Because sometimes, your favorite musical discovery of the year didn't come out this year.

by Marissa Lorusso and Lyndsey McKenna Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment Each week, we find ourselves overwhelmed by the sheer volume of amazing new albums and songs to check out. On All Songs Considered and online, we’re dedicated to bringing you our latest discoveries and newest obsessions. It’s a tough job, but hey, we’ll take it!  Even with everything new, it’s nice to explore what we’ve managed to overlook. We take recommendations from our colleagues, or recognize a musical blindspot, or admit there’s a classic we just haven’t made time for yet. And sometimes, those discoveries end up being some of our favorites of the year — even (especially!) when the album, song, or artist didn’t break through within the past 12 months.  Last year, we decided to share some discoveries that were new to us, even if they weren’t exactly new: We asked our teammates for something they fell in love with during the year that wasn’t released in 2018, and the responses were downright delightful. So we decided to make it an annual tradition. Here are our team’s gently used, new-to-us favorites for 2019.  To new discoveries and old friends, Marissa Lorusso and Lyndsey McKenna Newsletter continues after sponsor message New-To-Us Favorites Linda Ronstadt — picked by Lars Gotrich, Assistant Producer This was my Linda Ronstadt year. Heart Like a Wheel, Canciones de mi Padre, her records with the Stone Poneys — the Queen of LA, with a voice that both bursts out of and melts into dusk, softened the edges of long days with an equally adventurous and easygoing spirit. K. Flay (and her new album Solutions) — picked by Robin Hilton, All Songs Considered I don’t know how I’ve managed to go so long without listening to this LA-based pop singer and rapper, but her third full-length, Solutions, was one of the year’s most unapologetically euphoric and celebratory albums, packed to the gills with ridiculously catchy earworms. On songs like “This Baby Don’t Cry” and “I Like Myself,” K. Flay gives a big middle finger to grief while celebrating her own inner strength. So roll the windows down (even if it’s cold out) and crank the volume. Sometimes happiness, in times of unrest, is the greatest act of subversion. Chamber Symphony No. 4 by Mieczysław Weinberg, performed by Kremerata Baltica — picked by Tom Huizenga, NPR Classical The vastly undervalued composer, who narrowly escaped Stalin’s purges, was born 100 years ago. The centenary got me rummaging through his vast output, which musicians have only recently begun to record. Among my many extraordinary “finds” is this beautifully haunted Chamber Symphony No. 4, composed in 1992 and released in 2017. The clarinet gets a starring role while a brooding theme keeps reappearing, like an eerie talisman. “Rooms On Fire” by Stevie Nicks — picked by Marissa Lorusso, NPR Music & Events Stevie Nicks is the first woman to be inducted twice into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: in 1998, with Fleetwood Mac, and this year, as a solo artist. An interview celebrating that feat introduced me to many amazing Stevie facts — for example, the existence of a vault especially for her shawls (!) — and to her underrated and outrageously great 1989 song “Rooms On Fire .” By the end of the year, it ranked pretty high on my list of most-played songs of 2019. P.P. Arnold — picked by Lauren Onkey, Senior Director How did I miss the career of P.P. Arnold, a California soul singer with gospel roots who performed in the Ike and Tina Turner review in the ’60s, relocated to the U.K., and had a long career as a lead and backup singer, mixing rock, pop and soul? Her terrific 2019 album, The New Adventures of…P.P. Arnold got my attention and sent me back through her whole catalogue, including the The Turning Tide, a collection of songs she recorded from 1968 to 1970 that wasn’t released until 2017. Start with “The First Cut is the Deepest ,” the definitive version of the Cat Stevens song that Arnold recorded in 1967, and keep going.   Everybody Digs Bill Evans by the Bill Evans Trio — picked by Ann Powers, Critic and Correspondent A critic raised on rock and roll getting into jazz later in her career is the corniest thing ever, but nonetheless, for me, it's happening. Jazz complements my state of mind in a world spinning too damn fast. I found myself thinking a lot about thinking — about my own incapacity for avoiding distraction, my daughter's absorption in the world of her phone; the predicament faced so many in my beloved community of writers, facing a public sphere where quick quips and selfies too often trump deep inquiry. I needed this milestone work by one of jazz's most famous thinkers and the rhythm section that supported and enhanced his inner journeys in the early years. Especially powerful: " Peace Piece," the nearly seven-minute improvisation Evans refused to play live, because it had been wholly improvised. Yeah, it's a chestnut, but because he made it by going to places he hadn't planned, it sounds shockingly new every time I listen. Because I Was In Love by Sharon Van Etten — picked by Cyrena Touros, Assistant Editor Simmering on my mind's back burner is a list of artists whose music I know I'd like, if only I took the time to listen. Early in January, I carved out some time for Sharon Van Etten’s back catalog in anticipation of Remind Me Tomorrow (a record that started 2019 as my No.1 album, and ended in the same spot). Her reconciliation of youthful expectation with lived womanhood — laced through the album's core sequence of "Comeback Kid," "Jupiter 4" and "Seventeen" — was an unexpectedly uncynical answer to questions asked on her 2010 debut, Because I Was In Love . How many albums give women permission to feel optimism, not dread, about getting older? SVE’s earlier work was a melancholy companion to my winter, and Remind Me Tomorrow was all the more triumphant for it. Einfluss by Roedelius and Arnold Kasar — picked by Daoud Tyler-Ameen, Assistant Editor On my way down an ambient rabbit hole this summer, I stumbled on a recording that would become my most listened-to album of the year – and its magic owes as much to how it was recorded as to the music itself. 2017’s Einfluss is a collaboration between two German musicians, the veteran electronic experimentalist Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Arnold Kasar, a classically trained pianist 30 years his junior. Using a “prepared” piano rigged with thick felt between the hammers and wires, the pair arrive at a sound that is at once harder and softer than the ears are trained to expect, the clicky thud of each keystroke landing as loudly as the note it’s meant to play. One More Thing This list has everything: CHAI, IDLES, Lizzo and Sesame Street. Presenting Bob Boilen's favorite Tiny Desk concerts of 2019.  What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: nprmusic@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Books, Pop Culture, Health and more! Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music! You received this message because you're subscribed to NPR Music emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy