Flasher's Stylish 'Skim Milk' Escapes To The Unknown
The D.C. post-punk trio's first single as a newly-signed Domino Records group sounds like an ecstatic hall of mirrors.
Music
Wax Idols Fight Against The Dying Of The Light In 'Scream'
As the first single off the band's upcoming album, Happy Ending, "Scream" is an empowered thesis statement on mortality writ in thundering dream-pop.
BØRNS On World Cafe
The avant-garde electro-pop artist talks about getting praise from Prince and working with Lana Del Rey.
The Early-Bird Tiny Desk Contest Entries We Love
You can still enter the Tiny Desk Contest for a few more weeks, but here are some entries that have caught the eyes — and ears — of NPR Music already.
Beach House Ventures Beyond The Velvet With 'Dive'
On "Dive," the conception of Beach House — golden and celestial — gets torn up and rearranged into another, messier composition. It's a glorious evolution.
First Listen: Hot Snakes, 'Jericho Sirens'
On its first new album in 14 years, Hot Snakes delivers a collection of 10 bent and bruised punk songs alive with the sound of an itch impossible to scratch.
First Listen: PRhyme, 'PRhyme 2'
Royce 5'9" and DJ Premier bridge the ageist divide with a sophomore release worthy of definitive hip-hop statesmen.
Songs We Love: Grouper, 'Parking Lot'
Liz Harris tugs at the faded melody like a kite flying through fog, her voice pushing and pulling at the piano's whims.
First Listen: Mount Eerie, 'Now Only'
Where A Crow Looked At Me dealt with the shattering experience of Phil Elverum losing his wife to cancer, Now Only ponders how, when, and why one might carry on.
First Listen: Meshell Ndegeocello, 'Ventriloquism'
The cover album becomes an unlikely site for deconstructing gender norms — and R&B's staid '80s tropes — in Ndegeocello's genre-bending care.