Chris Thile’s Laysongs, out now, is his first truly solo album: just Thile, his voice, and his mandolin, on new recordings of six original songs and three covers, all of which contextualize and banter with his ideas about spirituality. Recorded in a converted upstate New York church during the pandemic, Laysongs features the three-part Salt (in the Wounds) of the Earth, which was inspired by C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters (you can watch a performance of the first part here); a song Thile wrote about Dionysus; a selection from Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin; “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot” based on Buffy Sainte-Marie’s adaptation of a Leonard Cohen poem; and a Hazel Dickens cover. 

The Black Keys' tenth studio album, Delta Kream, has debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart, their fifth album in a row to debut in the Top 10 in the US. The album, which features eleven Mississippi hill country blues songs by artists including R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, is No. 1 on the Mediabase Triple A Radio Charts. Delta Kream is the band’s fourth consecutive top 10 album in the UK, debuting at No. 5, as well as top 10 in countries throughout Europe. "Each song on the record puts the listener in the room with the band," writes Hanif Abdurraqib in a New York Times Magazine feature on the band, "watching smiles spread across their faces as the music they have studied and loved flickers into life through them, effortlessly.”

Pianist/composer Tigran Hamasyan releases "Revisiting the Film," featuring drummer/composer Morgan Ågren, today on Nonesuch. You can hear it here. The new single is a variation on "Our Film," a track from his 2020 album, The Call Within. "For years I have been a big fan of Morgan and finally had a chance to collaborate," Hamasyan says. "I hope this is going to be the beginning of our dialogue."

The original motion picture soundtrack for the acclaimed film Sound of Metal, winner of Academy Awards for Sound and Editing, is out now. The album features a score by Abraham Marder and Nicolas Becker, with music written specifically for the film and pre-existing works. The world-renowned percussionist Evelyn Glennie is featured on three pieces; other performers include Marder and Becker; actors Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, and Mathieu Amalric; Carolina Santana, Arthur H., and Martha Wainwright. “With its immersive sound design and understated storytelling," says Pitchfork.

The Black Keys' tenth studio album, Delta Kream, is due May 14 via Nonesuch Records. The record celebrates the band’s roots, featuring eleven Mississippi hill country blues standards that they have loved since they were teenagers, before they were a band, including songs by R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, among others. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded Delta Kream at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville; they were joined by musicians Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton, long-time members of the bands of blues legends including R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. The album takes its name from William Eggleston’s iconic Mississippi photograph that is on its cover.