I love this show. When I get in a slump and find myself listening to the same artists over and over, I turn up ASC and find something fantastic I wouldn’t have discovered on my own! But, as Kentucky girl myself, I feel like the state doesn’t get enough coverage. Ben Sollee just put out his first album in seven years and I’ve been surprised it hasn’t been featured yet. More Ky music please.

Never a bad word discussion of songs that would sound fantastic in a 2011 Starbucks

PLEASE bring back Ann Powers. Stephen Thompson is knowledgeable, but is an awful host. He’s got voice for print.

so cool to hear Izzy Bavis on this weeks episode. shoutout Baltimore and WTMD!

I’ve been listening for several years to All Songs Considered and it has been a constant companion through many phases of life. It’s the perfect balance of comforting and brain-stretching and I’m so grateful for all the amazing music it’s introduced me to. The people it introduces me to, whether artists or hosts or guests, is an added bonus and always makes me feel more linked to humanity.

Long time listener. The episode with Robin and Tom 2/25/25 was great. Return to what I would call the earlier “Robin and Bob” style, more music than talk, talk concise and informative, different intriguing music refreshingly .not. pop or rap. More please.

alt.latino: “chisme, chisme, chisme”. What is this, TMZ?

A favorite listen every week! The podcast paired with the extended playlist is my favorite music discovery tool! Love this show!

Such a solace every week to explore and celebrate music. Listening to All Songs makes me feel tapped in to one of the most meaningful parts of being human, and like I’m in the greatest listening bar ever with all the funny, curious and thoughtful hosts. So grateful for this show!

This institution has innovated the form and continues to find a broad swath of new music and current pop hits to recommend. Beyond that, the hosts have explored why music fills us with life and who is continuing to push the boundaries.

Love to songs the dj’sfeature, the stories and the dj’s! Keep it uppppppp ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’ve been listening to this show since 2005 (?!) and I miss Bob and all he brought to it! AND! Robin, Stephen, and Ann Powers do such a great job bringing the music love!!! New music Fridays is terrific!!!! I loved the deeper dive format with Ann and guests last year, AND I love the return to Robin-style with Stephen this year. I’m a fan, deep rooted music fan, and appreciate all everyone does to help us touch grass and listen to lots of great music!!!

Continually educating and surprising me with smart and thoughtful insight into new music

New Music Friday has gotten so much better this year!! I love all the music they share and am always finding new great music to listen to. Happy to see NPR responding to their listeners and making the best possible shows!!!

OMG, so happy New Music Friday is finally feeling like its old self again!

I’m so happy that they got back to what I loved about this show in the first place. Stephen Thompson is a great host who prioritizes the music, not the analysis

Love the music recs, love the more diverse hosts and genres. Don’t love the hosts interrupting each other or the overly long analysis. I usually stop listening halfway through.

Less so the endless talk about your selections

I am very close to dropping this podcast from my rotation. It’s become 80% talk and 20% music. I am not sure if they did that based on listener feedback but it’s not working for me. I want to listen to music and not a thesis long discussion about minute details about the song, artist and more annoying all the personal details of the hosts lives.

Not a peep about the genocide they’re funding, but plenty of time for interviewing its defenders.

Used to love new music Friday but now I can’t get through an episode because there is so much talking and hardly any music

Less talking, more music. Make the podcast about the music, not the hosts. We listen to discover new music, not hear your thoughts on it. Podcast ruined.

Why do an episode on the 20th anniversary of Arcade Fire’s Funeral, a remarkably unique album in my humble opinion, if you are just going to pounce on the band with your tired cynicism? And obviously you had to take the opportunity to diss The Suburbs in the process. Absolutely insufferable. The sanity was lost with Bob’s departure and it’s all downhill from here.

Ewww. I thought we were trending against DEI in culture. Please this stuff is getting old. Your staffing department is in the wrong direction.

Ever since Bob left they just talk for 45 minutes and play 6 samples of songs. Tried to hang in to my favorite show of all time, but here we are, and I’m now unsubscribed.

What is happening? The new format is like listening to 1st and 2nd year English majors sitting around and trying to look like they’re smart. If you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance, befuddle ‘em with baloney. Instead of sampling new releases by artists we haven’t heard for a while, we’re given a vocabulary lesson with adjectives like “shamanistic”, “ephemeral.” 3 episodes a week ranging from 45-60 minutes an episode means you need to talk faster or learn some serious editing.

I’ve been listening to All Songs for… jeez more than 20 years. Back in the day it was an appointment listen for me. But I haven’t been able to make it through a full episode in a couple of years. The 30 seconds of music, and then 10 minutes of talking is just too much to overcome. The show has changed from being about new music to being about a few peoples’ opinions about music.

The Friday new music episodes are now too long with too much talking and not enough music. Please return to the old format and provide separate episodes if you want to have longer discussions on a topic. I’m finding I like the Alt.Latino episodes more. The music is very enjoyable and the hosts are a joy to listen to. The episodes are a good balance of playing music and offering commentary. The hosts are insightful while still having fun. They are also concise and considerate with their thoughts.

I’ve listened to New Music friday for years and have always appreciated discovering new gems and artists I would not have heard otherwise. However, this new format is just not doing it for me and I have fallen out of love with the show. Too much talking, too few albums, less perspectives, and more mainstream. I’d be curious about why the change was made, because by every one of my metrics, the show has changed for the worse. I hope NPR considers going back to the old formula.

