Set for official release on May 14th, She & Him‘s Volume 3 is streaming on NPR Music’s First Listen this week.  It’s been three years since Zooey Deschanel and M Ward’s last offering, though that’s no surprise given Deschanel’s other projects.  Though Ward contributes occasional vocals on the album, his primary role is as the arranger and, as NPR points out, the songs are clearly Deschanel’s:

Playful, soft, sunnily melancholy and springlike, its songs once again subsist on the strength of their own agreeability. Timelessness has long been key to She & Him’s charm, and indeed, Volume 3 seems to be floating through AM speakers at all times. But the album also demonstrates that there’s more to Deschanel than her doe-eyed New Girl persona would suggest: She & Him is led by a confident singer-songwriter who, on records and elsewhere, knows exactly what she’s doing.

XPN welcomes She & Him have to The Mann Center on July 9th with Camera Obscura.  Tickets and information can be found here.  Stream Volume 3 here and listen to “Never Wanted Your Love” below.

Classically trained and only 26, Mvula writes songs that sound like the whole world at once, making Sing to the Moon — out digitally Tuesday, with a physical release to follow on May 14 — an auspicious debut in a year full of them. Equally adept at radiating joy (“Like the Morning Dew”), articulating a socially conscious mission statement (“That’s Alright”), and singing sweet ballads (the harp-infused “Can’t Live With the World”), Mvula radiates the worldly confidence of a singer twice her age.

Mvula was scheduled to play at World Cafe Live next week, however her show was cancelled. She’ll be back in town to play the WXPN Non-Comm in May, which will be broadcast live. More details soon on the live broadcast.

Shuggie Otis has long been adjacent to worldwide stardom. His late father, the R&B legendJohnny Otis, is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The younger Otis’ most ardent fans consider his brief late-’60s and early-’70s recording career to have produced works on par with those of Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix.

The nine-songInspiration Information… took three years to record, in part because Otis insisted on playing and singing every part himself. But the work itself — a sublime mix of psychedelia, blues, pop and soul — possesses a dreamy quality that’s intoxicating and untethered to any era.

Best known for his 1971 hit “Strawberry Letter 23″ (recorded by The Brothers Johnson and sampled by OutKast for “Ms. Jackson”), Otis has kept to himself over the years but has recently announced plans to work on a brand new album with his new band.  Get prepped for Shuggie Otis’s return by streaming Inspiration Information / Wings of Love here and watch him perform “Strawberry Letter 23″ live in London below.  XPN welcomes Otis to The Blockley with Mutlu on August 9th; tickets and information can be found here.

Iron and Wine | Photo by Laura Fedele | WFUV

Iron & Wine will release Ghost On Ghost next Monday through 4AD but you can stream the album in full via NPR’s First Listen feature this week.  Ghost follows 2011′s Kiss Each Other Clean with a more fully realized palate of sounds that approach orchestral and a Fleet Foxes meet My Morning Jacket feel.  From NPR:

For all its rich, Technicolor brightness, Iron and Wine’s new Ghost on Ghost retains the capacity to burrow knowingly into bleak Wisconsin winters (“Winter Prayers”) with an acute understanding of loneliness and alienation. Even amid cheery oohs and ahhs, “The Desert Babbler” finds Beam warning wearily, “California’s gonna kill you soon.”

Even if his next album finds him at the head of a 100-piece symphony, he’ll still build its arrangements around accessible emotions, with a deceptively soft touch and turns of phrase that cut to the marrow.

XPN welcomes Iron & Wine to Union Transfer on Wednesday, May 15th, with The Secret Sisters; tickets and information can be found here.  Below, watch Sam Beam perform “Naked As We Come” at the SXSW Public Radio Rocks stage presented by WXPN and stream Ghost On Ghost here.

It’s not often that you’re left wanting more from a nine-and-a-half-minute song, but it’s actually a little sad when “Wakin on a Pretty Day” finally winds down. And you won’t hear a better eight-minute song all year than “Too Hard,” a shambling tearjerker that sounds like a promise to love and protect his infant daughters.

