NPR Music provides “first listens” of many upcoming albums on their website. One of the albums that is currently available is the upcoming release by Ryan Adams, Ashes and Fire. Its release date is October 11, but I’ve been enjoying getting to listen to it early. I won’t lie. I spent the entire day at work listening to it on repeat. I’ll definitely be adding it to my music collection when it’s available commercially.
I’m not going to bother linking to it because it will soon no longer be available on the NPR site, but if you’re reading this before October 11 you can go listen to it there. If you’re reading it after October 11, just go buy it.
More Than Meh 
God bless NPR. They do good artists and music lovers a great service. They music coverage has been a real game-changer. I’ve often taken issue with Bob Boilan’s albums of the year, though. I really don’t care for a lot of his “darlings.”