Exclusive First Listen: Dirty Projectors May 30, 2009 • In what's already an unusually strong year for music, Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca still stands out as one of 2009's most unusual and refreshingly unpredictable records. Hear the album in its idiosyncratic entirety.
Exclusive First Listen: Crosby, Stills And Nash May 22, 2009 • A new collection, titled Demos, features a series of demo recordings of mostly solo songs by David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills, as well as a track from Neil Young. Listen to the album in its entirety.
Exclusive First Listen: Vieux Farka Toure May 19, 2009 • In 2006, Vieux Farka Toure released his self-titled debut album not long after the death of his father, the iconic Malian guitarist and singer Ali Farka Toure. It was an impressive opening to a career and a heartfelt passing of the torch. The long-awaited new album Fondo establishes young Vieux Farka Toure as a bona fide African guitar hero. Hear the album in its entirety.
Review Exclusive First Listen: John Vanderslice May 11, 2009 • Vanderslice has earned a reputation for writing smart, adventurous, appealing pop music that fiddles with form and structure. Now, nearly a decade into his career, Vanderslice is about to release his best record yet: Romanian Names. Hear the entire album on NPR Music as part of our Exclusive First Listen series.
Review Exclusive First Listen: Grandaddy's Jason Lytle May 4, 2009 • Lytle's new solo album, his first since Grandaddy disbanded in 2006, doesn't skip a beat: Yours Truly, The Commuter sounds like a Grandaddy record in everything but name.
Exclusive First Listen: Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band's 'Outer South' April 27, 2009 • When Oberst hit the road last year with longtime friends he dubbed The Mystic Valley Band, the group found that it was eager to capture the energy of its live performances. By the end of the year, it entered a studio in Tornillo, Texas, to lay down 16 new tracks. The resulting album, Outer South, won't be released until May 5, but you can hear the entire record on NPR Music as an Exclusive First Listen.
Exclusive First Listen: St. Vincent's 'Actor' April 20, 2009 • When Annie Clark emerged in 2007 with her debut album under the name St. Vincent, it was clear she was an exceptionally talented artist. Marry Me won over fans and music critics with its off-kilter rhythms, unconventional mix of strings and electronics, and Clark's cryptic lyrics. But the band's new follow-up, Actor, is even more remarkable. Hear the album in its entirety, exclusively on NPR Music.
Exclusive First Listen: Camera Obscura April 8, 2009 • Camera Obscura has been crafting its own brand of shimmering chamber-pop since first forming in Glasgow in 1996. Now, more than a decade later, the group is about to release its richest and most ambitious album to date. My Maudlin Career, available on NPR Music as an exclusive first listen a week before its release on April 21, is a beautifully produced mix of luminescent pop gems.
Exclusive First Listen: Leonard Cohen March 23, 2009 • Leonard Cohen, a singer and songwriter of tremendous depth and wisdom, has always been a seeker. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he's examined the mysteries of human sexuality, religion and power with a tremendous range of complex emotions and poetry. In July 2008, Cohen took the stage at London's 02 Arena and gave a stunning performance, as part of his first tour in 15 years. Hear the concert as an exclusive preview on a new two-disc set, Live in London, here on NPR Music.
Exclusive First Listen: Dan Deacon March 2, 2009 • Baltimore artist Dan Deacon has built his reputation on live shows: a comically unpredictable mess of frenetic dancing, audience participation and theatrics, all powered by Deacon's wildly addictive electro freak-pop. Deacon shuns the stage, instead planting himself on the dance floor with a tangle of cables, analog drum machines and vintage electronics. Deacon's infectious energy is captured on his latest album, Bromst, which can be heard in its entirety here on NPR Music, as an exclusive first listen.
Exclusive First Listen: Neko Case February 18, 2009 • When Case toured in support of 2006's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, she claimed that she didn't like love songs, and that she was incapable of writing one. But on her sixth studio album, due out March 3, Case offers up what she calls "a bunch of love songs," which are heartbreakingly beautiful and, at times, comical.
First Listen: Laura Gibson's 'Beasts Of Seasons' February 16, 2009 • Hear a full-album preview of Laura Gibson's quiet masterpiece, Beasts of Seasons, streaming on NPR Music as an exclusive first listen.
Exclusive First Listen: Helene Grimaud American Public Media February 2, 2009 • After a career built on romantics like Rachmaninoff and Chopin, pianist Helene Grimaud turns to the music of J.S. Bach with a combination of reverence and playfulness. Hear the new CD in its entirety, one week before its release. Listen to Helene Grimaud discuss Bach with Fred Child 5:23
Review Exclusive First Listen: Bruce Springsteen January 19, 2009 • Springsteen's return to pop production, and the E Street Band, on his 2007 album Magic left the singer wanting more. Immediately after the disc's completion, he decided to keep writing and recording. In the first week after Magic, he wrote several songs that form the beginning of Working on a Dream, streaming now in its entirety on NPR Music.
Review First Listen: Animal Collective January 12, 2009 • On Animal Collective's latest album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, the group delivers a sonic super nova of tribal rhythms, pulsing synths, and shimmering vocals, mashed together in a stew of strangely infectious noise. Hear the entire album, streaming on NPR Music.
