NPR Music's picks for the best albums out this week include the jagged indie-rock of Rabbit Rabbit from Speedy Ortiz, hip-hop royalty Illa J's No Traffic and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Speedy Ortiz — Rabbit Rabbit
Featured Songs: "Ghostwriter," "Ballad of Y&S," "Scabs," "Kim Cattrall"
2. Illa J — No Traffic
Featured Songs: "Off the Tap," "Circus," "Get Down (feat. AmpFiddler)," "Snaps," "OG Funk"
3. Puma Blue — Holy Waters
Featured Songs: "Hounds," "O, The Blood!," "Falling Down," "Pretty"
4. Slowdive — everything is alive
Featured Songs: "alife," "prayer remembered," "shanty"

Lightning Round:
L'Rain — "Pet Rock" (Single)
Ama Lou — I Came Home Late
Kendra Morris — I Am What I'm Waiting For
Jeff Rosenstock — HELLMODE

Other notable releases for Sept. 1:
The 1975 — Live From Gorilla
Aesop Rock — Skelethon (10 Year Anniversary Edition)
dadá Joãozinho — tds bem Global
Dream — to whoever wants to hear EP
Field Music — light is gone 2
Ghost of Vroom — Ghost of Vroom 3
Icona Pop — Club Romantech
Larry Fleet — Earned It
Laya — Bet That EP
The Natvral — Summer of No Light
Neil Young — Odeon Budokan
Taake — Et Hav av Avstand


Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

As summer break comes to a close for many and students head back to school, we take a moment to celebrate one of the season's greatest joys: ice cream. It turns out there are a lot of songs about this delightful treat. So, for this week's episode, we're sharing a show from our archives all about ice cream and the (many) ways it's inspired bands and artists over the years.

Note: This episode originally ran on July 12, 2016


Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

NPR Music's picks for the best albums out this week include global sensation Burna Boy, rising R&B star Victoria Monét and more.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

From our friends at Pop Culture Happy Hour: What makes for an unshakable rap verse — the kind that shifts your world view and sticks around years after the first time you encountered it? This month marks 50 years since the birth of hip-hop, so we reached out to some NPR colleagues and a few hip-hop luminaries and asked them what hip-hop verse changed their lives.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Singer Paul Simon surprised fans earlier this year by releasing Seven Psalms, his first album since 2018. It was surprising not because so much time had passed, but because he had originally said his previous album, In the Blue Light, would be his last. In an interview with All Songs Considered's Bob Boilen, Simon said he was ready to retire from music and pursue other creative projects, like painting. This week, we go back to that 2018 conversation when Simon first announced he was done making new music. He talks about his dreams, the creative process and life's biggest questions. "We don't have the capacity to understand the great mysteries of life and God or no God or infinity," Simon says. "We just can't get it. It's beyond us, but that's fine."

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

NPR Music's picks for the best albums out this week include new releases from Jon Batiste, Hozier, Rhiannon Giddens, Cautious Clay and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Jon Batiste — World Music Radio
Featured Songs: "BOOM FOR REAL," "Hello, Billy Bob," "Be Who You Are (feat. JID, NewJeans & Camilo)," "Uneasy (feat. Lil Wayne)"
2. Hozier — Unreal Unearth
Featured Songs: "Anything But," "De Selby (Part 1)," "Eat Your Young," "Butchered Tongue," "Who We Are"
3. Genesis Owusu — Struggler
Featured Songs: "Leaving The Light," "Stay Blessed," "Freak Boy," "That's Life (A Swamp)"
4. Rhiannon Giddens — You're the One
Featured Songs: "Way Over Yonder," "You Louisiana Man," "If You Don't Know How Sweet It Is"
5. Cautious Clay — KARPEH
Featured Songs: "Fishtown," "102 Years of Comedy (Intro)," "Karpehs Don't Flinch"

Lightning Round:
DeYarmond Edison — EPOCH
Quavo — Rocket Power
Reneé Rapp — Snow Angel
Talking Heads — Stop Making Sense (Deluxe Edition)

Other notable releases for Aug. 18:
Alana Springsteen — Twenty Something
Birdy — Portraits
Bobby Rush — All My Love For You
Fiddlehead — Death is Nothing To Us
Grace Potter — Mother Road
Margaret Glaspy — Echo The Diamond
Mick Jenkins — The Patience
Panda Bear, Sonic Boom & Adrian Sherwood — Reset In Dub
Russ — SANTIAGO
Shamir — Homo Anxietatem
Tash Sultana — Sugar EP.
Teddy Thompson — My Love of Country


Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

This week, Anamaria Sayre and Felix Contreras round up their favorite music from the last few months, including Mexican bedroom pop from Bratty, jazz from Argentinian composer Dario Acosta Teich, a new song from rising regional star DannyLux and more.

To hear more of Alt.Latino's favorite music, follow our Spotify and Apple Music playlists.

Audio for this episode of 'Alt.Latino' was edited, mixed and produced by Janice Llamoca. Our show editor is Hazel Cills and our project manager is Grace Chung. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist and songwriter for The Band, died Aug. 9 at the age of 80. For this remembrance, we're sharing an encore presentation of a conversation Robertson had with All Songs Considered's Bob Boilen in 2018, on the 50th anniversary of The Band's seminal album Music From Big Pink.

Note: This interview originally published Aug. 8, 2018.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

NPR Music's picks for the best albums out this week include Noname's long-awaited Sundial, Karol G's Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season), a long-lost Neil Young release and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Noname — Sundial
Featured Songs: "Oblivion (feat. Atyoni & Common)," "Beauty Supply," "Namesake"
2. Jungle — Volcano
Featured Songs: "Us Against the World," "Candle Flame (feat. Erick the Architect)," "Dominoes," Every Night"
3. Neil Young — Chrome Dreams
Featured Songs: "Will to Love," "Like a Hurricane," "Look Out for My Love"
4. Joell Ortiz & L'Orange — Signature
Featured Songs: "Uncle Chris Car," "Therapeutic," "OG," "One Day"
5. Son Lux — Alternate Forms
Featured Songs: "Ransom (All Innocence)," "Alternate Worlds (Alternate Life)," "Easy (Fight to Forget)," "No Crimes (New History)"

Lightning Round:
Bonnie "Prince" Billy — Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You
G Flip — Drummer
Karol G — Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season)
Tash Sultana — "Bitter Lovers (feat. BJ The Chicago Kid)" (Single)

Other notable releases for Aug. 11:
K.A.A.N. — The Death of a Rapper
Lawrence English & Lea Bertucci — Chthonic
Les Imprimés — Rêverie
Louis Cato — Reflections
Peter McPoland — Piggy
Public Image Ltd. — End of World
Spencer Zahn — Statues I
$uicideboy$ — I No Longer Feel The Razor Guarding My Heel (V)
Suzi Quatro & KT Tunstall — Face to Face
Trippe Redd — A Love Letter To you 5


Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

When DJ Kool Herc spun records at a small party in the Bronx in August of 1973, no one would have predicted his unique style would give birth to the most influential and dominant music in the world: hip-hop. In this special episode, we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the genre by looking at how and why the music has managed to remain a local phenomenon, even as it's taken hold of the world, and what's happening in some of the country's most vibrant scenes.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy