NPR Music

NPR icon First Listen: G&D, 'The Lighthouse'

by Stephen Thompson
On The Lighthouse, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dudley Perkins engineer an overstuffed, idea-packed collision of funk, soul, hip-hop, jazz, psychedelic space-rock, spoken-word poetry, protest music and more. Along the way, they examine innumerable intersections of love, politics, spirituality, healthy living, parenthood and world citizenship.

NPR icon An Evening With Nico Muhly, 'Two Boys' And Other Works

by Anastasia Tsioulcas
Watch an intimate concert inspired by Muhly's exciting, intrigue-filled opera Two Boys, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Muhly is joined by close friends including singers Sam Amidon, Paul Appleby and Jennifer Zetlan, violist Nadia Sirota and violinists Angela and Jennifer Chun.

NPR icon Olafur Arnalds, Live In Concert

by Bob Boilen
How can music be happy and sad at the same time? Listen to Arnalds' work and you'll hear it. This performance at New York City's (Le) Poisson Rouge re-imagines the Icelandic musician's magnificent work with a small orchestra: 28 musicians known as Ensemble LPR, along with guest singer Arnor Dan.

NPR icon First Listen: Classixx, 'Hanging Gardens'

by Otis Hart
All at once, Hanging Gardens feels vibrant and vintage, unmistakably young and inexplicably nostalgic. Classixx's Michael David and Tyler Blake may be known as DJs, but they're pop stars at heart, with melody reigning over rhythm and simple chord progressions carrying the day.

NPR icon First Listen: Glenn Jones, 'My Garden State'

by Lars Gotrich
The American Primitive-style guitarist wrote My Garden State while caring for his mother in New Jersey. A bittersweet record, it reminds us that our roots are stronger than we remember — and that wherever you end up, it's about the home you make.

NPR icon First Listen: She & Him, 'Volume 3'

by Stephen Thompson
Playful, soft, sunnily melancholy and springlike, Zooey Deschanel's songs with M. Ward once again subsist on the strength of their own agreeability. Timelessness has long been key to the duo's charm, and indeed, Volume 3 seems to be floating through AM speakers at all times.

NPR icon First Listen: Music From Baz Luhrmann's Film 'The Great Gatsby'

by Ann Powers
The soundtrack to The Great Gatsby, Baz Luhrmann's latest high-end refurbishing of a lived-in classic, doesn't try to re-imagine Jazz Age tunes in a modern context. Instead, it attempts to transplant the sensibility of the 1920s to the hip-hop era, with genre-busting collaborations overseen by Jay-Z.

NPR icon First Listen: La Vida Boheme, 'Sera'

by Jasmine Garsd
The inventive, politically inclined Venezuelan group has done well in establishing itself — not as a rock band, not as an alternative band, not as a punk band, but as a band that does whatever it pleases.