Check out our list of what NPR Music fell in love with this year that isn't exactly brand new.

Central Press/Getty Images As an outlet committed to music discovery, our team spends a lot of time seeking out brand-new songs, albums and artists. But as listeners, we also like to take recommendations from friends, fill in our blind spots and uncover classics we’ve somehow missed. And often, the music that moves us most in a given year isn’t a new release, but one of these new-to-us gems. So once we’d made it through the process of crafting our lists of the Best Music of 2018, we started thinking about all the music we couldn’t get enough of this year that wasn’t released in the last 12 months. We thought we’d share them with you: presenting a list of the gently used, pre-owned new favorites we loved this year. To friends and songs old and new, Marissa Lorusso and Lyndsey McKenna New (To Us) Favorites "Opportunity/Gotta Find a Way" by The Jewels, Lauren Onkey, Senior Director After moving to Washington, D.C. in January, I started digging into the city’s music history. It’s my way of finding my bearings. My favorite discovery was The Jewels, a D.C. girl group from the genre’s heyday in the early ‘60s. Sandra Bears, Margie Clark, Carrie Mingo and Grace Ruffin formed as The Impalas in 1961 and recorded sides for Checker, Start, Chess and other labels. They scored their biggest hit with “Opportunity” in 1964 (without Mingo), which made it to No. 37 on the R&B charts and No. 64 on the pop charts. With a sample-worthy drum track, propulsive hand claps and their joyous harmonies, “Opportunity” is in the top tier of girl group music — and yet more evidence that you should never stop digging. "A Case Of You" by Joni Mitchell, Madeline Clement, News Assistant  Yes, I only just got into Joni Mitchell. Where do you begin with an artist whose discography begins before your parents were even born? The answer, for me, was with “A Case of You.” Nearly fifty years after the song’s 1971 release, I — while riding in an Uber — finally heard the melody through “on the back of a cartoon coaster / in the blue TV screen light” and understood the magnitude of Mitchell’s songwriting. Blue has been on repeat since. Any Other City by Life Without Buildings Lars Gotrich, Producer and Writer As far as one-and-dones go, Glasgow’s Life Without Buildings scats, skitters and scrambles through an idiosyncratic punk record made for awkward kisses and delirious dance parties. So how the hell did I miss this record? In the early 2000s, I was a college radio DJ, spent way too much time on Audiogalaxy’s P2P network and gobbled up whimsical and weird punk like my life depended on it. Now 17 years later, Any Other City feels like the reckless moment just before splatter hit the canvas. Bonito Generation by Kero Kero Bonito, Daoud Tyler-Ameen, Assistant Editor We got a new Andrew W.K. album this year, but when it came to getting pumped up and ready for the world, I was helplessly drawn to 2016’s Bonito Generation by the pop trio Kero Kero Bonito, whose cracked cuteness and British-Japanese code-switching feels at first alarming, then charming, then irresistible. “Trampoline” and “Graduation” get a lot of the shine, but stick it out for closer “Hey Parents” — which, for all its absurdity, finds an emotional crescendo in aging into adult responsibility and realizing no one is ever truly ready for it. One Direction, Lyndsey McKenna, Assistant Editor, Social Media Strategist Look, I know: One Direction was inescapable from 2011-2016. As a living human with a pulse, of course I’d heard and heard of One Direction, the boy band forged in the fires of the U.K.’s version of The X Factor. But I was in school during the band’s heyday, and the Billboard charts don’t really depict what’s played at apartment parties. Earlier this year, I saw Harry Styles, whose solo debut I adored, and almost instantly, One Direction’s back catalogue became my companion on long runs. Does that make me a Directioner after the fact? Time (The Revelator) by Gillian Welch, Marissa Lorusso, Production Assistant  I found myself scrolling by cover after cover of Gillian Welch’s “Everything Is Free” this year — Courtney Barnett did a version, as did Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker; even Father John Misty. I wasn’t too familiar with Gillian Welch’s music, but I was curious enough to read Jonathan Bernstein’s lovely Rolling Stone interview with Welch about the song and the cover phenomenon. It got me listening, and then I was hooked. It's a stunning song — prescient and anxious, gentle and emotionally gutting, as relevant now as it was when Welch released it in 2001. And, as I discovered, it's the penultimate track on a perfect album that quickly became one of my most listened-to of the year. Aretha Franklin's discography, Sidney Madden, Assistant Music News Editor This year I learned to appreciate the wealth of Aretha Franklin’s catalog. I, of course, knew the Queen of Soul for her hits like “Respect,” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” I even knew about her strong connection to gospel. But when the team put our heads together in the wake of her death in August to compile a playlist of her deep cuts, I really got into her entire discography. “A Brand New Me,” “Spirit in the Dark” and “This Is for Real” are new favorites. One More Thing Ever wanted to take a cruise with Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton? Now you can…sort of. For this year’s All Songs Considered holiday show, our intrepid hosts used a little studio magic to voyage to the Bermuda Triangle and beyond, meeting friends like John Legend, Steve Martin and William Shatner along the way. The seasonal spoof unfolds like a gloriously bad high school production. And though the holiday’s over, the action’s more of a transmission from another dimension. You received this message because you're subscribed to our NPR Music emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002