AfroCubism was featured on NPR's All Things Considered on Sunday. "The group features musicians from Cuba and Mali," says host Guy Raz, "and it's a kind of hybrid of the best sounds from these two musical traditions." Guest Betto Arcos of Global Village says "every song is just fantastic." AfroCubism makes the year's best lists in the Boston Globe, as does David Byrne/Fatboy Slim's Here Lies Love and The Black Keys' Brothers, which tops a Minneapolis Star Tribune list. The Star Tribune 's classical music critic lists Steve Reich's Double Sextet / 2x5 and Gidon Kremer's De Profundis. The Los Angeles Times picks Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider among the best in jazz.

Tonight marks the season finale of The Sing-Off, the NBC a cappella competition, in which all-vocal singing groups vie for a professional recording contract and $100,000; tune in at 8 PM EST to see who wins. Ben Folds has garnered nothing but the highest praise as a judge on the show. He spoke with the Wall Street Journal about Lonely Avenue, his collaborative album with Nick Hornby, which the Journal describes as "a Tin Pan Alley-style collaboration," resulting in "a quirky and loose affair."

Stephen Sondheim was the subject of a feature article in the Guardian, in which he discusses is his first-ever book of collected lyrics, Finishing the Hat, which has topped many a year's-best list, not least the New York Times Sunday Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2010. Finishing the Hat is the Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4; Sondheim will read from it throughout the week. He was on The Colbert Report last week. His 80th birthday concert makes the Minneapolis Star Tribune's list of the Top 10 TV Moments of the Year, topping the year's "great musical moments."

On January 8, 2011, The Black Keys will kick off the new season of NBC’s Saturday Night Live with host Jim Carrey. This appearance comes after a monumentally successful 2010 for the duo, whose acclaimed release Brothers, recently received six Grammy nominations. Additionally the album was named iTunes’ Album of the Year and Rolling Stone’s No. 2 Album of the Year. The record also tops American Songwriter’s year-end list and is featured on round-ups at NPR, Time magazine, and Magnet, among many others. The duo is also currently featured on the cover of Spin magazine’s Best of 2010 issue as Artist of the Year.

Smart Flesh, The Low Anthem's forthcoming Nonesuch release, due out February 22, is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. The album is available on CD and vinyl, and in a special deluxe edition that includes the album on CD plus a bonus disc of additional music and comes in a letterpress, numbered edition printed in the band's hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. The first 250 pre-orders of Smart Flesh in the Nonesuch Store also include a letterpress printed poster, signed by the band. All pre-orders include an instant download of the album's opening track, "Ghost Woman Blues."

Ali and Toumani, featuring kora master Toumani Diabaté and the late guitar virtuoso Ali Farka Touré, was released at the start of the year to great critical acclaim, with Pitchfork describing it as "uncommonly beautiful" and NPR calling it "breathtaking." At the year's end, the accolades continue, with the album making year's-best lists and being nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album. In celebration, we're offering a free download of the album track "Sabu Yerkoy" here.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops' Genuine Negro Jig has landed at No. 4 on the Top 10 album list from San Jose Mercury News, which also includes Eminem, Kanye West, and Big Boi. No Depression says: "The dramatic success of this young trio over the past year is well-deserved (including their Grammy nomination)." In honor of that Grammy nod and all the year-end accolades, we're offering a free download of the Genuine Negro Jig track "Trouble in Your Mind." Enjoy!

AfroCubism has been named to the No. 1 spot on AOL Spinner's list of the Best World Music Albums of 2010, with the site exclaiming: "Clearly, the world music album of the year." Though the album's release comes a decade and a half after its inception, "not only was it worth the wait, but it probably exceeded the potential of the past with an infusion of some vibrant new talent from West Africa." Spinner also names The Black Keys' Brothers among the 30 Best Albums of 2010.

Ben Folds brought his Lonely Avenue tour to NYC on Tuesday for a sold-out show at the Beacon. The tour continues late next month, including two just-announced shows in Missouri and Oklahoma. The Village Voice describes the songs of Lonely Avenue as "stupendously likable." Nick Hornby, Folds's writing partner, made the USA Today's Pop Candy's 100 People of 2010. Folds appeared on the Today show to talk about the album at The Sing-Off; you can watch the segment here.

AfroCubism has made the list of the Top 5 World Music Releases of 2010 according to WNYC's Soundcheck. Anastasia Tsioulcas, who assembled the list, spoke with the show's host John Schaefer, about her picks, on today's episode. Schaefer describes the album as an "amazing conglomeration of two traditions," to which Tsioulcas concurs: "Absolutely."

True Grit, the new film from Joel and Ethan Coen, has been nominated for 11 Critics' Choice Movie Awards, including Best Score for Carter Burwell, Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director. True Grit is set to open the esteemed Berlin International Film Festival in February and opens in the theaters across North America on December 22. I Am Love, with music by John Adams, was nominated for a Critics' Choice Movie Award and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. 

The Black Keys have been named an Artist of the Year by SPIN magazine! "The Black Keys are closing out a year that saw their sixth album, Brothers—a dark, swampy, R&B-inspired stomper—become an indisputable hit," says SPIN in the cover story on the band. Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach discuss the making of the album and the unprecedented response the band received upon the album's release. "We had no idea what to expect," says Auerbach. "All we knew was that we felt we had made the best record we could and were pretty excited about that." SPIN has also named Brothers to the magazine's list of the 40 Best Albums of 2010 and "Tighten Up" to its list of the 20 Best Songs of 2010.