NPR Music

Every month, we ask the NPR Music staff: What's the one song you couldn't escape? What's the one album to which you'll return all year? In October, we fell far into the music of Helado Negro and Jordan Peters, screamed along to Illuminati Hotties and Cerce, and meditated on the voices of Buffalo Nichols and Emily D'Angelo.

Music featured on this episode:
• Buffalo Nichols: "Another Man" from Buffalo Nichols
• Jordan Peters, "Float (feat. Obed Calvaire)"
• Emily D'Angelo: "Nausicaa" from enargeia
• Helado Negro: "Aguas Frías" from Far In
• Illuminati Hotties: "MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA" from Let Me Do One More
• Cerce: "Fate" from Cowboy Music

Follow the #NowPlaying blog for the NPR Music staff's favorite new songs.

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NPR Music picks the best new albums out this week, including new releases by Tori Amos, Mick Jenkins, Mon Laferte, The War on Drugs and more.

Featured Albums
1. The War on Drugs — I Don't Live Here Anymore
Featured Song: "Change"
2. Mick Jenkins — Elephant in the Room
Featured Song: "Stiff Arm"
3. Tori Amos — Ocean to Ocean
Featured Song: "Speaking With Trees"
4. Emily Scott Robinson — American Siren
Featured Song: "Let 'Em Burn"
5. Lily Konigsberg — Lily We Need to Talk Now
Featured Song: "Alone"
6. Eris Drew — Quivering in Time
Featured Song: "Show U Love"
7. Mon Laferte — 1940 Carmen
Featured Song: "Algo Es Mejor"
8. Theon Cross — Intra-I
Featured Song: "40Tude"
9. Lilli Lewis — Americana
Featured Song: "Wrecking Ball"
10. Johnathan Blake — Homeward Bound
Featured Song: "Homeward Bound (For Ana Grace)"

Other notable releases for October 29:Ed Sheeran — =; Migos — Culture III; Jónsi — Obsidian; Death Cab for Cutie — The Photo Album (20th Anniversary Edition); R.E.M. — New Adventures in Hi-Fi (25th Anniversary Edition); Spice Girls — Spice (25th Anniversary Edition); Johnny Cash — Bear's Sonic Journals: Johnny Cash at the Carousel Ballroom, April 24 1968; Maya Jane Coles — Night Creature; They Might Be Giants — BOOK; Charlotte Cornfield — Highs in the Minuses; Hayes Carll — You Get It All; Sam Evian — Time to Melt; Marissa Nadler — The Path of the Clouds; Mastodon — Hushed and Grim

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All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen shares his favorite new tracks of the week, including a new one from Tiny Desk contest winner Quinn Christopherson, the English punk group IDLES and more.

Featured Tracks:
1. IDLES: "The Beachland Ballroom," from Crawler
2. Quinn Christopherson: "Bubblegum," from I Am Bubblegum (EP)
3. Anjimile: "Stranger" (Single)
4. mehro: "howling" (Single)
5. Anna Leone: "Still I Wait," from I've Felt All These Things
6. Scout LaRue Willis: "Love Without Possession"(Single)
7. Chloe Lilac: "19" (Single)


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NPR Music's picks for the best albums out today include new ones from the K-pop singer CL, rapper and producer Wale, a new project from Tricky called Lonely Guest, Grouper and more.

Featured Albums:
1. CL — ALPHA
Featured song: "Chuck"
2. Wale — Folarin II
Featured song: "Name Ring Bells"
3. Grouper — Shade
Featured song: "Pale Interior"
4. Helado Negro — Far In
Featured song: "Wake Up Tomorrow"
5. angel du$t — Yak: A Collection of Truck Songs
Featured song: "Love is the Greatest" and "All the Way Dumb"
6. Lonely Guest — Lonely Guest
Featured songs: "Atmosphere" and "Move Me"
7. John Forté — Vessels, Angels & Ancestors
Featured song: "88"
8. Circuit des Yeux — -io
Featured song: "Sculpting the Exodus"

Other notable releases for Oct. 22: Bedouine — Waysides; Jackson + Sellers — Breaking Point; John Coltrane — A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle; Lana Del Rey — Blue Banisters; My Morning Jacket — My Morning Jacket.