As others have mentioned, there used to be more albums covered and seemed like a wider range of genres covered in the past. I’ve been trying to give the new show a chance to warm up, but it doesn’t seem to be getting much better. I agree there’s too much analysis chat and not enough music. I also can’t listen to Sheldon laugh at the end of almost every sentence he says anymore. Drives me crazy. He needs to boost his confidence and just say what he wants to say without using the nervous laugh to backtrack on it. It’s just plain annoying after a while. I’ve had to just skip over a lot of the talking because of it. The show needs a little tweaking to get back to what it once was.

I always turn to this podcast for new music! Excellent variety. My only gripe is sometimes it sounds like the microphone is inside of the commentators mouth. Watch out for mouth sounds 😣😖

I agree with the other recent reviews about this. Let the music speak for itself more plz.

I like the content of this podcast a lot and discovering new music/listening to the discussion, but the way that Anamaria tries to pronounce Spanish words is so cringe to me that I cannot keep listening. I can’t take it anymore

I used to love this show - it always introduced me to music from all genres and sub genres. The weekly critics would look at maybe 6 to 8 albums and then raise awareness of a particular album that each critic personally wanted to showcase which really added another layer of uniqueness to the music being introduced. Now it’s just three albums being discussed in the same time frame… I enjoy all of the critics but I want to hear the music with more albums being exposed but far less of each critic’s extensive personal opinion. Can we hear more music and less talk please? Many thanks!

I used to look forward to starting my Fridays with this show but am struggling with the change in format. I loved the variety of artists covered in the past; now the show seems to drag on with coverage of only a few albums that seems long winded. There’s a ton of discussion and not enough music being played. I find myself skipping much of the show which is a bummer, and not discovering as much new music that I love. I really hope to see more variety in the future…for a short format, >10 mins on a single album seems excessive. Hoping they look at listener feedback and reevaluate the new format.

A beautiful and memorable episode with Latin music giant Edgar Barrera and the transformation of the genre inside and out.

Grousing over the changes to the pod. And then, gradually, I’ve become a convert. I came of age falling in love w/music through pouring over reviews w/thoughtful insights & critical analysis. Same as it ever was. Just a new cadre of brilliant folks loving music like the rest of us.

Also want to express my criticism of the new New Music Friday format. 18 minutes on Luke Combs new album is simply too much coverage. I feel like your headlining album could be 6 minutes tops. More variation, please. Maybe the bigger releases like a Taylor Swift, may deserve their own episode. But otherwise, I would rather have a taste of the 20 albums released in a week than a full meal of one.

New music Friday used to be a highlight of my week, but I strongly dislike the new format. I much preferred listening to short analyses of 5+ albums than 15 minute long analyses of a couple albums. I find myself skipping at least half of every episode now. Not shocked I’m not the only one feeling this way, based on the reviews.

I hope NPR Music truly considers listener feedback. The new format of New Music Friday is so much less satisfying than before. I always looked forward to this made-it-to-Friday treat, but now I feel so much more “meh” about it. The in-depth analysis and tangential descriptions of artists and their new music feels like fluff and readily loses my interest. If I wanted to learn that much information about what album, I would pursue more in-depth information about it, but that is not what function this show has served. We are introduced and exposed to so many fewer artists and albums. My cup is not so full after a listen. I’m finding myself not looking forward to it and missing shows, without missing shows. ☹️

I think that she’s the best host yet.

This is my favorite podcast; I look forward to it every week. Each week the hosts highlight some of their favorite new albums and talk through the contours and contexts of each album. I appreciate that the hosts limit their critiques/are not providing “reviews” of the albums. They mainly focus the discussion on what they found interesting or especially compelling about the releases. They cover a wide range of genres (rap, jazz, classical, R

The show radically changed after winding down 2023. Unrecognizable now. It seems like squarely targeting urban rap. Maybe that’s what they think is needed to survive and bring in new listeners. But, why not start a new pod instead of scuttling a reliable source for discovering all types of new music? UPDATE 2024-03: The pod seems to have moved back to a format that increases its appeal for me. Maybe it is Robin getting his footing and/or giving more guidance from the brilliant Ann Powers. If you almost stopped listening (like me) give it another shot.

Ann powers is getting to be too much. The commentary is not only overpowering the music but half the time such a stupid comment just to hear herself speak. I don’t wanna listen to new comments by Ann Powers I wanna listen to new music

I have been listening for years and always looked forward to it. New format - Even though you are featuring just 4 artists I feel like I am hearing less music from those artists. All of your contributors are thoughtful and offer great insight but I am losing interest in listening and contributing to the program.

I agree with the other posts regarding a return to focusing more on the music and less banter. I find myself listening less and less each week.

I liked the old format better. It was more fun, sampled and discussed more music, and had varying opinions from many different people/demographics. I’m not sure why it needed to be changed but I find myself no longer listening when before I loved waking up on Fridays.

This is a diluted version of the original show, with meandering chatter passed off as commentary—and very little music per minute. I’d be curious to hear a relaunch as if the producers were making a demo—and really needed a green light in order to pay the bills. Maybe then it would be tighter, more entertaining, more share-worthy. But it isn’t, now.

I really liked it much more the old way. The long discussions get stale fast. I’m sorry to say that after listening to New Music Friday regularly I’ve just listened to my last episode and I had to cut it short. Pretentious banter just isn’t my thing.

Used to be great. Now too long and it’s all about the hosts talking to each other nonstop, competing to show you who knows more. Loved the old shorter format as it was a great balance.