January 2, 2024 • Our resident Viking, Lars Gotrich, connects epic Japanese storytelling, soul-sampling powerviolence, ambient rap and beautiful noise through thematic webs of history and memory.

Peso Pluma, left, Boygenius and Shakira. (Jess Hutchinson / Los Angeles Times; photos by Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times; Christopher Polk / Penske Media; Kevin Winter / Getty Images) Where do songs ...

Seventy-one tracks that asked big questions, found new kinship between genres and helped us see the good in Ken. By Jon Pareles Jon Caramanica and Lindsay Zoladz Jon Pareles The album may be imperiled ...

This list of NPR Music's best songs of 2023 looks unlike any we've ever made before. It's not just the number of songs that has changed. There are no rankings here — in fact, the 123 songs below ...

Where do songs come from? For now, they come from us — from our needs, our wants, our regrets, our scorn. Next year, they might come from a box brought to near-sentience by all the songs that came ...