Music

Yasiin Bey at Paris Fashion Week in January 2019.

Music & Culture

The Paradox Of Yasiin Bey's 'Negus,' A Rap Album Trapped In An Art Museum

11:31am February 05, 2020

by Mano Sundaresan

The latest album by the rapper formerly known as Mos Def will be heard by very few people — a fact that represents everything fascinating and frustrating about his last decade.

The autobiographical tale of Squirrel Flower's en caul birth, her emergence into the world floating in an amniotic sac, gives her first full-length album its name.

Music & Culture

Squirrel Flower's Debut Finds The Beauty In Transient Things

10:37am February 05, 2020

by Cyrena Touros

Both in sound and scope, I Was Born Swimming centers on impermanence and solitude.

Music & Culture

Sufjan Stevens To Release New Age Album 'Aporia' With Lowell Brams

10:18am February 05, 2020

by Andrew Flanagan

The 21-track album, patchworked from years of jam sessions, is a swan song, of sorts, for Lowell Brams, Sufjan Stevens' stepfather and business partner.

Music & Culture

Some Favorite Things From Sharon Van Etten's New Video

10:00am February 05, 2020

by Marissa Lorusso

A mountainous landscape, a flowy jumpsuit, serene horses and a beautiful song: What more could you want?

Tré Burt is featured on this month's Station Breaks.

Music & Culture

Station Breaks: The Best New Songs From NPR Member Stations

7:01am February 05, 2020

Hear exciting new tracks from Philadelphia's rising one-woman project Orion Sun, Chicago multi-instrumentalist NNAMDÏ, Californian folkster Tré Burt and more.

Marlena Shaw's music combines the devotional passion, the harmonic inventiveness and the spirit-led improvisation that we hear in both the gospel and jazz idioms.

Music & Culture

The Overlooked Activist Power Of Marlena Shaw

6:39am February 05, 2020

As part of NPR's "One-Hit Wonders/Second-Best Songs," Vanderbilt professor Emily Lordi recommends "Woman of the Ghetto" by Marlena Shaw. She's known mostly for her 1969 hit, "California Soul."

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Another Sky performs during a Tiny Desk concert, on Dec. 5, 2019. (Catie Dull/NPR)

Music & Culture

Another Sky: Tiny Desk Concert

5:00am February 05, 2020

by Bob Boilen

The strength of this London band is matching message with music. There's intensity and clear intention in their use of rock as an art.

"I mean for a cross-dresser selling folk music, I was like, if I can sell that, plugging the guitars in isn't going to be that farfetched," Trixie Mattel says of her third album, Barbara.

Music & Culture

Trixie Mattel Balances Genre, History And Humor On 'Barbara'

8:04pm February 04, 2020

The drag performer and RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars champion talks to NPR's Ari Shapiro about her folk and country music icons and performs a song from her new album.

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Once a young prodigy, Joey Alexander emerges as a full-blown jazz star on his new album Warna, writes NPR's Tom Moon.

Music & Culture

On 'Warna,' Joey Alexander Transforms From Child Prodigy To Jazz Fixture

5:08pm February 04, 2020

by Tom Moon

Piano prodigy Joey Alexander is a fixture of the jazz world at the age of 16 and his new album shows how his sound has matured and grown into graceful original compositions.

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Music & Culture

The Tiny Desk Contest Is Back For 2020

5:08pm February 04, 2020

by Bob Boilen

You can enter starting next week by sending us a video of you playing an original song at a desk. If you win, you'll come play a Tiny Desk concert and tour the country with NPR Music.

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