NPR Music

At a time when every day can feel the same, on this week's All Songs Considered you can meet someone new, with a mix of memorable music discoveries.

1. Muzz: "Red Western Sky" from Muzz
2. Liza Anne: "Bad Vacation" from Bad Vacation
3. Katie Von Schleicher "Brutality" from Consummation
4. Lou Canon "M.O.T.R." from Audomatic Body
5. Trespassers William "Winterstorms"
6. Asher Gamedze "Siyabulela" from Dialectic Soul

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Charli XCX's how i'm feeling now made entirely while quarantined, leads our shortlist of the week's best new albums, along with Jason Isbell, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Perfume Genius and more.

On this edition of All Songs Considered, we take a musical journey honoring the genius of Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider, who died May 6, just a few days after turning 73.

The German electronic band was like no other in the 1970s, with their pulsing electronic music and songs about the intersection of man and machines. Music writer Geeta Dayal and I play the band's career-defining songs from this group, a foursome that influenced everyone from David Bowie to Prince and '80s new wave while laying the groundwork for electronica and EDM.

1. "Autobahn" from Autobahn (1974)
2. "Radioactivity" from Radio-Activity (1975)
3. "Trans-Europe Express" from Trans-Europe Express (1977)
4. "Neon Lights" from The Man-Machine (1978)
5. "Computer World" from Computer World (1981)
6. "Tour de France" single (1983)

On this special edition of All Songs Considered, we look back at the life of rock and roll pioneer Little Richard through 10 of the defining songs of his career.

NPR Music Senior Director Lauren Onkey joins host Bob Boilen as they play singles from the early '50s up through his 1970 album, The Rill Thing.

1. "Tutti Frutti" (1955)
2. "Long Tall Sally (The Thing)" (1956)
3. "Get Rich Quick" (1952)
4. "Slippin' and Slidin' (Peepin' and Hidin')" (1956)
5. "The Girl Can't Help It" (1956)
6. "Lucille" (1957)
7. "Keep A Knockin' " (1957)
8. "Every Time I Feel The Spirit" (1960)
9. "I Don't Know What You've Got" (1965)
10. "Freedom Blues" (1970)

Our shortlist of the best new albums out this week includes a debut solo release from Paramore's Hayley Williams, the latest from R&B singer Kehlani, rapper Bishop Nehru and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Hayley Williams — Petals For Armor
Featured Song: "Simmer"
2. Blake Mills — Mutable Set
Featured Song: "Money is the One True God"
3. Buscabulla — Regresa
Featured Song: "Mío"
4. Mark Lanegan — Straight Songs of Sorrow
Featured Song: "This Game of Love"
5. Chelsea Williams — Beautiful and Strange
Featured Song: "Beautiful and Strange"
6. Kehlani — It Was Good Until It Wasn't
Featured Song: "Grieving"
7. Eve Owen — Don't Let The Ink Dry
Featured Song: "Mother"
8. Bishop Nehru — Nehruvia: My Disregarded Thoughts
Featured Song: "Too Lost"
9. Cyrillus Kreek — The Suspended Harp of Babel
Featured Song: "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come"

Other notable releases out on May 8: Beauty Pill — Please Advise; Hailee Steinfeld — Half-Written Story; Phenomenal Handclap Band — Do What You Like; Same — Plastic Western; Shakey Graves — Look Alive; Shiner — Schadenfreude.

This week's All Songs Considered includes a surprise drop from Big Thief, a sonic journey from The Decemberists' Chris Funk and some great unknowns.

Featured Songs And Artists:

1. Big Thief: "Love in Mine"
2. Samia: "Is There Something in the Movies?"
3. serpentwithfeet: "Psychic" from Apparition
4. Pezzettino: "Ring for Sappho" from Venus
5. Tadzio: "Pint of My Blood" from That Cold Grey Light
6. Chris Funk: "Knifey Vellocet" from The Painted Porch
7. Luke Schneider: "Lex Universum" from Altar of Harmony

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The best new albums out this week include an upside down sound from Car Seat Headrest, the technicolor world of Chicano Batman, a mind-blowing debut from actor Caleb Landry Jones and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Car Seat Headrest — Making a Door Less Open
Featured Songs: "Hollywood" and "There Must Be More Than Blood"
2. American Aquarium — Lamentations
Featured Song: "Me + Mine"
3. Diet Cig — Do You Wonder About Me?
Featured Song: "Broken Body"
4. Chicano Batman — Invisible People
Featured Song: "Blank Slate"
5. DELANILA — Overloaded
Featured Song: "The Philosopher"
6. Damien Jurado — What's New, Tomboy?
Featured Song: "Arthur Aware"
7. Johanna Warren — Chaotic Good
Featured Song: "Faking Amnesia"
8. Caleb Landry Jones — The Mother Stone
Featured Song: "Flag Day / Mother Stone"

Other notable releases for May 1: Austra — HiRUDiN; Ben Lukas Boysen — Mirage; Devon Williams — A Tear in the Fabric; The Goods — II; Hot Country Knights — The K Is Silent; Joan as Police Woman — Cover Two; Jojo — Good to Know; Kenny Chesney — Here and Now; Man Man — Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between.

NPR Music staff pick the music they love best for April 2020. "Dreamsicle" by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, "Only the Strong" from Laura Marling, "Pringle Creek" from Ellis, "Blissful Morning Dream Interpretation Melody" from Discovery Zone, "Como un Dragón" from Rita Indiana, "Look Alive" from Moor Jewelry and "Holy Mother" from Clarice Jensen.

This week's All Songs Considered mix has joy and words of encouragement from Lucinda Williams, a group of artists in Kentucky vowing to "Lift Up Louisville," and more.

1. Tenci: "Joy" from My Heart Is An Open Field
2. Khruangbin: "Time (You and I)" from Mordechai
3. Protomartyr: "Worm In Heaven" from Ultimate Success Today
4. Teddy Abrams, Jim James, Will Oldham, Jecorey Arthur and More: "Lift Up Louisville"
5. Lucinda Williams: "When The Way Gets Dark" from Good Souls Better Angels
6. Liar, Flower: "I am Sundress (She of Infinite Flowers)" from Geiger Counter
7. The Lovely Eggs: "Long Stem Carnations" from I am Moron

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The best new albums out this week include a scorcher from Lucinda Williams, a new joint from rapper Quelle Chris and Chris Keys, Sylvan Esso's first-ever live album, country singer Pam Tillis and more.

Featured Albums:

1. Brendan Benson — Dear Life
Featured Song: "I Can If You Want Me To"
2. Pam Tillis — Looking for a Feeling
Featured Song: "Looking for a Feeling"
3. Sylvan Esso — WITH
Featured Song: "Radio"
4. Quelle Chris & Chris Keys — Innocent Country 2
Featured Song: "Black Twitter"
5. Lucinda Williams — Good Souls Better Angels
Featured Song: "Waking Up"
6. Ian Chang — Belonging
Featured Songs: "Lion Dance" and "Comfort Me"
7. Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes — What Kinda Music
Featured Song: "Lift Off"
8. Whim — Abuzz in the Abyss
Featured Song: "Somebody Else's Tongue"

Other notable releases for April 24: Alice Bag — Sister Dynamite; BC Camplight — Shortly After Takeoff; Hazel English — Wake Up!; Luke De-Sciscio — Eucharist; Other Lives — For Their Love; Peter Oren — The Greener Pasture; Sweet Crude — Officiel//Artificiel Whitney Rose — We Still Go To Rodeos; Zsela — Ache of Victory.

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