NPR Music - You Must Hear This

FIRST LISTEN First Listen: Sam Smith, 'In The Lonely Hour' Smith has a steady, well-trained swell of a voice and a knack for whipping in and out of his falsetto in a hairsbreadth. He doesn't feel the need to hide — certainly not by stifling his vocal skills. Stream the album

LIVE IN CONCERT Watch Spoon Premiere 'Rent I Pay' See the band premiere "Rent I Pay," the lead-off cut to Spoon's first new album in four years,They Want My Soul. The group performed the song live at New York City's Le Poisson Rouge on Jun. 9. Watch the video

TINY DESK CONCERTS Marian McLaughlin: Tiny Desk Concert A quirky and wistful performer with a string section, McLaughlin makes music like few others. Listening feels as if you've entered her meticulously decorated living room. Watch the video

MUSIC ARTICLES A Catalan Singer With Many Brave And Treacherous Stories To Tell "The song has to have a story that I believe in and I can make my own," says Silvia Perez Cruz, who can sing in seven languages. The intimate and fierce Granada is an album for voice and guitar. Read this story