Today's the day. April Fool's, yes, but also the day Attack & Release, The Black Keys' latest, hits stores. The New York Sun says "Attack & Release houses the most stylistically diverse set of songs the band has released to date."New York Daily News says "the duo perfectly calibrate richer sounds and fuller melodies with their usual killer riffs and scathing rhythms." Scripps Howard gives the album four stars.

With just one more day to go before the release of Attack & Release, The Black Keys new album, the band will be live on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic today. The New York Times says of the collaboration with Danger Mouse: "Happily, the results are not just evident but potent. While the sound of this blues-rock duo has been fleshed out, none of its grit has been glossed." The Cleveland Plain Dealer gives the album an A, exclaiming: "The results are splendiferous." The Akron Beacon Journal, calls it "the band's most interesting collection of songs and sounds."

Tune in to Seattle public radio station KEXP, 90.3 FM, today at 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET, to hear an in-studio performance from and conversation with Stephin Merritt. The Magnetic Fields were in Seattle last week to play two nights at Town Hall; they'll close out their Distortion tour with three nights---six shows---at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music this weekend.

Tune in to ABC this Sunday night at 8 PM ET to catch the 80th annual Academy Awards. The Tim Burton-directed adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd has been nominated for three Academy Awards. Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood shares the distinction, with No Country for Old Men, of being the most nominated film this year.

On today's Morning Edition on NPR, Jeff Lunden spoke with the creators of the film Sweeney Todd—composer Stephen Sondheim, director Tim Burton, producer/screenwriter John Logan, and producer Richard D. Zanuck—just how they turned the macabre musical into a winning film. No small feat when you're talking about the piece considered to be the masterwork of the "the reigning master of the Broadway stage," as the piece states. Find out how it was done by listening to the segment here.

NPR listeners have had their say: Wilco's Sky Blue Sky is one of the year's best CDs. The album, released in May, is still holding sway with listeners, whose votes placed the record in the top five, in the company of Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Feist, and the White Stripes.

In his recommendation of Sweeney Todd, NPR film critic Bob Mondello says that director Tim Burton has created a "splendid adaption" of the Stephen Sondheim original. On the acting front, Johnny Depp's "snarling, vengeance-crazed Sweeney Todd is a wonder." As expected, Mondello reports, both Depp and his co-star, Helena Bonham Carter "nail the roles emotionally" and, perhaps less expectedly, can sing. All in all, Mondello says, Sweeney Todd is "spectacularly stylized ...  persuasively sung, and imaginatively adapted for the screen."

David Edelstein, the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and New York magazine, has placed Sweeney Todd and There WIll Be Blood on his list of the year's best films. Talking with Terry Gross about the films on Fresh Air, he compliments director Tim Burton for creating a "very intimate" version of what Gross refers to as the "absolutely brilliant, truly wonderful Stephen Sondheim musical." She asks Edelstein for his recommendation of the one movie audiences should see this holiday season. His answer: Sweeney Todd—"Great music, great photography, great performances, amazing arterial spray."

There Will Be Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson spoke with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air yesterday about the making of his latest film, from the joys of working with Daniel Day Lewis to the dangers of recreating an out-of-control oil-derrick fire to the film's haunting score by Jonny Greenwood. When Gross asks why the music works so well, Anderson answers: "All the credit goes to Jonny." You can hear the conversation here.

Youssou N'Dour's Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take) has made the Best of 2007 list from Siddhartha Mitter, a Boston Globe contributor and a reporter for WNYC, New York Public Radio.

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky has made the Best of 2007 list from WFUV, 90.9 FM, in New York. "Another great album from Wilco," writes WFUV's music director, Rita Houston, "Sky Blue Sky doesn't hit a wrong note."

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky was the BBC Radio 6 Album of the Day today, as part of the station's weeklong run-down of the year's best according to its various presenters. Shaun Keaveny, host of the weekday Breakfast Show, named the album his pick for the year's best.