What We’re Listening To: 3/6/2026

Each week, the Live Music Blog team takes stock of what’s been populating their playlists and getting endlessly stuck in their heads from the week that was. These can be new releases, obscure tracks in niche genres, or classic albums dusted off due to nostalgia (or because they’re simply awesome).

Enjoy what we’re listening to this week… and listen along with us if you so choose!

Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves (2018)

After previously listening to Kacey Musgraves’ sophomore album for my prior entry in this series, her follow-up album (not counting her 2016 Christmas album, A Very Kacey Christmas, which boasts one of the best Christmas songs ever: “Present Without A Bow”), Golden Hour saw Musgraves reach even loftier critical and commercial heights.

While Pageant Material held onto the country trappings of her earlier work, Golden Hour almost completely eschews them in favor of something akin to Gram Parsons’ “cosmic American music,” updated to the 21^st century.

Chock-full of eminently memorable and tremendously melodic material, this album is a masterwork and is easily one of the best albums released this century. With nary a low point, each track seems to fit perfectly where it is, with some songs standing above the rest as ones that will still be listened to 100 years from now.

“Butterflies” is an incredible ode to true love with seemingly timeless lyrics tied to one of Musgrave’s gentlest and most beautiful melodies; “Slow Burn” introduces the album as something different to her past efforts, as its heavy and inviting drumbeat combines with a spacey vibe that perfectly summarizes the album; “High Horse” is an up-tempo jam that is just as danceable as anything that 1970s disco artists produced; “Love Is A Wild Thing” is an anthemic ode to something humankind could use more of right now: love.

An astounding achievement and one that I will be listening to in full at least once a year from now on.

Top Tracks: “Slow Burn,” “Butterflies,” “Happy & Sad,” “Velvet Elvis,” “Wonder Woman,” “Love Is A Wild Thing,” “High Horse”

Listen Next: Star-Crossed by Kacey Musgraves, So Tonight That I Might See by Mazzy Star, Luxury Liner by Emmylou Harris, Ask Me Tomorrow by Mojave 3

The Suburbs (Deluxe) – Arcade Fire (2010)

While the Grammy Awards are a weak indicator of overall quality and musical importance, it must be stated that both of the first two albums featured herein took home Album of the Year honors at their respective Grammys – and both are assuredly well-deserved.

Arguably Arcade Fire’s best album, The Suburbs sees Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, and co. deliver their finest collection of songs, each of which blends seamlessly together and delivers a tragic (yet hopeful) portrayal of modern suburbia.

The album is full of striking imagery and each track is shot through with memorable instrumental parts or indelible melodies. The album kicks off with the catchy and somewhat jaunty-sounding title track, which sets the table for the avalanche of amazing material that follows.

Multiple highlight tracks are present with perhaps the best being the powerful paean to a lost childhood in “Wasted Hours (A Life We Can Live),” which boasts some of Butler’s finest lyrics. Butler’s then-wife (the two announced their separation in late 2025), Régine Chassagne, delivers her finest-ever Arcade Fire lead vocal on “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains),” an anthemic, polemic take on the Western ideal of manifest destiny – and its many perils.

An astounding achievement, The Suburbs is easily one of the best albums of the 2010s. If you’ve never listened to it, do yourself a favor and fire it up. You won’t be disappointed.

Top Tracks: “The Suburbs,” “Modern Man,” “Wasted Hours (A Life We Can Live),” “Ready to Start,” “We Used to Wait” (and check out this amazing interactive video for the song), “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”

Listen Next: Reflektor by Arcade Fire, The King of Limbs by Radiohead, Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend, Wincing the Night Away by The Shins

Antiphon – Alfa Mist (2017)

If you’re looking for some modern jazz to sink your teeth into, look no further. This British musician (née Alfa Sekitoleko) has released a number of acclaimed albums over the past decade, each of which expands upon the sound of its predecessor by combining elements of electronic and hip-hop with virtuosic jazz musicianship – all shot through with sampled voices and spoken-word clips that comment on the state of modern life in England and elsewhere.

Antiphon is Alfa Mist’s debut album, and it perfectly introduces his signature style on tracks such as “Keep On,” “Breathe,” and “Nucleus.” Alfa Mist’s work can be hard to pin down, but once you hear it, listening to it will feel just like taking a breath – natural, involuntary, and life-giving.

Top Tracks: “Keep On,” “Errors,” “Breathe,” “Kyoki,” “Nucleus”

Listen Next: Black Focus by Yussef Kamaal, The Substance by Kamaal Williams, What Kinda Music by Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes, Black Classical Music by Yussef Dayes

Chronic Town (1982) & Murmur (1983) – R.E.M.

Wild to think that R.E.M.’s first-ever release, the Chronic Town EP released nearly 45 years ago… but here we are! Athens, Georgia’s own R.E.M. are never far away from my recently played, and both their first EP and their first album Murmur have been on repeat this week.

Murmur, in particular, was a watershed moment in 1980s pop music, as it repopularized the “jangle pop” sound that had been in vogue in the 1960s but updated it with puzzling, obtuse lyrics from lead singer Michael Stipe and a more “modern” feel.

Due to the group’s contributions from all four members, Murmur is a singular document (no, not that Document), with myriad highlight tracks. “A Perfect Circle” featured notable lyrical and melodic contributions from drummer Bill Berry, “Pilgrimage” showcased the multi-instrumental talents of bassist Mike Mills, and “Moral Kiosk” features a proto-“dial-up modem” guitar tone from guitarist Peter Buck.

Arguably the album’s finest effort is “Sitting Still,” an eminently catchy song with a supremely hummable guitar part and an amazing climax that sees Stipe answer his own lyrics: “I can hear you. Can you hear me?” Spellbinding stuff.

Top Tracks: “Radio Free Europe,” “Talk About the Passion,” “Laughing,” “A Perfect Circle,” “Sitting Still”

Listen Next: Fables of the Reconstruction by R.E.M., The La’s by The La’s, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip by Rain Parade, The Dream Academy by The Dream Academy

^{Header Image Courtesy Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain}