Daily Newsletter, May 7, 2024

By the time you read this, I will be back home from a whirlwind trip to Toronto to see The Hold Steady play four shows in about 50 hours (three evening gigs in two different venues, plus an afternoon acoustic / storytellers set in a third room). As always, Craig Finn and his bandmates were […]

On the May 3 episode of New Music Friday, NPR Music's Hazel Cills and WRTI's Nate Chinen discuss the week's essential new albums, including Radical Optimism, from the dance-pop superstar Dua Lipa. The songs on Radical Optimism are mostly in the vein of Dua Lipa's earlier work, but that itself might be reason to keep a militantly sunny attitude: A parade of hits from her last album, Future Nostalgia, proved to have incredible staying power — "Levitating" hung around in the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 chart for nearly a year — and she contributed to last year's cultural juggernaut Barbie with "Dance the Night." Still, Hazel and Nate say the new album offers hints of a few surprising artistic developments in her sound.Radical Optimism isn't the only album out this week that demands attention. New records by the inimitable folk songwriter Jessica Pratt and the always ambitious jazz maestro and saxophonist Kamasi Washington focus their own sounds in new and highly rewarding ways. Featured Albums:• Dua Lipa, 'Radical Optimism'• Jessica Pratt, 'Here in the Pitch'• Kamasi Washington, 'Fearless Movement'Other notable albums out May 3:• Willow, 'empathogen'• Mdou Moctar, 'Funeral for Justice'• Steph Richards, 'Power Vibe'• Charlotte Day Wilson, 'Cyan Blue'• Luke Stewart's Silt Trio, 'Unknown Rivers'• 4batz, 'u made me a st4r'

For this week's Alternative Album Chart, The Lemon Twigs take the top spot, with Jessica Pratt, Mdou Moctar and the re-emergent Camera Obscura close behind.

A year of turmoil gave us some of the greatest music of all time. We look back at the heady year and the incredibly diverse sounds we heard.

“Drownin’ in The Blue Nile/he sent me ‘Downtown Lights’/I hadn’t heard it in a while…” Taylor Swift has a young person’s sense of history: selective.

Think: Johnny Cash and June Carter, with balls

If your mother rocks like a … well, mother, maybe she would appreciate a Mother’s Day present highlighted by a book about Mama Cass, classic jazz icons, Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Denver, Taylor Swift or some of the other topics on next week’s reading list. Hey, anything’s gotta be better than standing in line […]

Seven products earned five out of five stars from the What Hi-Fi? team in April, here’s what you need to know about them

New Monday Morning Brew Playlist, Malin Lewis, Bill MacKay, Ruth Theodore, Jim White and Marisa Anderson, Arianne Churchman and Benedict Drew, Kevin Coleman, Six Organs of Admittance, Luce Mawdsley...