DAVÓNE TINES & THE TRUTH’s “LET IT SHINE” is the first song from their upcoming piece ROBESOИ, about the life and music of the singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson. Tines has been heralded as a “singer of immense power and fervor” and one of "the most powerful voices of our time” by the Los Angeles Times and an “immensely gifted American bass-baritone [who] has won acclaim, and advanced the field of classical music" by the New York Times.

MESTIZX is Bolivian-born singer and multimedia performer Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Chicago expat jazz drummer Frank Rosaly's debut full-length album as co-composers, arrangers, and musicians. Partners in both marriage and art, the Amsterdam-based duo dove deep into the sounds of their respective ancestral roots in Bolivia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico to create this deeply personal meditation on decolonization and the defiant power of ritual and protest.

This first recording of John Adams’ 2017 opera, Girls of the Golden West, is his eighth music theater work to be released by Nonesuch. It tells the story of the California Gold Rush not through familiar time-worn myth, but in the words and deeds of real people. Longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars drew from original sources from the era—letters, journals, newspaper articles, and familiar song lyrics—to create the libretto. The composer leads the LA Phil in this recording made in Disney Hall, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale led by Grant Gershon and a cast featuring Davóne Tines, Julia Bullock, Paul Appleby, Hye Jung Lee, Elliot Madore, Daniela Mack, and Ryan McKinny.

The Black Keys' twelfth studio album, Ohio Players—a title inspired by the legendary Dayton, Ohio, funk band of the same name—features several collaborations between band mates Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney with various friends and colleagues, like Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, Beck, Noel Gallagher, Greg Kurstin, and others. “We had this epiphany: ‘We can call our friends to help us make music,’" Carney says. Auerbach adds, “No matter who we work with, it never feels like we're sacrificing who we are. It only feels like it adds some special flavor ... But when it came time to finish the album, it was just Pat and me.”

Timo Andres’ The Blind Banister comprises three works by the composer/pianist: the piano concerto The Blind Banister (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016), with Andres as soloist, and Upstate Obscura for chamber orchestra and cello, with soloist Inbal Segev—both of which feature Metropolis Ensemble and conductor Andrew Cyr—and the solo piano piece Colorful History, also performed by Andres.

The Staves’ All Now, produced by John Congleton (Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen), marks the band’s debut album as the duo of Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor, following their sister Emily’s departure. “There was a delayed reaction to trauma and these big changes out of your control,” Jess says of the period after the February 2021 release of their album Good Woman, as the band—like everyone—was forced to sit with their thoughts. Struggling after two years of deep solitude and pain, The Staves did what they know how to do best: they got back to writing with the idea of going back to basics and focusing almost solely on each other and their guitars as a starting point.

"Two-Step" is the debut Nonesuch single from Portland-based cinematic pop duo Ringdown, featuring creator-musicians Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee. With strings, keys, and synth melodies rippling around a crisp beat and Danni Lee’s vocals, “Two-Step” channels the technicolor rush of falling in love. "'Two-Step' is about letting go of your inner critic and trusting your own intuition,” the duo says. “It’s about forward momentum toward things that feel good and trusting that sometimes what may seem like a wrong turn at the time, ultimately could be the best route you’ve ever taken. Also dancing. It's about dancing.”

Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) created The Past Is Still Alive during a period of personal grief, when they found inspiration in radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury. Segarra uses their lyrics as a way to immortalize and say goodbye to those they have loved and lost, and to honor both the heartbroken and the hopeful parts of themselves. "Segarra has created an epic tale of life on the road, a nearly mythic version of their own life story that stands alongside other great American musical travelogues," exclaims NPR Music. "Career-defining." Rolling Stone says: "Segarra has honed their craft into a cohesive, astonishingly realized singer-songwriter record ... the best batch of songs Segarra's ever written." Paste calls it "a celebratory measure of love, sanctuary, and defiance ... In their hands, the trauma of the present day is a prelude to the possibilities of a better tomorrow."