Randy Newman brings the music of his latest Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels, to the WNYC studios to perform live on The Leonard Lopate Show today. He discusses the pros and cons of political commentary on NPR's All Things Considered and on the latest videos at nonesuch.com/media. The New Statesman suggests that Randy's unique brand of storytelling has never been better realized than on Harps and Angels; Bloomberg says it "contains some of the most literate lyrics likely to be penned in 2008" and "some of Newman's most heartfelt ballads"; the San Diego Union-Tribune calls the album "a masterful collection of songs" with "exquisite lyrics set to the most sophisticated music he has yet written" outside a film score.

Tune in to the Late Show with David Letterman tonight on CBS to watch Randy Newman perform the song "Easy Street" off his latest Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels. You can also catch Randy discussing "Easy Street" on the latest video to be added to nonesuch.com/media, part of the weeklong series of interviews and performances being added to the site. On NPR's Fresh Air, reviewer Ken Tucker is driven to goosebumps by the record, The Village Voice calls the music of this "master of sardonic humor" immortal, and Paste asserts: "You don't get Newman like this very often."

Orchestra Boabab is on the road in Europe, playing a number of the Continent's biggest summer festivals. Pitchfork's Joe Tangari spoke with Barthélemy Attisso, one of the Baobab's founding members, whose distinctive guitar work helped create its unique sound during its heyday as, writes Tangari, "one of the world's greatest bands." Now with new recordings from the group, including this year's Made in Dakar and 2002's Specialist in All Styles, Tangari says, the world has caught on.

All this week, to celebrate the release of Randy Newman's Harps and Angels, Nonesuch.com is presenting new videos with interviews and performances by Randy featuring songs from the new record. Today at nonesuch.com/media, Randy discusses the unforgettable, inspirational story behind "Losing You," which BBC calls "two minutes and 16 seconds of wonder: a perfect gem shining in the darkness," followed by a solo performance at the piano.

Today marks the long-awaited release of Randy Newman's Harps and Angels, and the reviews continue to come in, with the Associate Press saying that Randy "has produced a record to rival his best work, and it may be the best album of 2008." At noon ET, NPR will broadcast a recent concert Randy gave in which he and his band performed the new record in its entirety. Also from NPR, All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen invited Randy to guest DJ this week's show. "I really liked his older stuff," says Boilen of Randy. "I like him better when he's older."

Congratulations to John Adams, who has been named a winner of the 2008 Opera News Award. The New York Philharmonic's music director designate, Alan Gilbert, will present the composer with the award in a ceremony on November 16 in New York City; Gilbert will lead the Metropolitan Opera's production of Adams's Doctor Atomic in October. This year's other award recipients are sopranos Natalie Dessay and Renée Fleming, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, and baritone Sherrill Milnes.

The critical response on Randy Newman's latest release, Harps and Angels, has already started pouring in from both sides of the Atlantic. The Times (UK) gives the album five stars, concluding: "The man's a master." The Los Angeles Times has a feature profile of Randy, whom it says "has plumbed the depths and shallows of the American psyche with greater consistency than perhaps any of his contemporaries." Also, Huffington Post contributor David Wild proclaims as the Greatest Song of All Time Randy's much-covered tune "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," calling Newman's 2003 version "probably the most powerful and shaded piece of music I could ever imagine," and adding that Harps and Angels "is one of the best ever albums from the modern musical master who gave us all the greatest song of all-time."

On Friday, Nonesuch.com featured a video of Randy performing "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country," from his latest release, Harps and Angels, out this week. To mark the album's release, all this week we'll be adding new videos of interviews with Randy in which he talks about that and other songs on the album, as well as more videos of Randy at the piano performing some of those songs. Today at nonesuch.com/media, you'll find a video of Randy discussing and playing "Potholes," which he calls "the most absolutely honest song I've ever written."

The Black Keys played the opening day of Lollapalooza in Chicago on Friday in a set that Time Out Chicago reports featured the band's signature "folky-blues, [which] breaks into blown-out acid riffage." Metromix Chicago says that hometown band Wilco's Saturday set showed that the city "has a lot to thank Wilco for." Over the next two weeks, each band will make its way to Brooklyn's popular McCarren Park Pool, which, as the New York Times reports, will transition back to its original use after this summer's shows.

Ry Cooder recently spoke with Studio 360 host Kurt Anderson about his latest Nonesuch release, I, Flathead, the third in his California trilogy of records, as well as the many facets of his rich career. Cooder tells Anderson of, among other things, his earliest professional gigs in his hometown of Los Angeles while still in high school in the 1960s. "My fate was sealed, so to speak," he says, "because I had participated in this most miraculous thing I had ever seen ... that being a record studio."

Here is our weekly list of just some of the many events going on across the globe this weekend featuring Nonesuch artists ...

The Los Angeles Times called "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country" "so funny it hurt," and Rolling Stone named it among the Best Singles of 2007. It's now featured on Harps and Angels, Randy's latest Nonesuch release. You can watch a video performance of the song from last year on the Nonesuch Media page, and check back next week for all-new video features celebrating the release of the new album.