What Album Changed Your Life?

Plus, our favorite new albums out this week.

View this email online April 2, 2022 by Marissa Lorusso This week, we’re sharing our podcast series about life-changing records; plus, new music from Angel Olsen. Photo Illustration by Estefania Mitre/NPR/Getty Images It’s a question that’s so classic it’s almost a cliché: What album changed your life? As part of our Turning the Tables project last year, we asked a dozen writers to answer that prompt — and the resulting essays were far from banal, digging deep into questions of teenage loneliness, queer identity, self-definition and more. Turning the Tables is our long-running project about musical greatness, where we confront the often sexist and exclusionary way the popular music canon has been shaped. Our series about life-changing records featured women and non-binary critics writing about albums by women artists; in it, we wanted to excavate our unique relationships with the albums we love and reflect on how they help us develop our perspective on the world. Over the past month, we’ve kept the conversation about life-changing albums going on the All Songs Considered podcast. Every week, we brought on writers from the series for a discussion of their essays, the records they’re focused on and how we make decisions about the most important music in our lives. Our very first episode featured a conversation between my colleague Ann Powers, who co-founded Turning the Tables, and me about our goals for the Records That Changed Our Lives series and the essays we both wrote about albums that challenged and inspired us. This week, we shared the final episode of the series: a conversation I hosted with scholar Francesca T. Royster and writer Alex Ramos about how albums by Tracy Chapman and Paramore made space for them to find themselves during challenging times. You can hear all five episodes from the series on All Songs Considered. And we’d love to hear about the album that changed your life — you can let us know by replying via the link at the bottom of this email. Newsletter continues after sponsor message New Music This week’s New Mix from All Songs Considered is full of announcements of exciting new albums by Angel Olsen, Soccer Mommy and Perfume Genius. Hear new songs from those albums, plus more great new tracks. After all country singer Maren Morris and bluegrass guitarist and songwriter Molly Tuttle have accomplished in terms of musical impact, award tallies and audience size, they were well positioned to make good on their crossover potential. Instead, on their new albums, both artists have made what might be a more daring and demanding choice: reaffirming their connections to their genres of origin while sharpening their artistic identities. This week on New Music Friday from All Songs Considered: a new project from Bronx rapper T-Shyne, a sprawling double album from Sondre Lerche, catchy hooks from the Canadian pop artist LIGHTS and more. Featuring Last week, Taylor Hawkins, drummer for The Foo Fighters, died. He was 50, and died in Bogota, Colombia, where the group was scheduled to perform. In a 2007 interview on Fresh Air, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl said of Hawkins: "He's a decathlete. He's amazing. ... Taylor is not only my best friend in the world but an incredible drummer.” The band canceled all of its upcoming tour dates after Hawkins’ death. A new study from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative looked into gender parity in the music industry, finding that women lag behind men as artists — but the problem is particularly severe when it comes to fields such as songwriting, producing and engineering. In a new choral work called “A Knee on the Neck," composer Adolphus Hailstork and librettist Herbert Martin pay tribute to George Floyd's memory and offer hope for the future — while also wrestling with the realities of the present day. Tiny Desk NPR Madi Diaz’s 2021 album, History of a Feeling, was one of my favorites of last year; my colleague Stephen Thompson calls it “one of the strongest and subtlest breakup albums in recent memory.” In Diaz’s Tiny Desk (home) concert, she performed four tracks from the album in her living room in Nashville, Tenn.  Plus, this week, we also shared a (home) concert from the Puerto Rican trio Los Rivera Destino. Incoming Tomorrow, April 3, is Music’s Biggest Night (the Recording Academy’s words, not ours). Whether you love the Grammys, hate them or are ambivalent about the pomp and circumstance, NPR Music will be watching out for some key storylines. And on Monday, we’ll be back in your inbox with a recap of the night’s biggest winners, and any noteworthy moments that come out of the ceremony. One More Thing Dancing from Harlem to Sweden Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music 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! 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