First Listen Enjoy select, upcoming albums, in their entirety.

First Listen

Hear upcoming albums in their entirety

Sunday January 31, 2010

Heligoland marks the return of the pioneering trip-hop duo Massive Attack after a seven-year absence. Hamish Brown hide caption

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Hamish Brown

Review

Massive Attack, 'Heligoland'

January 31, 2010 • With the release Heligoland, the legendary electronic and trip-hop pioneers re-establish themselves with resounding fanfare, composing a dark, challenging work that sounds both diverse and focused

Thursday January 28, 2010

Review: The Knife, 'Tomorrow, In A Year'

Something beautiful happens in the midst of The Knife's 90-minute electro-opera, based on Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species: The music itself evolves as the album progresses. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Courtesy of the artist

Review: The Knife, 'Tomorrow, In A Year'

January 28, 2010 • Something beautiful happens in the midst of The Knife's electro-opera, based on Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species: The music itself evolves as the album progresses.

Monday January 25, 2010

Review

First Listen: Midlake's 'The Courage Of Others'

January 25, 2010 • This is one deep, dark, beautiful record. Midlake has been working on The Courage of Others for a few years now, even scrapping it all entirely at one point. The band stopped touring in 2007, in part, to make this album — and now, for the first time in almost three years, it's finally ready. A gentle masterwork, it's available here in its entirety for the week leading up to its release on Feb. 2.

Hear Midlake's 'Courage Of Others'

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Tuesday January 19, 2010

Beach House's Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand. Jason Nocito hide caption

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Jason Nocito

First Listen: Beach House, 'Teen Dream'

January 19, 2010 • Composing concise progressions and arrangements on which to build their sound, Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand display an affection for intricate '60s-style songcraft and '80s-style synth-pop.

Monday January 18, 2010

First Listen: Charlotte Gainsbourg, 'IRM'

As the daughter of French pop artists Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg has found success as an actress, as well as a singer and songwriter. Paul Jasmin hide caption

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Paul Jasmin

Review

First Listen: Charlotte Gainsbourg, 'IRM'

January 18, 2010 • The daughter of French pop artist Serge Gainsbourg and actress Jane Birkin has found success as an actress, as well as a singer and songwriter. Her latest record, IRM, finds her enlisting Beck.

Sunday January 17, 2010

Review

First Listen: Corinne Bailey Rae, 'The Sea'

WFUV

January 17, 2010 • Four years ago, the glamorous neo-soul singer broke through from the U.K. to the U.S. charts with "Put Your Records On," and suddenly she was everywhere. In the time since, she's lost her husband and mourned for two years. Rae is about to release a new album called The Sea — available for streaming in its entirety here until its release on Jan. 26.

Listen To Corinne Bailey Rae's 'The Sea'

Friday January 15, 2010

First Listen: Patty Griffin's 'Downtown Church'

Patty Griffin. Courtesy of the artist. hide caption

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Review

First Listen: Patty Griffin's 'Downtown Church'

WKSU

January 15, 2010 • Downtown Church, Griffin's seventh album, is the equivalent of a slow walk into a field of wildflowers — a journey in which you look up at a bluebird sky and take a deep breath with your eyes closed. It sounds like the soundtrack to a spiritual awakening, which makes sense, given that it's a gospel album. Hear Downtown Church in its entirety here, until its release on Jan. 26.

Friday January 8, 2010

Review

Exclusive First Listen: Spoon's 'Transference'

January 8, 2010 • Britt Daniel, Spoon's gifted frontman, crafts brilliantly understated pop gems that follow a strict protocol: Keep the mix clean, the orchestration tight and the lyrics a bit oblique. It's a carefully plotted formula that's helped make Spoon one of the most reliably gratifying bands of the past 15 years. Hear its new album, Transference, in its entirety — a week prior to its Jan. 19 release — as part of NPR Music's Exclusive First Listen series.

Monday January 4, 2010

First Listen: Vampire Weekend, 'Contra'

January 4, 2010 • The New York band's second album loosely takes California as its muse. But the reason for Vampire Weekend's initial blog hype, and the reason the band broke out far beyond it, was that it made tuneful, concise, sing-along pop songs. Vampire Weekend has made more of those, and then some. Hear Contra in its entirety here, until its release on Jan. 12.

Hear 'Contra' In Its Entirety

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Monday December 21, 2009

David Belisle

Exclusive First Listen: Laura Veirs

December 21, 2009 • Veirs' latest release, July Flame, is a stripped-down album, using atmosphere and tension as the connective tissue for the songs. Veirs says she was in a writing slump going into this record, so she challenged herself with odd tunings on her nylon-string guitar. She dug deep inside for inspiration, did away with her full band for most of the album and wrote many of these tracks in her barn in Portland, Ore.

Exclusive First Listen: Laura Veirs

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Tuesday November 17, 2009

Fever Ray Johan Renck/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Johan Renck/Courtesy of the artist

Review

Review: Fever Ray, 'Live At Lulea'

November 17, 2009 • Taking time out from the icy synth-pop duo The Knife to perform as Fever Ray, Karin Dreijer-Andersson makes electronic pop music imbued with haunted fragility.

Monday November 9, 2009

Exclusive First Listen: Norah Jones

WXPN

November 9, 2009 • Jones' new album, The Fall, maintains her jazzy, sultry sound while pushing into more contemporary pop territory. It's a different direction for the singer, but suitable for old fans and newcomers alike.

Exclusive First Listen: Norah Jones

Listen · 7:19 7:19

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Saturday October 31, 2009

First Listen: Cecilia Bartoli, 'Sacrificium'

October 31, 2009 • Inspired by the emotionally charged and virtuosic music of the Baroque era, the adventurous mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli's new CD is devoted to the dazzling music associated with the age of the castrati.

Listen To Scott Simon's Interview With Cecilia Bartoli

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Wednesday October 21, 2009

First Listen: R.E.M. Live At The Olympia

October 21, 2009 • Rather than create a live album spanning its greatest hits, the legendary Athens, Ga., band picked out an unlikely assortment of 39 songs known mostly to R.E.M. diehards. Hear Live at the Olympia in its entirety for the week leading up to the collection's Oct. 27 release.

First Listen: R.E.M. Live At The Olympia

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Tuesday October 13, 2009

Autumn de Wilde/Shore Fire Media

Gibbard And Farrar Set Kerouac's 'Big Sur' To Music

October 13, 2009 • The lead singers of Death Cab for Cutie and Son Volt had never met until they discovered their mutual admiration for writer Jack Kerouac. Now, they've released an album based on Kerouac's 1962 novel Big Sur. Hear One Fast Move or I'm Gone in its entirety before its Oct. 20 release.

Gibbard And Farrar Set Kerouac's 'Big Sur' To Music

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