Daily Newsletter, May 14, 2025

A rolling list of our favorite albums of the year, updated somewhat frequently.

“He sounds like he’s dying.” When my wife — by no means an aficionado of diaristic indie country-rock steeped in melancholia — happened upon me listening to Friendship’s new album Caveman Wakes Up while doing yard work last weekend, her response mirrored Cher Horowitz’s disdain toward “the maudlin music of the university station” upon encountering “Fake Plastic Trees.” It’s true enough that the wordless mewls and moans with which Dan Wriggins closes out “Hollow Skulls” could be confused for a man in his death throes. He definitely doesn’t come across as vibrant in that moment. He seems fragile, weary, beaten down but resilient. He’s not triumphant, but he’s getting by.

Classic songs by Steely Dan, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Carole King, Roxy Music, Fleetwood Mac, The Velvet Underground, and more

'Low-Life' proved across its eight amazing tracks that in 1985 New Order had no peers when it came to inventively mixing synthesizers and drum machines with traditional rock instrumentation.

Will an upcoming Netflix bio series cancel the feature biopic on Madonna? Here is what we know.

Home » Music Blogs » Hot Picks 12/5/25 – The Best New Releases Photo: Carlos Ucedda Today we bring to you our hottest finds of the week. We have curated a list of the best releases from our musical travels this week and are putting them all in one place for your listing pleasure! This coverage […]

The New York rapper’s latest is a return home, but the house is haunted, finds Francis Buseko

Over the course of 15 albums, REM never really had a particularly bad spell, but one album stands head and shoulders above the rest as their worst ever.

When a new generation of acclaimed musicians discovered the folk-rock veteran’s music he gave up his attempt to bow out, but made sure his most recent album to date remained typically non-commercial and challenging to understand

Japan has long been at the forefront of musical innovation. Since the post-WWII jazz era and the sound art experiments of the 1960s, Japan has produced boundary-pushing artists like Haruomi Hosono and

We update our running list of the year's best songs with a plainspoken but moving story from Chris Staples, a wildly unpredictable piece from soprano Barbara Hannigan, Natalia Lafourcade and more.Featured artists and songs:1. Third Coast Percussion: "Please Be Still," from 'Standard Stoppages'2. Chris Staples: "Two Carat Diamond," from 'Don't Worry'3. Barbara Hannigan, David Chalmin: "Che t'ho fatt'io?," from 'Electric Fields'4. Natalia Lafourcade: "Cocos en la playa," from 'Cancionera'5. Brooklyn Rider: "Tenebrae," from 'The Four Elements''All Songs Considered' 25th anniversary segment: Our No. 1 songs from 2012Weekly reset: Airing out and beating futons on a Saturday morning in Toyohashi, JapanEnjoy the show? Share it with a friend and leave us a review on Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts. Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: allsongs@npr.org Hear new songs from past episodes in the All Songs Considered playlists in Apple Music and Spotify.