Plus, new music from Alt.Latino and our favorite songs for spring.
Lizzie Chen/NPR
Here in D.C., this weekend marks the end of cherry blossom season. Over the past few weeks even NPR’s HQ has been in bloom, with special pink lights on our sign on North Capitol Street to celebrate. With the arrival of warmer temperatures – at least here, apologies to our readers that weathered winter conditions this week, including another bomb cyclone – the flowers fade. But on the bright side, it’s a sign that spring is finally here to stay.
For our team, the new season is inspiring a return to perennial favorites. We surveyed the staff to find out what songs say spring:
Assistant editor Daoud Tyler-Ameen chose Belle & Sebastian’s “I'm a Cuckoo” and Chairlift’s “I Belong in Your Arms.”
News assistant Joshua Bote recommends Little Joy’s self-titled album and Beirut’s “Postcards from Italy.”
Tiny Desk Contest intern Clara Maurer suggests The Wombats’ Glitterbug.
All Songs Considered intern Adelaide Sandstrom answered Camera Obscura’s “Let's Get Out of This Country.”
Classical writer Tom Huizenga says Betty Carter’s “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” (key line: “Spring is a bore”) is one of her finest performances.
What’s your essential springtime song? To April showers and May flowers,
Marissa Lorusso and Lyndsey McKenna
P.S. Your newsletter editors can’t help but chime in! Marissa says Rilo Kiley’s “More Adventurous” is a very good song for when you can first drive with the windows rolled down. Lyndsey logged a lot of early spring miles to Charly Bliss’ 2017 debut Guppy and thinks it’s the ideal soundtrack for drinking pink wine on the quad.
New Music
Just months after releasing Oxnard, Anderson .Paak drops his follow-up, Ventura; Norah Jones shows off her range on collaborations with Jeff Tweedy and others on her latest album, Begin Again. This week, those – plus new records from Damien Jurado and Glen Hansard – make our New Music Friday shortlist of the week's best new albums.
This week’s Alt.Latino playlist features a Peruvian cumbia classic from Lila Downs, Aventura’s reemerge from the shadows with the group’s first song in 10 years and a J.Lo-French Montana collaboration.
This month on Station Breaks, our monthly playlist of new bands to know hand-picked by NPR's public radio network, Samm Henshaw takes listeners to Sunday service, the crisp spring air summons Lovers Leap and MorMor searches for the sun.
Featuring
In 1972, Aretha Franklin recorded a now-legendary live album at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in LA; in the wake of her death, a film of the performance has finally been released. Contributor Tim Greiving was in attendance when the documentary had its LA premiere at the New Temple itself.
With the world wide web as his own wild west, Lil Nas X, the artist behind the country-trap hit “Old Town Road,” who this week celebrated his 20th birthday and went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, is bucking tradition, proving industry gatekeepers comically incapable of reining him in.
Tiny Desk
Amr Alfiky/NPR
Over the years, Georgia Anne Muldrow has made a name for herself as a collaborator, working with Madlib, Mos Def and Erykah Badu. At the Tiny Desk, she reworked her own material for our office environment, performing songs from her latest album, Overload.
Scottish singer, songwriter and essayist Karine Polwart seldom comes stateside, but before performing at Carnegie Hall's Migrations festival, she stopped by the Tiny Desk for a set of spiritual, socially-conscious songs.
One More Thing
If you are thinking about entering the Tiny Desk Contest, the clock is ticking: You’ve got until Sunday, April 14 at midnight ET to send us a video of you playing one original song at a desk of your choosing.
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