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

First Listen

Hear upcoming albums in their entirety

Tuesday

Monday

Exclusive First Listen: Norah Jones

Exclusive First Listen: Norah Jones

WXPN

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

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Saturday

First Listen: Cecilia Bartoli, 'Sacrificium'

First Listen: Cecilia Bartoli, 'Sacrificium'

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

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

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

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

Gibbard And Farrar Set Kerouac's 'Big Sur' To Music
Autumn de Wilde/Shore Fire Media

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

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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Exclusive First Listen: Miguel Zenon, 'Esta Plena'

WBGO

Last year, the prodigious saxophonist took home the prestigious Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships. He's used the opportunities to investigate his Puerto Rican musical roots; his new album is a methodical but natural-feeling synthesis of folkloric plena and mainland modern jazz. Hear Esta Plena in its entirety for the week preceding its Oct. 20 physical release.

Exclusive First Listen: Miguel Zenon, 'Esta Plena'

Exclusive First Listen: The Swell Season
courtesy of the artist

Exclusive First Listen: The Swell Season

Recording as The Swell Season, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova recorded a lush, lovely, heartfelt gem in the new Strict Joy, on which they examine a tumultuous relationship over a mostly calm bed of acoustic guitars, pianos and strings. You can hear Strict Joy in its entirety here for the two weeks leading up to its Oct. 27 release.

Exclusive First Listen: The Swell Season

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Tuesday

Exclusive First Listen: Nellie McKay
Caroline Knopf

Exclusive First Listen: Nellie McKay

Her new record is free of cynicism, full of heart and more elegant than a mere nostalgia trip. Normal as Blueberry Pie revisits the past while offering a fresh take on American classics by George and Ira Gershwin, Johnny Mercer, Burt Bacharach and Les Brown. She also sings an original.

Exclusive First Listen: Nellie McKay

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Exclusive First Listen: Vijay Iyer, 'Historicity'

The Vijay Iyer trio (L-R): Stephan Crump, Marcus Gilmore, Vijay Iyer. Lynne Harty hide caption

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Lynne Harty

Exclusive First Listen: Vijay Iyer, 'Historicity'

Iyer's new album is the work of a piano trio playing mostly covers — a common sight in jazz. To anyone paying attention to these sounds, which draw from visionaries as diverse as Andrew Hill and M.I.A., it's readily evident that his is an uncommon, even daring approach. Hear the record, Historicity, in its entirety for the week preceding its Oct. 13 U.S. release.

Tuesday

Monday

Tuesday

Monday

Exclusive First Listen: The Avett Brothers
courtesy of the artist

Exclusive First Listen: The Avett Brothers

With their roots in punk and bluegrass, Seth and Scott Avett know how and when to careen wildly, almost recklessly. But in their albums as The Avett Brothers, they're just as likely to ruminate softly on devotion, desire and regret, in austere, sweet-natured songs that exude a sort of hard-won decency. Hear the band's much-anticipated major-label debut, I and Love and You, in its entirety here for the week leading up to its release on Sept. 29.