Arts & Life

Dear listeners, At age 77, and with nearly 50 (!) solo studio releases to her name, Dolly Parton just scored the highest charting album of her career, the mammoth double LP “Rockstar,” which debuted on this week’s Billboard 200 at No. 3. (Darn those young whippersnappers Drake and Taylor Swift …

Dear listeners, Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, so today’s playlist is all about gratitude, family, and … food. Heaps and heaps of steaming, delicious food. Maybe you’re hosting your own feast and need some mood music while you prep. Maybe you’re traveling somewhere and need a seasonal soundtrack to help …

Dear readers, Even if you’re partial to the holiday season, and I am, this particular weekend can take on a prelapsarian feel. For many of us, these are the last days before we’re roped into a monthlong chorus line of celebration, wistfulness and reverence, before our relational identities consume everything …

Dear readers, Even if you’re partial to the holiday season, and I am, this particular weekend can take on a prelapsarian feel. For many of us, these are the last days before we’re roped into a monthlong chorus line of celebration, wistfulness and reverence, before our relational identities consume everything …

Dear listeners, I’m Jon Pareles, sitting in for Lindsay this week because while she’s on vacation, we couldn’t let the Grammy Awards nominations go by without a playlist. Like a lot of critics, in and out of music, I’m pretty skeptical about awards shows. That’s not just because they rarely …

Dear listeners, Today’s playlist is a homage to the music of 1989. Yes, the year. Why, you ask? Does it have anything to do with … you know … a certain musician rereleasing one of her most popular albums, with a title referencing the year she was born? I have …

Dear listeners, Last Thursday, I had the absurd good fortune of going to Racket — a 650-capacity club in Manhattan that one recent Google review called an “intimate venue, perfect vibe to see a small concert — to see a seven-song set by … the Rolling Stones. I know. I …

Dear listeners, Over the weekend, I spent some time at the WFMU Record and CD Fair — a New York institution returning in person for the first time since 2019. A fund-raiser for the great, listener-supported radio station, this year’s Record Fair featured over 100 dealers hawking vinyl and other …

Dear listeners, Last week, I asked you to submit a song that feels like fall. So many of you responded with such evocatively autumnal suggestions that it became quite a daunting task to whittle them down to a relatively compact and cohesive listening experience — but I somehow managed, and …

Dear listeners, It’s good to be back! Last week, I took a little staycation and spent most of my time reading, dog-sitting a very good boy, and seeing a bunch of movies at the New York Film Festival.* But now I’m recharged, caught up on all the new music I …