Staff Picks for November 2025

Sam Beam of Iron and Wine has never been averse to collaborating with like-minded artists, and he seems to have found an especially simpatico musical partner in Jesca Hoop. He and the musically shape-shifting Hoop co-wrote and recorded a batch of songs together. The result, 2016's Love Letter for Fire, is an album that shows both performers to their best advantage.
- Mark Deming

Any compilation that properly anthologizes the chart history of Miss Peggy Lee is forced to sprint through 24 years, including a pair of decades that were the most culturally tumultuous of the 20th century. Such is the peril of attempting to summarize Lee's career by way of her hits, though for introductory purposes this disc is an excellent one (and her strong musical personality serves well to unify the material anyway).
- John Bush

The first studio album of Band originals since 1971's Cahoot -- in many respects, Northern Lights-Southern Cross, released 50 years ago today, was viewed as a comeback. It also can be seen as a swan song, in that its recording marked the last time the five members would work together in the studio as a permanent group, with a commitment to making a record they would tour behind and build on as a working band.
- Rob Bowman