NPR Music

It's been a minute since we got together to share some all-new music – not since our Nov. 6 show of last year, in fact. Hopefully you used the past several weeks to dig into our look back at the year in music for 2018, our remembrance of the artists we lost, Viking's Choice, Glaring Omissions and, of course, our annual Holiday Radio Play. But we're back now with a batch of essential songs to start the new year right. This includes a spare and profoundly moving new track from singer Lana Del Rey called "Hope is a Terrible Thing for a Woman Like Me To Have – But I Have It;" a brutally candid critique of toxic masculinity from Stella Donnelly; and the thumping, propulsive sounds of Priests and their new song "The Seduction Of Kansas." Also on the show: Perfect guitar pop from Telekinesis, and the punk-saxophone of Joy On Fire and the sweet harmonies of The Wild Reeds, both of whom pay tribute to a lost mother.

Steve Earle honors his musical hero Guy Clark with an album of his song called GUY.

On this edition of All Songs Considered, we share our favorite discoveries from globalFEST 2019.

Our resident Viking surveys 2018 through Italian doom metal, Chinese post-punk, underwater field recordings and a 24-hour drone.

In this special year-end edition of All Songs Considered we look back at the extraordinary singers, composers, multi-instrumentalists and other creative souls we lost in 2018, from indie rock and pop's Richard Swift and Dolores O'Riordan, to opera singer Montserrat Caballe, rapper Mac Miller, avant-garde jazz pianist Cecil Taylor and, of course, Aretha Franklin.

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, John Legend, Lucius, William Shatner, Micky Dolenz of The Monkees and Rodney Crowell all join us for our annual holiday spoof, which unfolds like a bad high school play. This year the gang goes to Bermuda to get away from it all, only to find themselves lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

A lot of the year-end lists you've looked at probably didn't have that one favorite album or song you hold near and dear. This episode of All Songs is about our hidden gems, the ones that, in the give-and-take of making a representative staff list, got left off. In the case of the NPR Music team, we each had at least one record we want you to know about that you won't find on our Top 50 Albums list or our Top 100 Songs list. So, we gathered with ALT. Latino host Felix Contreras, our hip-hop and R&B lovers, Sidney Madden and Rodney Carmichael, classical music geek, Tom Huizenga and pop-and-rock fans Lyndsey McKenna and Marissa Lorusso to set the record straight. And with outrage in our hearts (and bit of tongue in our cheeks) we play the eight other songs we really want you to hear.

The All Songs gang looks back at this year's anthems and unmissable milestones, from Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer to Childish Gambino's mind-blowing video for "This Is America," Rosalía, Mitski and more. Hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are joined by NPR Music's Ann Powers and Stephen Thompson as they look back at the albums, artists and moments that mattered most in 2018.

It's our final New Music Friday for 2018 – barring any big surprises, December is a pretty slow release month – but we end with some phenomenal new albums, including The 1975's Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, singer Alessia Cara's affecting coming-of-age manifesto The Pains Of Growing, an exercise in minimalism from rapper Earl Sweatshirt and more. Host Robin Hilton is joined this week by NPR Music's Rodney Carmichael, Sidney Madden and Lyndsey McKenna as they do a quick look at the most essential new albums dropping on Nov. 30. Featured Albums: The 1975: A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships; Meek Mill: Championship; J.I.D: DiCaprio 2; Alessia Cara: The Pains Of Growing; Earl Sweatshirt: Some Rap Songs. Other Notable Releases For Nov. 30: Jeff Tweedy: Warm; Foxwarren: Foxwarren; Lil' Baby: Street Gossip; Neil Young: Songs For Judy; Bryan Ferry And His Orchestra: Bitter-Sweet

Jeff Tweedy's written a book that's incredibly open-hearted and honest. Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. is a journey in music, friendship and family — from getting his first guitar (which didn't work out so well), to the formation of Uncle Tupelo with his friend, Jay Farrar, their surprising breakup and all the various incarnations of Wilco. It's filled with stories of insecurities, drug dependencies and thoughtful reflections. On this edition of All Songs Considered, host Bob Boilen talks with Jeff Tweedy about his remarkable life story, plays clips from the Penguin Random House audio version of Jeff's book and digs a bit into his new solo album called Warm, which addresses a lot of personal thoughts and feels like a companion to Jeff's book.