Music Lists

Thursday's first song in 13 years, "Application for Release From the Dream," is a soaring, searing return.

Music & Culture

8 Tracks: Post-hardcore band Thursday returns, plus glammy metal and skate-punk

4:37pm April 15, 2024

by Lars Gotrich

Thursday's first song in 13 years leads off this edition of 8 Tracks, which we'll have to call 10 Tracks because there's been too much good music lately.

There's a trio of fantastic records featuring drummer Jim White all out in the first half of 2024.

Music & Culture

8 Tracks: Life's a mess, then it's over

5:28pm April 09, 2024

In Jim White's drumming, there's a restless wonder. On this 8 Tracks, we lead off with a sprawling rocker by his band Dirty Three, but also feature new music by Chappell Roan and Amber Mark.

Dancers perform as a solar total eclipse occurs in Matantimali, Central Sulawesi on March 9, 2016.

The perfect celestial soundtrack to the total solar eclipse

5:45pm April 04, 2024

There are the obvious options (Soundgarden, Bonnie Tyler and Pink Floyd,) plus some celestially coded jams that are unexpectedly fitting for your viewing adventures.

Sonhos Tomam Conta roughly translates as "dreams take over," which is a perfect way to think of this samba-infused shoegaze project from São Paulo.

Music & Culture

8 Tracks: Samba shoegaze, cherry blossom jazz and an 8-bit K-pop crush

5:47pm April 02, 2024

by Lars Gotrich

Sonhos Tomam Conta captures an oceanic dream, Fuubutsushi soundtracks a pastoral adventure and ILLIT is pure bubblegum. Those and more are the 8 Tracks to know this week.

New Jazz Underground pushes at the corners of hard bop and hip-hop.

Music & Culture

8 Tracks: Viral jazz, fantasy metal and a springtime roséwave jam

6:10pm March 27, 2024

by Lars Gotrich

What do New Jazz Underground, Black Sabbath and Remi Wolf have in common? According to NPR Music producer Lars Gotrich, they put out the best tracks of the week.

In a music scene policed by politics and faith, there was none more real than Michael Knott.

Music & Culture

8 Tracks: Keep it real

2:08pm March 18, 2024

by Lars Gotrich

What would you do if your favorite artist stared you down and asked for the truth? On this 8 Tracks: Michael Knott, Rapsody and Tierra Whack offer mirrors to themselves and to anyone listening.

Kamasi Washington, Tyla and Iron & Wine.

Music & Culture

Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and 50 more albums coming out this spring

8:17pm March 12, 2024

by NPR Staff

Get ready for albums by Iron & Wine, Kamasi Washington, Tyla, Vampire Weekend and many, many more.

Kamasi Washington's "Prologue" will give you chills of the body and thrills of the mind.

Music & Culture

8 Tracks: Music for movies of the mind

4:13pm March 11, 2024

Music can shift, uplift or even subvert a scene. This week on 8 Tracks, we play music supervisor, imagining songs by Kamasi Washington and Carin León on the big screen.

Pianist and composer Kelly Moran translates her love of figure skating into the luxuriant "Butterfly Phase."

Music & Culture

8 Tracks: Music that ignites the senses

1:18pm March 05, 2024

by Lars Gotrich

Can you taste color or hear pictures? You might have synesthesia. This week on 8 Tracks: A few songs that pirouette and paint, plus new music by Charli XCX, Mdou Moctar and TikTok shoegazer Wisp.

Good songs about sobriety for Dry January

5:58pm January 15, 2024

by Neda Ulaby

For Dry January, a former pop critic for The New Yorker suggests great songs about not drinking. Many are by musicians who have been sober for decades.

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