The Tim Burton–directed film version of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd starring Johnny Depp hits theaters across the country next month. Catch a glimpse of what's in store in the film's trailer here.

"Confident and charismatic, he's a dynamic performer regardless of the style of music he's playing, a smart, stirring songwriter and a remarkable vocalist," says the Wall Street Journal's review of Youssou N'Dour's show in Miami on Friday. "N'Dour's voice is stunning, elastic and powerful." The Washington Post's review of Monday's show at the Kennedy Center, titled "Star of Dakar—and the World," exclaims that N'Dour "demonstrated that his reputation as one of the world's greatest singers is not hyperbole.

Congratulations to Ry Cooder, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist by the Americana Music Association (AMA), in a ceremony held earlier this month at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium.

With iPods now holding up to 160 gigabytes of your favorite music, it might not be such a bad idea to start thinking of the 1,000 or so albums you just can't live without. Or, as the Guardian (UK) has put it, the 1,000 albums you must hear before you die. All this week, the Guardian is revealing, day by day, the records its music team thinks are must-hears "before you shuffle off your mortal coil." Out so far on the list, released alphabetically by artist, are groups A through M. Here's some of what the Guardian's music mavens had to say about the Nonesuch albums they included from Amadou & Mariam, Laurie Anderson, Buena Vista Social Club, Brian Eno & David Byrne, Ali Farka Touré, Ibrahim Ferrer, Bill Frisell, Kronos Quartet, Pat Metheny, Steve Reich, and Orlando Cachaito López.

In a ceremony held at Manhattan's Hudson Theater last Tuesday, Laurie Anderson was awarded the esteemed Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. Named in memory of the early-film era stars, each year, the prize honors “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.” Here is a transcript of Laurie Anderson's acceptance speech from the event.

Now on display at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is Playback, an exhibition exploring the intersection between video art and music videos. The show features video by artists like Andy Warhol, William Wegman, Damien Hirst, Sonic Youth, and Laurie Anderson. "In a time when most video art has become multi-screen installation," says InterAccess, "Playback makes a strong case that single channel video, in the form of the music video, is alive and well, with an audience and a distribution network to rival single channel video’s heyday."

The New York Post's film critic Lou Lumenick recently caught a preview of Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood and is adding to the film's Oscar buzz . "One thing is clear," he writes. "The amazing Daniel Day-Lewis is the top contender for Best Actor honors. Day, who has been leading prognosticators' charts ... for several weeks, is unforgettable as an oilman undone by his avariciousness in this full-blooded, early 20th-century epic ..." Harp magazine looks at the film's score by Jonny Greenwood, including a statement from the composer about his process for creating music for this "full-blooded" film.

In this week's Boston Phoenix, Banning Eyre reviews Youssou N'Dour's latest CD, Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take), and finds further confirmation that "the emotional nexus of N'Dour's best work [is] in his near-divine voice." The album is "just one more reflection of how the demands of N’Dour’s far-flung audiences have sharpened his powers." N'Dour's US tour heads to the Boston area on Monday, December 10.

New York Public Radio station WNYC's Soundcheck staff have released their Picks of the Week. The show's executive producer, Gisele Regatao, points to Youssou N'Dour's Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take), and host John Schaefer names David Byrne's The Knee Plays among the "stand-out new albums" worth checking out now.

On this morning's edition of Today, BBC Radio 4's flagship news and current affairs program, David Byrne talked about the inspiration behind The Knee Plays. The piece was originally devised as part of an epic theater piece by director Robert Wilson in 1984 and has just now been released on CD by Nonesuch. Read what he had to say here.

Craig Smith, 60, Founder and Artistic Director of Boston's Emmanuel Music, has died. Opera News reports that Smith, a frequent collaborator of the late mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, passed away last Wednesday, November 14, in Boston, from complications due to diabetes-related kidney failure. We at Nonesuch offer our heartfelt condolences to Craig Smith's family and colleagues.

The DownBeat 72nd Annual Readers Poll results are in, including the Best Jazz Album of the Year: Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau's Metheny Mehldau. Metheny was also named Best Guitarist and Mehldau Best Acoustic Pianist. "There was a real exchange and richness of ideas," Metheny tells DownBeat about the making of the album. "We talked about the most complex, simple, detailed, or general idea at will. We moved around within three dimensions, sound-wise or texture-wise, harmonically or rhythmically."