All Songs Considered

In honor of Mother's Day, we asked listeners to tell us about the songs that remind them of mom. We got thousands of stories and song suggestions, way more than we could ever publish here. So for this week's Plus One podcast we've also put together a list with some of the most-mentioned tracks and a few of the memories listeners shared about them. Host Bob Boilen also calls up his own mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day and talk about the music she loves.

This week on All Songs Considered, we grapple with the alchemy of creation — the myriad ways a musician gets from blank page and empty studio to a full sound and lyrics that ring true. The seven songs on the show (one is a collaboration between a drummer and a pair of remixers) follow on that theme: Each posits a means of making magic out of circumstance. For one group, the key was stripping away ambition and returning to a single voice. For others, sparse hometowns, the ghosts of previous albums and mysterious romantic entanglements provided the spark needed to reach forward into the dark and, as sung by Jeen on "Everywhere I Go," burn it bright.

When we asked listeners to tell us about a song they turned to this week — one that spoke in some way to weighty events unfolding around the world and how they felt — we weren't sure what we'd get. Would it be mostly songs of solace? Songs of grief, or anger? While there's plenty to reflect on, the number one thing on people's minds seems to be Baltimore. And the song people mentioned most was Randy Newman's appropriately titled song, "Baltimore," or more specifically, jazz singer Nina Simone's oddly beguiling version, recorded in 1978. For this week's Plus One Podcast we take a look at the song and why it resonates so powerfully nearly 40 years after Randy Newman first wrote it.

Why do we like falsetto so much? Why is melody the single most important part of a song? And why does country music move (or repel) us? These are just a few of the questions that popped up during our All Songs Considered listening party in Boston with the Berklee College of Music last week at the Red Room of Club 939.

On this week's mini podcast: Is some music too simple — or too complicated — to enjoy?

On today's All Songs Considered, we're hitting you with several premieres, beginning a heavy cut from My Morning Jacket's latest studio album, The Waterfall. On "Believe (Nobody Knows)," front man Jim James seeks meaning and truth in an uncertain world, while hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton consider a life of possibilities.

On this week's Plus One (our new, mini podcast), hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are joined by Ben "Super Fan" Kessler to talk about the vinyl Record Store Day releases they're most excited to get.

All Songs Considered hosts Robin Hilton and Bob Boilen bring you this week's essential listening, including new music from Built to Spill, The Milk Carton Kids, Brown Bird, Protomartyr and more.

Bob Boilen and I thought we'd try something new this week: a second All Songs Considered, a mini-podcast. We start with a ten-minute conversation about a song our listeners say they couldn't stop playing this week: Kendrick Lamar's "King Kunta," a track that is both insanely catchy and profound. To help us unspool the song's multiple layers of meaning, it's many cultural and historical references and its funk-inspired grooves, we asked NPR Music's Timmhotep Aku, a writer and producer who covers hip-hop and R&B, to join us. You can hear and download our conversation with the listen link above. You can hear Kendrick Lamar's song below:

On this week's All Songs Considered we talk about the secrets to being happy and how they relate to a euphoric new track from the electro-pop group Passion Pit. We'll hear the first song from Franz Ferdinand's collaboration with one of Bob Boilen's favorite bands from the early '70s — the wild, strange and playful duo Sparks. Together, as FFS, they cordially invite everyone to "piss off!"

All Songs Considered hosts Robin Hilton and Bob Boilen play this week's essential new songs, including Jamie xx and Joy Williams of the band The Civil Wars, and a classic by Ryan Adams.

After a week of 16-hour days and little-to-no sleep, the All Songs Considered gang is back from Austin with a slew of musical discoveries from the 2015 South by Southwest music festival. On this week's show, hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are joined by NPR Music's Stephen Thompson to share their favorite finds and memorable moments, from the brutal and strange rock of Dublin's Girl Band and the bizarre J-pop group Mahousyoujo-ni-naritai, to the quirky-comical pop group The Prettiots and the interstellar vibrations of Golden Dawn Arkestra.

Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Ann Powers and Katie Davis wrap up our final day at SXSW 2015, discuss our highlights and are lulled by the music of Torres. Our final South by Lullaby

Bob Boilen, Robin Hilton, Stephen Thompson and Katie Presley discuss the rainy day wrap up of bands here in Austin incuding Juce, The Family Crest, Howard, Torres, Natalie Prass, Cristina Valentina, Summer Cannibals, and some Japanese electro-pop.

Bob Boilen, Robin Hilton, Stepehen Thompsona and Katie Presley talk about their discoveries from Thursday's SXSW including Soak, Girl Band, Ibeyi, Count This Penny and more. We also present another South x Lullaby with Mynabirds