First Listen

The Tallest Man On Earth Streams ‘Dark Bird Is Home’

The Tallest Man On Earth’s upcoming LP Dark Bird Is Home is set to release May 12, via Dead Oceans, but NPR is streaming the album in full, two weeks before the release. The artist’s fourth album overall, Dark Bird Is Home marks the first time the Swedish musician has paired with others to illuminate […]

Sufjan Stevens Streams Beautiful New Album, ‘Carrie & Lowell’

Sufjan Stevens is streaming his new LP, Carrie & Lowell, over at NPR’s First Listen. A return to form for Stevens after his last LP, the electronic adventure known as Age Of Adz, Carrie & Lowell is an intimate folk journey named after his mother, who passed away in 2012. The album reignites memories of […]

Stream Imogen Heap’s Inventive And International New Album ‘Sparks’

Sparks isn’t so much an album as it is an unparalleled project and experiment. Collaboration is a necessary part of almost all music, but the new work from Imogen Heap spans countries, peoples, and technologies like few others. Ann Powers’ introductory piece for NPR’s First Listen series, which is streaming the album, can’t help but be a laundry list […]

Stream Shabazz Palaces’ Lush New Album ‘Lese Majesty’

Shabazz Palaces, still mysterious even after discovering Seattle’s Ishmael Butler was behind the project, returns. The fascinating Sub Pop art rap releases Lese Majesty in one week, but you can hear it for a week via NPR’s First Listen series. The album has plenty of the avante garde weirdness of past Shabazz tunes, but it’s also a […]

Album Stream: Lykke Li – ‘I Never Learn’

We’ve been talking about Lykke Li‘s highly-anticipated I Never Learn since it was announced in February, taking you through “heart-wrenching” videos and rap-remixes of the loneliest and most forlorn of lamentations. It has all led to this moment, with the whole album now streaming via NPR’s First Listen. “[T]he final installment in a conceptual trilogy,” it promises to […]

Stream The New Album From The War On Drugs

It’s a big day for album streams, what with the La Dispute album streaming on Noisey and the latest from Perfect Pussy streaming on NPR, but be sure to heed another notable album streaming via NPR’s First Listen series. The War On Drugs‘ latest, Lost in the Dream, is streaming over there in its hour-long entirety. The […]