Steve Reich's Daniel Variations was the featured album on last night's episode of WNYC's New Sounds. The title piece "justifiably has drawn a fair amount of attention and acclaim," says the show's host, John Schaefer. Daniel Variations, which the Sydney Morning Herald calls "a powerful composition," will receive its Australian premiere this Friday at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

The Magnetic Fields' Distortion tour may have come to a close, but that just means more time for Stephin Merritt to share another of his many talents: DJing. He stopped by the KCRW studios in his newly adopted hometown of Los Angeles this past Sunday to play guest DJ on Gary Calamar's late-night show.

The Brad Mehldau Trio's take on Oasis's "Wonderwall" is NPR's Song of the Day today. The track appears on the Trio's new Live album, on which the musicians "sound unusually lively and exploratory," says NPR. "Live is the finest live recording Mehldau has made. Collected from a series of 2006 concerts, these performances return to what Mehldau and his band do best: conversational improvisation, with idiosyncratic arrangements that rethink the popular songbook."

Today's the day. April Fool's, yes, but also the day Attack & Release, The Black Keys' latest, hits stores. The New York Sun says "Attack & Release houses the most stylistically diverse set of songs the band has released to date."New York Daily News says "the duo perfectly calibrate richer sounds and fuller melodies with their usual killer riffs and scathing rhythms." Scripps Howard gives the album four stars.

With just one more day to go before the release of Attack & Release, The Black Keys new album, the band will be live on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic today. The New York Times says of the collaboration with Danger Mouse: "Happily, the results are not just evident but potent. While the sound of this blues-rock duo has been fleshed out, none of its grit has been glossed." The Cleveland Plain Dealer gives the album an A, exclaiming: "The results are splendiferous." The Akron Beacon Journal, calls it "the band's most interesting collection of songs and sounds."

Tune in to Seattle public radio station KEXP, 90.3 FM, today at 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET, to hear an in-studio performance from and conversation with Stephin Merritt. The Magnetic Fields were in Seattle last week to play two nights at Town Hall; they'll close out their Distortion tour with three nights---six shows---at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music this weekend.

Tune in to ABC this Sunday night at 8 PM ET to catch the 80th annual Academy Awards. The Tim Burton-directed adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd has been nominated for three Academy Awards. Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood shares the distinction, with No Country for Old Men, of being the most nominated film this year.

On today's Morning Edition on NPR, Jeff Lunden spoke with the creators of the film Sweeney Todd—composer Stephen Sondheim, director Tim Burton, producer/screenwriter John Logan, and producer Richard D. Zanuck—just how they turned the macabre musical into a winning film. No small feat when you're talking about the piece considered to be the masterwork of the "the reigning master of the Broadway stage," as the piece states. Find out how it was done by listening to the segment here.