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Arts & Life

Two Books for a Happier Thanksgiving

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 …

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12 Grammy Nominees You Need to Hear

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 …

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15 Great Songs From 1989 (the Year, Not the Album)

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 …

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The Rolling Stones Played Old! They Played New!

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 …

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My Haul From the WFMU Record Fair

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 …

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Readers Pick the Ultimate Fall Playlist

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 …

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9 New Songs You Should Hear Now

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 …

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What’s on Your Fall Playlist?

Dear listeners, I’m on vacation this week, so I won’t be sending out any new playlists. But many of you have been emailing to ask how you can listen to previous Amplifier playlists, and I’m happy to announce that we finally have them archived and updated here. So take this …

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9 Songs That Will Make You Say ‘Yeah!’

Dear listeners, On Sunday, the N.F.L., Roc Nation and Apple Music announced that Usher will headline the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show. Only one reaction will suffice: “Yeah!” Such was the refrain heard everywhere in 2004, when the singer’s enthusiastically titled club banger “Yeah!” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for …

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The Chaos and Clarity of the Replacements’ ‘Tim’

Dear listeners, I have adored “Tim,” the 1985 album by the Minnesota rockers the Replacements, for decades — nearly every growl, guitar lick and snare hit have been imprinted upon my memory since I discovered it as a teenager — and yet I just learned some of its lyrics last …

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