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Producer Giles Martin talks about a new 5-disc deluxe version of Let It Be, one of The Beatles' most complicated albums. Hear his remixed version of the album plus never-before-heard banter and outtakes.

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This is the third and final installment in a special series from NPR's 'It's Been A Minute' podcast looking at important moments in the history of pop-music crossover. On this episode, Sam and his guests look at the so-called "Latin Explosion" of the late 1990s and ask who this historic if calculated moment was actually for, and what were the business considerations behind it? And what does "Livin La Vida Loca" have to do with all of it? You'll find all that out and more in this episode.

Atlanta rapper Young Thug's Punk, Coldplay's Music of the Spheres, solo debuts from Finneas, Remi Wolf and more are among NPR Music's picks for the week's best new albums.

Featured Albums:
1. Remi Wolf — Juno
Featured Song: "Anthony Kiedis"
2. Coldplay — Music of the Spheres
Featured Song: "People of the Pride"
3. Young Thug — Punk
Featured Song: "Tick Tock"
4. Joy Crookes — Skin
Song: "Poison"
5. Finneas — Optimist
Featured Song: "The Kids Are All Dying"
6. Pinkpantheress — to hell with it
Featured Song: "Noticed I cried"

Other notable releases for Oct. 15: The Beatles — Let It Be (50th Anniversary Ed.); Dos Santos — City of Mirrors; Le Ren — Leftovers; Pokey LaFarge — In the Blossom of Their Shade; Xenia Rubinos — Una Rosa.

All Songs Considered's Bob Boilen shares his favorite new music of the week, including a reflection on the cost of fame from Mitski, Shamir's "Gay Agenda," sweet "Change" from Big Thief and more.

Featured Tracks And Artists:
1. Mitski: "Working for the Knife" (Single)
2. Cate Le Bon: "Running Away," from Pompeii
3. Big Thief: "Change," from Change EP
4. Doran: "Old Moon," from Doran
5. Kevin Morby & Hamilton Leithauser: "Virginia Beach" (Single)
6. Shamir: "Gay Agenda" (Single)

This year marks the 35th anniversary of Janet Jackson's Control. That album was her first real commercial hit and, looking back, helped redefine all of pop music. In the late '80s and '90s, Jackson was one of the biggest stars of our time — right up there with her brother, Michael and Madonna. And yet, Jackson isn't always given her due. In this special episode from NPR's It's Been A Minute podcast, host Sam Sanders explores why that is, how she made the album Control, and the incident — that lasted all but a second — that changed the course of her career.

NPR Music's picks for the best albums out this week include James Blake's Friends That Break Your Heart, new ones from Cimafunk, the underground hip-hop duo Atmosphere, Reba McEntire, and more.

Featured Albums:
1. James Blake — Friends That Break Your Heart
Featured Songs: "Foot Forward" and "Frozen"
2. BadBadNotGood — Talk Memory
Featured Song: "Beside April"
3. Susana Baca — Palabras Urgentes
Featured Song: "Cambalache"
4. Natalie Hemby — Pins and Needles
Featured Song: "Banshee"
5. Various — Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows Vol. 2 (John Prine tribute album)
Featured Song: "Summer's End" (Performed by Valerie June)
6. Cimafunk — El Alimento
Featured Song: "Sal De Lo Malo"
7. Various — It's A Good, Good Feeling: The Latin Soul of Fania Records
Featured Song: "Soul Drummers" (Performed by Ray Baretto)
8. Joshua Crumbly — ForEver
Featured Song: "KOLKATA"
9. Atmosphere — WORD?
Featured Song: "Fleetwood"
10. Reba McEntire — Revived, Remixed, Revisited
Featured Song: "Fancy"