NPR Music

NPR icon NPR Music Presents: Josh Ritter In Concert

by Stephen Thompson

Ritter's new album, The Beast in Its Tracks, is by any definition a breakup record; he wrote it following his own divorce, and every song finds him picking through a relationship's wreckage in pursuit of root causes and a way forward. Watch him perform the album's songs live on Monday, March 4 in an exclusive First Listen Live show for NPR Music.

NPR icon First Listen: Tricky, 'False Idols'

by Otis Hart
The producer's best album since the mid-'90s, False Idols is one of 2013's biggest surprises so far. His signature mix of menace and seduction still sounds contemporary after Tricky's more than 20 years in (and out of) the spotlight.

NPR icon First Listen: Mount Kimbie, 'Cold Spring Fault Less Youth'

by Otis Hart
The British beat-makers shed their electronics in pursuit of a sound designed to translate live. For their second album, Mount Kimbie's Dominic Maker and Kai Campos even trot out languid vocal performances and a real live drum kit, while still sounding like themselves in the process.

NPR icon Vampire Weekend, Live In Concert

by Jason Bentley, KCRW Music Director
Watch the New York band perform a 12-song set, featuring material from its new album, Modern Vampires of the City. For this performance, recorded for KCRW, Vampire Weekend took a night off from a West Coast tour to play for a small audience of eager fans at Apogee's Berkeley Street Studio in Santa Monica.