No matter the length, every song on Wakin on a Pretty Daze feels like a ride on one of those moving walkways, when for a few wonderful moments life passes you by just a little slower than normal.

Listen to Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze in its entirety here. Kurt Vile and the Violators play Union Transfer on May 18th; tickets and information are available here. Below, watch Vile’s promo video for “Never Run Away” starring his daughter.

Denver, who wrote unabashedly sentimental songs about love, nature and an ever-homesick life on the road, had a rare gift for stirring something inside listeners. To many, his melodies and lyrics could come off as maudlin and conventional. But for the countless believers — and there are many — Denver was a poet, a visionary and a constant companion.

The artists assembled for a new John Denver tribute record, The Music Is You, likely fall into the latter category. The album, out April 2, showcases some of Denver’s most beloved songs, as performed by a cross-genre, cross-generational and impressive mix of musicians — many of whom were in elementary school in the ’70s and ’80s, when Denver was singing on The Muppet Show and appearing in kid-friendly TV specials.

Listen to The Music Is You: A Tribute to John Denver in its entirety here.

Low songs don’t often change tempo noticeably, instead achieving tension through variations in volume. But that seemingly limited framework still provides ample room for experimentation: Low can be a sweetly chiming pop band, or it can seethe and unsettle with an almost industrial buzz. It can express emotion by drawing out the barest fragment of a phrase, or it can expound thoughtfully on life, death, secrecy, war and the way humanity collides with itself.

Listen to the album in its entirety here. Low’s only Philadelphia appearance in the near future is the just-announced in-store set at Manayunk record shop Main Street Music; the free show happens next Monday, March 18th, at 7 p.m.

Younge and Hart are holding fast to the qualities of The Delfonics’ music from 40 years ago — Hart’s piercing falsetto, the surf-guitar licks, the heavy pauses. But Younge in particular has also taken note of the power found in those sounds when rap producers stripped the flourishes away and roughed them up. Gone are the big orchestral openings. These are tight little songs with a fat bottom end, a bass line that can’t be ignored and enough skank to make felt the strains of reggae that bubble up in hip-hop.

Listen to Adrian Younge Presents The Delfonics here, and watch the band perform its signature tune “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind This Time” below.

We all encounter these emotions at various points in our lives, but most of us tend to quarantine them, lest anyone realizes how truly messed-up we feel inside. Crutchfield — or, more accurately, her songwriting — thrives on those periods of fragility. Her characters are almost always ambivalent, sophisticated adolescents wrestling with an uneasy mix of emotions. Happiness is a moment’s peace; love a two-state solution.

The Alabama native, currently living in Philadelphia with her twin sister Allison of the band Swearin‘, is about to head down to South By Southwest in support of Cerulean Salt, and plays a tour kickoff / album release show at West Philadelphia’s Golden Tea House on Friday, March 1. Go deep and listen to the album here.

Chelsea Light Moving will be in town at Union Transfer on April 3rd with Talk Normal.  Tickets and information for the all-ages show can be found here.  Watch a video for “Burroughs” below and stream the full Chelsea Light Moving LP here.

photo by Neil Krug

It’s hard to place Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s songs on a timeline: There’s uncertainty baked right into the band’s name, but its sound also shape-shifts frequently through the worlds of brittle indie-pop, Nuggets-era retro psych-rock, vintage soul and something more alien altogether.

Stream the album here. Unknown Mortal Orchestra play Union Transfer on Friday, March 1st with Wampire and Foxygen. Go here for tickets and more information about the show.

On the surface, Tame Impala is another big, brash, psychedelic rock band, with lots of fussy studio tricks and grandiose solos — even on disc, a light show is implied. Kevin Parker’s vocals can seem almost secondary to guitars that buzz and fuzz compellingly, but his emotional distance serves a thematic purpose: For Tame Impala, Parker writes songs about solitude, and about maintaining distance from others that needn’t be literal.

