Nonesuch Records is set to release Realism, the new album from The Magnetic Fields and the band's follow-up to the 2008 album, Distortion, on January 26, 2010. More information will be forthcoming very shortly, but in the mean time, we've got the cover at left and a list of the album's 13 track titles.

Natalie Merchant heads to London this week for the first of several performances in the UK and Continental Europe in the coming weeks. To mark these events and Natalie's forthcoming Nonesuch debut, due out in early 2010, Nonesuch.com is taking a look back at the singer-songwriter's career in a special video piece, available now at nonesuch.com/media.

The Low Anthem is closing out its month-long US tour with Blind Pilot in Boston on Thursday. There's much more ahead, including shows in Europe and back in the States for several dates with Josh Ritter and a WFUV benefit with Rosanne Cash. Now, the band announces a two-week, ten-city tour with The Avett Brothers, across the Midwest, in February and March 2010.

Tony Allen—best known for his work as drummer and musical director for Fela Kuti—will make his Nonesuch debut with the release of Secret Agent on April 13. Following the album's European release on World Circuit earlier this year, The Guardian proclaimed, “There is no question that Tony Allen is a genius, one of the greatest percussionists in the history of popular music,” while Observer Music Monthly said, “If you’re wondering why Afrobeat is hip, start here.”

Paste magazine, which has already included Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot among the decade's best albums, has now chosen its Ten Best Producers of the Decade. Making the list are three producers whose work during that time includes several projects on Nonesuch, as producer and otherwise: Tucker Martine (Laura Veirs, Bill Frisell, Robin Holcomb), T Bone Burnett (Sam Phillips, solo), and Danger Mouse (The Black Keys).

Caetano Veloso has won the 2009 Latin Grammy Award for Best Singer-Songwriter Album for his latest release in Brazil, Zii e Zie. The Guardian, in its four-star review of the album, describes its songs as "intimate and surprising." Caetano was also recognized for his work on a video celebrating the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim. The 10th annual Latin Grammy Awards ceremony was held last night in Las Vegas.

Natalie Merchant will perform and discuss a selection of songs from her forthcoming Nonesuch release at the new Free Word Centre in London on November 18. She has been researching, writing, and recording a collection of songs adapted from the works of various classic and contemporary poets; the evening will give a unique insight into the project prior to the album’s release in early 2010.

Just as Wilco begins its tour through Europe in the UK tonight, the band's 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has nabbed the No. 2 slot on the list of the 50 Best Albums of the Decade according to Paste magazine and claims the No. 1 spot in a poll of the magazine's readers. "Through its circuitous provenance and runaway success," says Paste, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot proved that great art—even in difficult times—will find the light of day."

The Low Anthem continues its cross-country tour with Blind Pilot at The Parish in Austin, Texas, tonight, as news is in that Q magazine has named Oh My God, Charlie Darwin one of the year's Top 50 albums. The Dallas Observer says the album, "quite simply, is a remarkably beautiful record, an album deserving of all the critical kudos." Magnet magazine is offering the band's take on Bob Dylan's "Dignity" as a free download.

John Adams gives the first of two Tanner Lectures on Human Values this afternoon at Yale University this afternoon, with the second to follow tomorrow afternoon. "Perhaps the most celebrated living American composer," writes the New Haven Advocate, "John Adams is nearly as adept with the English language as he is with musical notation." What's more, "Adams has created some of the most essential classical music of our age."

Earbox.com has long been the go-to source for information on the works of composer John Adams and has now received a makeover, including the addition of a blog from the composer. The first few posts have already caught the attention of The New Yorker's Alex Ross, who writes, "Few artists are as engagingly forthright in their interviews and writings. Adams has now started up a blog on his home site, with the promising name Hell Mouth."

Wilco and The Low Anthem have made the shortlist of nominees for the Uncut Music Award and are now two of just eight artists up for what Uncut has dubbed the year's "most inspiring and rewarding musical experience." The music video for The Low Anthem's "Charlie Darwin" can now be seen here at Nonesuch.com. Stereogum described it as an "affecting visual counterpart to Ben Knox Miller's fragile falsetto."