All Songs Considered NPR

NPR Music's picks for the best albums out this week include RAYE's long-awaited debut, My 21st Century Blues, SYML's stirring The Day My Father Died, the return of Shania Twain and more.

Featured Albums:
1. SYML — The Day My Father Died
Featured Songs: "Chariot," "Howling (feat. Lucius)," "Lost Myself (feat. Guy Garvey)," "The Day My Father Died"
2. RAYE — My 21st Century Blues
Featured Songs: "The Thrill Is Gone," "Oscar Winning Tears," "Hard Out Here"
3. Joe Chambers — Dance Kobina
Featured Songs: "Gazelle Suite," "Caravanserai"
4. Young Fathers — Heavy Heavy
Featured Songs: "Geronimo," "I Saw," "Tell Somebody"
5. Shania Twain — Queen of Me
Featured Song: "Pretty Liar"

Lightning Round Picks:
Epik High — Strawberry
The Go! Team — Get Up Sequences Part Two
James Brandon Lewis — Eye of I
Robert Forster — The Candle and the Flame

Other notable releases for Feb. 3:
Ben Wolfe — Unjust
Best Fern — Earth Then Air
Fantastic Negrito — Grandfather Courage
Hamish Hawk — Angel Numbers
Loscil & Lawrence English — Colours of Air
M(h)aol — Attachment Style
The Psychotic Monks — Pink Colour Surgery
Somebody's Child — Somebody's Child
Sunny War — Anarchist Gospel
Tropical F*** Storm — SUBMERSIVE BEHAVIOR
Various — Ears of the People: Ekonting Songs from Senegal and the Gambia

Alt.Latino's Anamaria Sayre and Felix Contreras sit down with Erik Rodríguez of Cimafunk to talk about how he's created his singular sound, the complex African lineage of his music and why his band is his "tribe."

NPR Music producer Lars Gotrich joins Bob Boilen for a show full of sonic adventures in hopes of stretching your musical boundaries, including three songs that are over eight minutes long.

Featured Songs and Artists:
1. Jana Horn: "After All This Time," from The Window is the Dream
2. Anna Mieke: "Go Away from My Window," from Theatre
3. Nabalayo: "mtwapa siren," from INSHA
4. Lankum: "Go Dig My Grave," from False Lankum
5. PoiL Ueda: "Dan No Ura - Part 1," from PoiL Ueda
6. Debashish Bhattacharya: "The Sound of the Soul," from The Sound of the Soul

Tom Verlaine spins everything from Charles Mingus to The Day the Earth Stood Still soundtrack.

The best albums out this week include A Reckoning from Kimbra, Sam Smith's deeply personal and powerful Gloria, jazz saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin's Phoenix and more.

Featured Albums:
1. Kimbra — A Reckoning
Featured Songs: "la type (feat. Pink Siifu & Tommy Raps)," "save me," "foolish thinking (feat. Ryan Lott)"
2. Sam Smith — Gloria
Featured Songs: "Unholy (feat. Kim Petras)," "I'm Not Here To Make Friends," "Love Me More," "Gloria"
3. Lakecia Benjamin — Phoenix
Featured Songs: "Amerikkan Skin (feat. Angela Davis)," "Supernova (feat. Wayne Shorter)"
4. Samia — Honey
Featured Songs: "Amelia," "Pink Balloon," "Sea Lions," "Breathing Song"
5. Jonah Yano — Portrait of a Dog
Featured Songs: "Always," "So Sweet"

Lightning Round:
Bob Dylan — Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions 1996-1997 The Bootleg Series Vol. 17
Joe Henry — All the Eye Can See
Nite Bjuti — "Mood (Liberation Walk)" (single)
Popcaan — Great Is He

Other notable releases for Jan. 27:
The Arcs — Electrophonic Chronic
Ava Max — Diamonds & Dancefloors
Bass Drum of Death — Say I Won't
Elle King — Come Get Your Wife
F***** Up — One Day
Hammock — Love in the Void
Meg Baird — Furling
SG Lewis — AudioLust & HigherLove

All Songs Considered's Bob Boilen shares his favorite new tracks of the week, including the return of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus as boygenius, The National and more.

Featured Songs and Artists:
1. boygenius: "$20," from the record
2. The National: "Tropic Morning News," from First Two Pages of Frankenstein
3. Niklas Paschburg & lùisa: "Darkside of the Hill," from Panta Rhei
4. Miss Grit: "Lain (phone clone)," from Follow the Cyborg
5. Baaba Maal: "Agreement," from Being
6. The Hackles: "Damn the word," from What a beautiful thing I have made