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The Notes
Long-form writing on what we curate and why. Liner notes for individual playlists, methodology pieces, the occasional opinion you didn't ask for. Slower than the feed, deliberately.
Hans Zimmer built a band, not an orchestra
The Diamond in the Desert concert cut runs 1:46:01 and hands its biggest cues to soloists rather than sections. A timestamped guide to who plays what — Tina Guo, Lisa Gerrard, Lebo M, Loire Cotler, Pedro Eustache — and where Zimmer's method breaks from John Williams.
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Legacy acts are quietly outwriting the algorithm this summer
Robert Smith on a Rolling Stones bridge, the Yummy Fur back after 28 years, Fiona Apple scoring a prestige miniseries, Hayley Williams covering Sinéad O'Connor, Queens of the Stone Age burying the setlist formula, and Victor Willis's death — six stories this week that all argue the same thing: the people who built the genres are still writing better songs than the systems that replaced them.
Clive Davis and the end of the record man
Clive Davis — who ran Columbia, founded Arista and J Records, signed Janis Joplin and Santana and launched Whitney Houston and Alicia Keys — died at his Manhattan home on June 22 at 94. On the last of the great A&R men and the era of the all-powerful label boss.
Harry Styles shrinks the room at his own Meltdown
At the Royal Festival Hall on June 16, Harry Styles — curator of 2026's Meltdown — handed his catalog to Jules Buckley's 50-piece orchestra and a gospel choir, dug out 'Two Ghosts' and 'Boyfriends,' and called a 2,000-seat covers set his career highlight.
Jack White's stealth drop: 'Frozen Charlotte'
Jack White announced his seventh album, 'Frozen Charlotte,' by quietly listing a vinyl preorder on the Third Man site before any press release. Notes on the no-announcement playbook, the Nashville band behind it, and the singles carrying it.
Eve at the Tiny Desk: a live band, a drum machine, and class
Notes on Eve's NPR Tiny Desk — a full live band built around a DJ finger-drumming the breaks on a slab the size of a cutting board, a seven-song run through 'Let Me Blow Ya Mind' and 'Tambourine,' and 25 years of 'Scorpion' from a rapper who only got classier.
Hi-Fi Latin Rhythms: featuring a tango compilation from outside the box
Why we featured a 10-track Argentine tango compilation we didn't make: the lost language of late-1950s hi-fi LPs, the difference between listening-tango and dancing-tango, and what 'Music of Passion' actually does to a dinner party that the algorithm can't.
Angine de Poitrine on KEXP: math rock in the cracks between notes
Notes on the masked Québécois duo's full performance on KEXP, recorded at Trans Musicales 2025 — what microtonal math rock actually sounds like, why two people in giant paper-mâché masks pulled 7.5 million views, and why we've kept Angine de Poitrine as a featured artist with no playlist slot.
Foo Fighters at the Tiny Desk: a stadium band remembers a bedroom
Notes on the Foo Fighters' first NPR Tiny Desk concert — Dave Grohl and Pat Smear visibly enjoying themselves behind a desk, a five-song set that runs from a brand-new single to 'Everlong,' and what a band built for arenas sounds like when you take the arena away.
Jyoty's Boiler Room London is the carnival warm-up master class
Notes on Jyoty's Boiler Room London set — an hour and nineteen tracks of dancehall, garage, Afrobeats, club rap, and Carnival rhythm built to land at the exact moment the room realizes it's a party. A DJ set as playlist, and how it lines up with what we already keep in heavy rotation.
The Tiny Desk feature: eight performances we keep coming back to
A running feature on our favorite NPR Tiny Desk concerts — Foo Fighters, Bad Bunny, Sting & Shaggy, Anderson .Paak, Mac Miller, T-Pain, Usher, Coldplay — and how they line up with the artists already in heaviest rotation across this site. The format is the point: real bands in a real room, no production tricks, the song doing the work.
How to sequence a mix: a working manual
The actual rules we use to put 50 songs in an order that holds for two hours. First track, last track, the moves in between, and why shuffle is the enemy of a good mix.
3608: liner notes for a New Year's Eve in Boston
Liner notes for the 203-track playlist we built for a single New Year's Eve party at the Westin in Boston, room 3608. Why Outkast slots between Britney and the Chili Peppers, what the room actually sounded like at 1:30 a.m., and the philosophy behind sequencing 12 hours of music with no shuffle button.