Staff Playlist – Songs to listen to right now

“Let Me Move You”
JIMI HENDRIX

New collection People, Hell & Angels provides a different take on Hendrix’s brilliance through experimental recordings and previously unreleased studio material. The energetic “Let Me Move You,” with sax and vocals by the legendary Lonnie Youngblood, is a lively gem full of the R&B funk and wah-wah sounds that blues fans are sure to enjoy.

“I Should Live in Salt”
THE NATIONAL

The National just may be filled with the happiest depressives on the planet. Just don’t tell the band that. This baritone-bred Brooklyn five piece leads off its new album with this dreamy torch song that breathes and ebbs like a holistic strummer. The only thing that could perfect such a stirring ballad is a bone-soaking rainstorm to listen to it in. Trouble Will Find Me arrives May 21.

“Monomania”
DEERHUNTER

Dubbed as “nocturnal garage” music in press releases by lead singer Bradford Cox, Deerhunter is once again turning heads with its fourth full-length album, Monomania, out May 7. On the title track, the band goes for lo-fi, ’70s-era rock, and the results are as hypnotic as ever.

“Can You Get To That”
MAVIS STAPLES

It’s nothing new for legendary artists to get a shot in the arm to their careers from younger, hipper musicians (see Loretta Lynn/Jack White or Dr. John/the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach). But on Mavis Staples’ second go-round with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy—One True Vine is out next month—her soulful, husky voice blends with Tweedy’s warm background for a breezy cover of Funkadelic’s classic that only barely veers into 1970s nostalgia via Southern acoustic rock.