Robin Hilton

When a legendary band returns after a long hiatus the results are often cringe-worthy—or mixed, at best. To be fair, it's nearly impossible to recapture the kind of magic that makes legends to begin with. But that's not the case with a surprise new album from the Electric Light Orchestra.

A new video from director Riley Blakeway and the Los Angeles-based shoegaze band Froth finds plainspoken poetry and inspiration in life's most mundane moments. The short film, for the song "Nothing Baby," follows a 20-something as he slogs through seemingly joyless days, smoking cigarettes on the toilet, playing video games ...

Ari Shapiro started his career as an intern for NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg; he went on to become a White House correspondent, among other high-profile roles. Now, he's one of the hosts of NPR's evening news program All Things Considered. In his spare time, Shapiro also sings with ...

Ian Chang is a gigantically talented drummer. You may have seen him recently in a Tiny Desk performance with the band Son Lux, but he's also known for his work with the bands Landlady and Body Language. Chang rarely lays down straight beats or fills, so ...

On this week's +1 podcast, we go to Nashville where host Bob Boilen has been making new discoveries at the Americana Music Festival, and attended the Americana Music Awards ceremony. Boilen chats with co-host Robin Hilton about this year's three biggest winners: Lucinda Williams, Sturgill Simpson and

The look Born Ruffians frontman Luke Lalonde gives at the end of the band's latest video says it all: Things are rarely as awesome as you think they'll be. Or, more to the point, it's best to be careful what you wish for.

That moment comes after the four ...

Singer Sharon Van Etten has turned Donovan's gently strummed acoustic song, "Teen Angel" into a powerful, electrified ballad, with some of the most potent vocals she's ever recorded. The cover, which appears on a new Donovan tribute album, is still relatively spare, yet Van Etten injects it with ...

Gary Clark Jr.'s latest video, for the song "Church," is a sweet and soulful portrait of a man trying to come to terms with his own missteps and a lifetime of regret. Directed by photographer and filmmaker Danny Clinch, the black and white video is a simple but deeply moving ...

This week's show is split much like some of our favorite records: The A-side is loud and fast. The B-side is slow and quiet.

Co-host Robin Hilton kicks things off with Thunderbitch, a raucous side project from Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard. We quickly follow with bursts of ...

What can I say? You caught me in a good mood and I'm feeling generous. This week's Drum Fill Friday is a lowly one out of five stars for difficulty. I'd give it zero stars, but there's one song that I admit not everyone on the planet has probably heard, ...

This conversation with producer John Congleton remains one of our all-time favorite discussions about music, life, and why we love the songs we love. Since we originally posted it in the fall of 2014, Congleton has gone on to produce new albums by Franz Ferdinand And Sparks, ...

This week's episode of All Songs Considered is a journey of sound. Bob has a new favorite noise app, so he and Robin Hilton go on a sonic expedition that includes a spring walk, a gaggle of purring kittens, and a rolling rain storm (thunder optional). As if ...

This week's Drum Fill Friday comes courtesy of Shaun Fleming, drummer for Foxygen and frontman for the band Diane Coffee. Fleming has an unabashed love of late-'60s psychedelic rock and pop, and you can hear as much in the fills he picked here. But he also threw in ...

Most of the bands that play the Tiny Desk strip down their sound to accommodate the limited space and unconventional acoustics of an office. But Son Lux chose to do the exact opposite. Normally a trio of guitar, drums and keys based out of New York, the band blew ...

Bob Boilen is back after several weeks for this week's episode of All Songs Considered, and at least part of this week's show is Robin coming to terms with Bob's new beard. After moving through the stages of denial, grief and anger, Bob and Robin finally find acceptance by sharing ...

Columbia House (actually, the company that has owned Columbia House since 2012) filed for bankruptcy this week, which will mean a great deal to those who were music lovers in the 1980s and '90s, and probably close to nothing to listeners under the age of 30. Columbia House was a ...

This week, the All Songs team picks songs that sound like revolutions. Bob Boilen is out, so co-host Robin Hilton is joined by Katie Presley in D.C. and Timmhotep Aku in New York. The trio shares big, smashy music that lets Robin engage in his once-yearly purge of emotion.

The ...

Look, we all have work to do. But it's Friday, and this drum fill puzzler isn't going to quiz itself. So put down whatever you're doing, put on your headphones and see how many of these fills you can match to the right song. I'd give this week's Drum Fill ...

Laura Jane Grace and Lauren Denitzio both fell in love with music in their teens, and both turned it into a career. By the time they met in the studio this past winter, their lives had taken very different paths.

Grace quit school at 16 to found Against ...

This ... Is The Show: Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, the singer and electronic artist behind the music of Sylvan Esso, join All Songs Considered hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton to play some of their favorite songs by other musicians. There's jazz from The Lounge Lizards, Icelandic ...