Donnacha Dennehy's Nonesuch debut album, Grá agus Bás, has made NPR Music's list of its 50 Favorite Albums of 2011. "Dennehy infuses hallowed Irish texts, from the esoteric sean-nós vocal tradition to the plaintive poetry of fellow countryman W.B. Yeats, with a shimmering and kaleidoscopic array of minimalist colorations," says NPR. "The result, masterfully performed by Crash Ensemble under Alan Pierson and featuring vocalists Iarla Ó Lionáird and Dawn Upshaw, is a compelling, meditative walk through time and terrain. It studies an Ireland rooted in reverence for its past, but which also brims with curiosity for its future."

The Black Keys are featured in a cover story in this Sunday's New York Times Arts & Leisure section and in the Times' Popcast, which look at the band's new album, El Camino, and their rise to fame. A Guardian profile also examines how the band has "become a global pop phenomenon." The Guardian gives El Camino a perfect fives stars: "They sound like a band who think they've made the year's best rock 'n' roll album, probably because that's exactly what they've done."

Ry Cooder's new song about the Occupy Wall Street movement, "Wall Street Part of Town," was recorded last Tuesday and premiered on Pacifica Radio's Jon Wiener show on Wednesday, a fundraiser for the Pacifica Radio Archives' Campus Campaign National Education Project. It also aired on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman. You can now listen to the song here, download it for free, then help spread the good word. Cooder's latest album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, was inspired by the inequities that spared the few from the financial crisis while most were left to fend for themselves.

Composer/pianist Timothy Andres was featured on Q2 Music's Nadia Sirota show today titled "Timothy Andres: Bringing the Virtuoso Composer-Performer Tradition Into the 21st Century." Q2 is celebrating WQXR's "Beethoven Awareness Month" in its own fittingly contemporary way, looking at "modern-day Beethovens ... some of today's most distinct and inventive compositional voices." Today's show includes four pieces from Andres's 2010 Nonesuch debut album, Shy and Mighty, each introduced by the composer.

The Black Keys are featured on the latest edition of NPR's All Songs Considered, the show's last regular episode of the year. "Run Right Back," off the band's forthcoming album, El Camino, due out December 6, kicks off the show. All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen calls it "wonderful" and says of the band: "They're the pillars. You just know they're gonna put out really solid rock." Derrick Tuggle, the star of the video for the album's first single, "Lonely Boy," stopped by the Ellen show yesterday. Watch the segment here.

The Black Keys' new album, El Camino, is due out in less than four weeks. If you've seen the video for "Lonely Boy," you've gotten a taste of what's to come. Now comes a first listen of another album track, "Run Right Back," which premiered on BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe show. Listen online at bbc.co.uk. Both songs are on the limited-edition vinyl 12-inch available at participating indie music retailers on Record Store Day's "Back to Black" Friday, November 25.

Joe Henry, the singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer, talks with NPR's Fresh Air about his new album and about the 2009 album he produced for Allen Toussaint, The Bright Mississippi, on which, for the first time, Toussaint explores the work of his New Orleans forebears, like Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Jelly Roll Morton. Henry also produced the Carolina Chocolate Drops' 2010 Nonesuch debut album, Genuine Negro Jig. He will perform with Brad Mehldau at London's Wigmore Hall next month.

Ry Cooder was featured on AirTalk from Southern California public radio station KPCC this morning. He spoke with host Larry Mantle about his music, his new album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, and his new book, Los Angeles Stories. "With a musician’s ear for language," says the show of the book, "Cooder’s stories and the characters who people them—drifters, trolley drivers, disc jockeys, salesmen, jazz musicians and of course, cops and robbers—take us on a journey into a Los Angeles that has long gone the way of Chavéz Ravine and the red cars."

Björk, whose new album, Biophilia, was released this week, is the featured guest on PRI's Studio 360. Björk leads host Kurt Andersen through different tracks on the album and the App, which features a separate component for each track on the album. "For the last two decades, Björk has pushed every boundary she could find," says the show. Now, on Biophilia, "Björk’s odes to the mysteries of the universe can be as intoxicating as any love song." Listen to the segment here.

Björk's new album, Biophilia, is out this week. She spoke with NPR's Morning Edition about the new album and its multimedia components, including the App suite also available this week. The AP says "Biophilia's music is vintage Björk." The Financial Times calls it "a triumph," giving it a perfect five stars, as does the Daily Telegraph. The Daily Mirror calls it "a thrilling record ... Even in Björk’s catalogue there’s nothing that’s been as spectacularly unconventional and wholly successful as Biophilia." PopMatters says "she’s breaking new ground few others know is out there to begin with."

Jessica Lea Mayfield is among the artists featured on the new mix streaming from NPR Music and Folk Alley celebrating the recipients and nominees of the Americana Music Association's 10th Annual Honors and Awards. Mayfield has been nominated for the 2011 Americana Music Award for New/Emerging Artist of the Year. NPR Music will webcast live from the awards ceremony at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium next Thursday, and Austin City Limits will air an edited version of the show on PBS in November.

Brad Mehldau will be today's guest on the Jamie Cullum show on BBC Radio 2. Mehldau stopped by the BBC Maida Vale Studios in London to perform songs both from Modern Music, his recently released collaboration with pianist Kevin Hays and composer Patrick Zimmerli, and Live in Marciac, his solo CD/DVD released earlier this year. Brad Mehldau will join label mate Joshua Redman for a US duo tour starting next week.