Photo by Andreas Laszlo Konrath courtesy of the artist

Love This Giant brings Byrne and Clark together in provocative and frequently exciting ways, thanks in part to a slyly funky horn section and an overarching sense of brainy boldness. Though they swap lead-vocal duties, Byrne’s jittery, globe-trotting eclecticism tends to overshadow Clark’s efforts, in part because the horns’ volume forces her guitar work out of the foreground. But Byrne sounds more invigorated than he has in years, and as one of the best young singers, arrangers and guitarists in the business, Clark possesses a craftsmanship-intensive oddness which meshes nicely with his.

Listen to Love This Giant in its entirety via NPR Music here.

Gossamer vacillates like a torrid romance: Every moment is touch and go, on and off, quiet as a whisper and then loud as a yell. Angelakos’ lyrics suggest a love life filled with ups and downs. “Cry Like a Ghost,” for example, finds him remembering a relationship trapped in a vicious cycle: “Sylvia / Right back where you came from you’re a pendulum / Heartbroken and numb.” But he doesn’t wallow in the sadness: Gossamer is pure catharsis. It’s all about strength, moving forward, forgetting — and giving life to the party even as it doles out condolences to the lonely.

Stream the album on NPR and pre-order it here. Pitchfork is reporting that Passion Pit canceled a string of tour dates this summer, but it is still part of the Made in America Festival in September. Go here to grab your tickets.

Photo by Dan Monick

Fiona Apple releases her new album, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do on June 19th. It’s been seven years since her last full-length, Extraordinary Machine. Via NPR Music, stream Apple’s new album it in its entirety here. She plays at the Tower Theatre on Wednesday, June 27th. Go here for tickets.

Also, check out her brand new video for “Every Single Night” below:

Out May 15, The Only Place doesn’t just advance Best Coast’s formula; it perfects it. Producer Jon Brion applies a rich coat of shiny sparkle, as is his wont, but his touch complements these songs without threatening to overwhelm them. At 35 minutes, not a second of the album is wasted, even as Cosentino and multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno wind down the proceedings with a nearly five-minute ballad, “Up All Night.” And, most of all, Cosentino’s songwriting takes a massive leap forward on The Only Place: She’s fully internalized countless girl groups’ gift for employing sunny pop as a shield for pathos.

Photo by Frank Ockenfels

Norah Jones releases her new album Little Broken Hearts on May 1st. The album was produced by Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton). You can listen to the new album in its entirety here via NPR Music. WXPN Welcomes Norah Jones to the Mann on Thursday, June 28th at the Mann Center. Go here for tickets and more information about the show.

Spiritualized ‘Hey Jane’ by Spiritualized

Photo by Joe del Tufo

Alabama Shakes make their headlining debut in Philadelphia on Monday, April 9th at World Cafe Live. The show is sold out. The band’s debut album Boys & Girls is out Tuesday, April 10th. You can stream the album in it’s entirety here via NPR Music. Listen hereto the Shakes’ interview and performance on World Cafe with David Dye. Below, listen to their World Cafe version of Led Zeppelin’s “How Many More Times.”

“How Many More Times” Alabama Shakes (Led Zep cover) by somevelvet

Autumn de Wilde

Nada Surf releases its new album on Tuesday, January 24th, called The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy. The band performs at the TLA on Monday, April 9th. For tickets and more information about the show, go here. NPR Music is streaming the new album in its entirety here. Below, download a new song, “When I Was Young” from the album. Stephen Thompson of NPR Music writes about the album:

Now seven albums into a 20-year career, Nada Surf relies on familiar ingredients throughout The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, out Jan. 24: big guitars, beautiful vocal harmonies, generous affirmations. But a new Nada Surf record is formulaic the way springtime is formulaic: It’s always there to be counted on, and always an intoxicating arrival.

• When I Was Youngby Nada Surf from The Stars Are Indifferent To AstronomyDownload