14th album is an intimate collection of brief solo piano compositions, first released in Japan in 1998 and hard to find since.

Hand Habits Makes Its Most Fully-Realized Statement on 'Placeholder'

Hand Habits' placeholder comes out March 1 via Saddle Creek. Jacob Boll/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Hand Habits Makes Its Most Fully-Realized Statement on 'Placeholder'

February 21, 2019 • Singer-songwriter Meg Duffy pays scrupulous attention to detail in transfixing songs that function like intricate dioramas.

TEEN Dives Into the Gray Areas of Fading Love on 'Good Fruit'

TEEN's Good Fruit comes out March 1 via Carpark Records. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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TEEN Dives Into the Gray Areas of Fading Love on 'Good Fruit'

February 21, 2019 • On its dark but buoyant new album, the artful pop band explores the complexities and contradictions in love, loss and learning to leave the past behind.

Greg Ward's New Album 'Feels Like A Walk Home' And A Tribute To Chicago

The title of Greg Ward's latest album, Stomping Off From Greenwood, refers to a street where Ward lived on Chicago's South Side. Diana Quiñones Rivera/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Greg Ward's New Album 'Feels Like A Walk Home' And A Tribute To Chicago

February 19, 2019 • Saxophonist and composer Greg Ward's Stomping Off From Greenwood is a love letter to the city where he came of age as a musician.

Greg Ward's New Album 'Feels Like A Walk Home' And A Tribute To Chicago

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'Newest Sound You Never Heard' Revisits The Music Of Jeanne Lee And Ran Blake

Fresh Air

February 18, 2019 • Lee, one of the premier singers of new jazz, mixes it up with pianist Blake on a newly reissued two-CD set featuring standards and straight-up jazz tunes the two recorded in Belgium in 1966 and '67.

'Newest Sound You Never Heard' Revisits The Music Of Jeanne Lee And Ran Blake

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With The Vibrant 'City Pop', Benny Sings Stakes His Claim For The Masses

Benny Sings' City Pop comes out Feb. 22 via Stones Throw. Takuroh Oyama/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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With The Vibrant 'City Pop', Benny Sings Stakes His Claim For The Masses

February 14, 2019 • You've heard the Dutch pop and R&B singer's music before and probably didn't know it. Now, he makes a perfectly timed bid for stardom.

On 'Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music Vol. 1 & 2', Ray Charles Broke Ground

Ray Charles' Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol. 1 & 2 is due out Feb. 22 on Concord Music Group. Courtesy of The Ray Charles Foundation hide caption

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On 'Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music Vol. 1 & 2', Ray Charles Broke Ground

February 14, 2019 • Charles laid claim to the center of American popular music on these 1962 classics, and ended up with some of the brashest and best-selling music of his career.