"It was a flash, as we sometimes used to say in California. A flash in time that went by so effortlessly, and with such pleasure, that I must ask myself if it really happened. But here it is—a CD of some recorded moments, or perhaps a bridge, or a small door, between a life lived mostly in America and time spent with some really good friends in Spain." - Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne has written and performed some of the most literate and moving songs in popular music and has defined a genre of songwriting charged with honesty, emotion and personal politics. He's been honored with inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2004) and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (2007). His latest release, 2010's Love is Strange , produced by Browne and Paul Dieter, features longtime friend and musical co-conspirator David Lindley. The two-CD live album presents highlights from a tour of Spain that he and Lindley did in 2006, playing grand concert halls, rock venues, and intimate clubs alike. Performances are "En Vivo con Tino," live with celebrated Spanish percussionist Tino di Geraldo, and other guest players from Spain. The track-list spotlights songs from throughout Browne's career including "I'm Alive," "Take It Easy," "For Everyman," and "Running On Empty." Also featured is stringed-instrument virtuoso Lindley's best-known song, "El Rayo-X" (from the acclaimed 1983 Browne-produced LP of that name).

For a certain generation, The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street is the music of your life!

It was not an album of chart-topping pop singles, but an album that grew out of the chaos and intensity of a band that were huge stars and propbably not quite ready for it. This new package features the original album, plus a lot of alternates, out takes and mistakes, all of which are fascinating. The 2-CD version of Exile on Main Street is a 3-panel digi-pak, 2xCDs with a 12 page booklet. The Digipak is printed in reverse board double white to keep an 'uncoated' feel like the original LP release. The 2nd disc features 10 tracks originally recorded during the Exile era including 'Plundered My Soul', 'Dancing in the Light', 'Following the River' and 'Pass The Wine' plus alternate versions of 'Soul Survivor' and 'Loving Cup'.

This is an album by The Black Keys. The name of the album is Brothers

So says the CD cover. Hear the entire album on NPR's First Listen right now. Here's what NPR editor Bob Bolen has to say about it: "There's no shortage of bluesy rock records, and I sure didn't think I needed to rush out and hear another one — that is, until I heard The Black Keys' new album, Brothers. Packed with great songs and devoid of throwaways, Brothers is the sixth album by the duo of singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney."

The album is being released as a CD and also as a 2 LP plus Bonus CD set.

High Violet, the new full-length record by The National, is a nervy, melodic, explosive and beautiful set of songs that find the band at the height of their collaborative powers.

The music is wide-ranging in its moods, by turns intimate and rough, expansive and spare, full of stark angles and atmosphere. Berninger's singing—wild, half-broken, sly—evokes a feeling of being haunted, by love, by paranoia, by something just out of reach. High Violet may be The National's most thematically twisted record to date but it somehow also manages to be their most infectious and immediate.

'This album captures so many magical moments, the best times I've ever had as a musician,' declares singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant of 'Leave Your Sleep,' her ambitious exploration into the words of other poets.

Merchant, celebrated solo artist and one-time voice of 10,000 Maniacs, took on what could have been a daunting task: she's adapted 19th and 20th century British and American poetry - well-known and obscure works, anonymous rhymes, children's lullabies, all of it timeless material full of direct emotion - and fashioned new songs from these words. Among the poets she chose were Robert Graves, Charles Manley Hopkins, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The project, five years in the making, has clearly had a liberating effect on Merchant. Never has she sounded so free-spirited, so full of musical adventure, whether backed by small jazzy combos or elegant chamber ensembles. The tracks she's created range from exotic ('The King of China's Daughter') to earthy ('Peppery Man'), soothing ('I Saw A Ship A-Sailing') to swinging ('The Janitor's Boy'), mischievous ('It Makes A Change') to moving ('Spring and Fall'). The string arrangements are particularly stirring, recalling Joshua Rifkin's now-classic work on Judy Collins' 'Wildflowers.'

See a fine live video of the William Blake piece.