Music

Music & Culture

'I don't think about the dance floor': Jlin's complicated rhythms

5:36pm December 09, 2021

by Phil Harrell

Electronic composer Jlin warps percussion and other-worldly sounds into a fascinating, challenging collage. On a new album, she also gets a bit more... straightforward.

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Projects released by Summer Walker, Shelley FKA DRAM and Jazmine Sullivan are included in NPR Music's best R&B albums of 2021.

Music & Culture

The Best R&B Albums of 2021

2:46pm December 09, 2021

From Dijon and Figmore to Mereba and Cleo Sol, the best R&B albums of the year were born out of reshaped perspectives in the face of the post-pandemic facade we're now calling reality.

Music & Culture

'30' is a complicated album that shows just how broad Adele's appeal is

1:36pm December 09, 2021

by Ken Tucker

Adele is a rare thing right now: an artist whose appeal cuts across genres and generations. Her new album about divorce features thrilling, exhilarating songs about being absolutely miserable.

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Radiohead circa 2000. Singer Thom Yorke (second from right) says that as much as the albums Kid A and Amnesiac channel the dread that loomed over their moment, they are also full of hope that another world is possible.

Music & Culture

20 Years After The End Of The World

12:57pm December 09, 2021

At the turn of the millennium, Radiohead turned creeping melancholy and desolation into two albums that changed the band's career. Two decades later, maybe we've caught up to their prophetic vision.

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American composer and multi-instrumentalist Tim Cummings is featured in this week's episode.

Music & Culture

The Thistle & Shamrock: In Flight

12:46pm December 09, 2021

by Fiona Ritchie

This week's episode of The Thistle & Shamrock explores how songs travel to new places and back again, just like the migration of birds.

Music & Culture

Angèle, 'On s'habitue'

12:39pm December 09, 2021

by Emma Grazado

The track from the Belgian singer-songwriter is a coming-of-age narrative about heartbreak that never goes away.

Music therapist Monica Levin teaches via video conference at Frances Fuchs Early Childhood Center in Prince George's County, Maryland.

For kids grappling with the pandemic's traumas, art classes can be an oasis

9:53am December 09, 2021

by Elizabeth Blair

As health officials sound the alarm about the pandemic's impact on children's mental health, music, drama and other art classes are helping kids adjust to being in-person again.

Encore: Paul McCartney on the life and death of John Lennon, 41 years after his death

4:41pm December 08, 2021

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Paul McCartney about the life and death of the Beatles' John Lennon, who was killed 41 years ago this week.

Revered cultural critic Greg Tate has died at age 64

4:41pm December 08, 2021

The revered critic Greg Tate, an early and influential hip hop writer, has died. Tate grew up around intellectuals and developed a rabid curiosity about music, film, literature, theory and politics.

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Music & Culture

Pianist Craig Taborn practices the art of instant composing on 'Shadow Plays'

2:55pm December 08, 2021

by Kevin Whitehead

Taborn is one the most inventive and resourceful pianists in improvised music today. He has a new solo album — his first in a decade — and, like the previous one, it's a stunner.

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