The Magnetic Fields' latest release, Realism, is out now. The BBC says the album confirms Stephin Merritt's "stature as the most inventive rhymer in the American lineage since Tom Lehrer," its sound "absolutely prime Merritt ... consistently confirming what unusually inventive arrangers Merritt and his cohorts are." MusicOMH‬‪ gives it four stars, saying Merritt's "talent for bathing his songs in wonderful arrangements and limpet-like melodies seals his genius status."

The Low Anthem will be making its US television debut with an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight. The band will be performing "Charlie Darwin" off its Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. The episode is sure to be additionally special, as Letterman will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of his successful quintuple bypass heart surgery by speaking his surgeon, O. Wayne Isom.

Allen Toussaint celebrates his 72nd birthday today. He received an early birthday gift when he was awarded the Grand Prix, Best Disc of the Year, from France's Académie du Jazz, for his 2009 Nonesuch debut, The Bright Mississippi. The awards ceremony took place this past Tuesday in Paris with members of the Ministry of Culture and a diverse array of artists in attendance.

The Low Anthem performed at Saturday's multi-artist Hot Stove Cool Music benefit concert in Boston; the Boston Globe included the set among the event's highlights, calling the group "a dazzlingly talented bunch." Now comes word that the band will be headlining its first North American tour this spring and making its US television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman this Thursday. It will also spend much of February supporting The Avett Brothers on the road.

Oumou Sangare and Audra McDonald have been nominated for NAACP Image Awards: Oumou for her latest album, Seya, and Audra for her work on the ABC series Private Practice. Audra will be performing on ABC tonight, singing "God Bless America" during the pregame show at the National Championship football game in Pasadena's Rose Bowl Stadium.

Steve Reich will join So Percussion in a performance of Clapping Music for an all-Reich program at Stanford University this Saturday. The concert, featuring the US premiere of Reich's latest piece, Mallet Quartet, is the culmination of a number of related events at Stanford this week, including a public conversation with Reich and Beryl Korot. The San Jose Mercury News calls it all "a welcome and rare opportunity for immersion in Reich's rhythmical realm."

While The Low Anthem has been busy prepping its next album, documenting it all on video, Magnet magazine named its Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, the 2009 Album of the Year, "a thrilling, romantic journey through Americana at its absolute finest." This month, the band begins its WOXY radio show and a European tour; its later US tour with the Avett Brothers has already begun to sell out.

k.d. lang releases her first-ever career retrospective, Recollection, 25 years after the release of her debut recording. The two-disc set will be available February 2 [now February 9] on Nonesuch. Recollection features 22 of lang’s most beloved recordings including an all-new interpretation of the Leonard Cohen classic “Hallelujah." The deluxe package includes a third disc of previously unreleased recordings—many performed live—as well as a bonus DVD of music videos and rarely seen live performance footage.

Wilco will play a run of 16 concerts in Eastern US cities beginning in Miami on March 22 and culminating in Pittsburgh on April 11. The concerts are presented as An Evening with Wilco and will feature extended, varied sets exploring material from each of the accomplished Chicago sextet’s seven studio albums. The tour includes concerts in Clearwater, Savannah, Atlanta, Durham, Richmond, Bethesda, Montclair, Providence, Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.

Over the past month or so, as most of the major publications, music magazines, and NPR programs have taken the occasion of the decade's end to look back at the best music of this year and the nine before it, the Nonesuch Journal has been making note as dozens of these best-of lists have included Nonesuch artists and albums. Now, as we prepare for our holiday break, and wish you a very happy holiday, we recap these accolades in this year- and decade-end review, and, in the image at left, remember all of the Nonesuch albums of the '00s.

Anne Midgette, the classical music critic for the Washington Post, has already named Alarm Will Sound's a/rhythmia among the year's best albums, and, for WNYC's Soundcheck, included John Adams's Dharma at Big Sur among the decade's best. Now, on her Post blog, she says of Adams, "if there was a composer to whom the decade belonged, I'd say it was him." Audiophile Audition gives his latest, Doctor Atomic Symphony, four stars.

Two New York Times music critics have Nonesuch albums on their Top Ten lists: Rokia Traoré's Tchamantché and Oumou Sangare's Seya. The Washington Post has Alarm Will Sound's a/rhythmia in its Top Ten classical albums; the Denver Post has Richard Goode and John Adams. Two Boston Globe critics have Wilco (the album) on their lists, while others there add BlakRoc and Seya. MTV includes Wilco plus Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali. PopMatters and American Songwriter cite Wilco as well, while the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle lists Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi.