Ann Powers
Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music programs.
One of the nation's most notable music critics, Powers has been writing for The Record, NPR's blog about finding, making, buying, sharing and talking about music, since April 2011.
Powers served as chief pop music critic at the Los Angeles Times from 2006 until she joined NPR. Prior to the Los Angeles Times, she was senior critic at Blender and senior curator at Experience Music Project. From 1997 to 2001 Powers was a pop critic at The New York Times and before that worked as a senior editor at the Village Voice. Powers began her career working as an editor and columnist at San Francisco Weekly.
Her writing extends beyond blogs, magazines and newspapers. Powers co-wrote Tori Amos: Piece By Piece, with Amos, which was published in 2005. In 1999, Power's book Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America was published. She was the editor, with Evelyn McDonnell, of the 1995 book Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Rap, and Pop and the editor of Best Music Writing 2010.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University, Powers went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of California.
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NPR Music's pop critic, Ann Powers, says each of her favorite albums of 2014 gave her new tools to cope with and learn from the world around her, even as that world crashed in from outside. -
They might seem dusty, almost mystical or supernatural, but the vibrant songs on this three-disc set come from a golden age of gospel that set the path for rock 'n' roll. -
Paramore's Hayley Williams collaborates for the first time with old friend Joy Williams (no relation), formerly of The Civil Wars, on this pleading ballad. -
"The Same Road" is the first offering from Nora Jane Struthers' next album, and shows off her band's propulsive new direction. Rooted in bluegrass, Struthers is a serious woman with a light heart. -
Past the hype of the newcomer, not yet granted the deference of veterans, the allure of a band making a go of it in the murky middle may be subtle, but it can still be potent. -
The Indiana band will release its second album in 2015. This early sample is a striking, vibrating, epic folk ballad with almost surreal imagery and a story line that twists in odd directions. -
Swift has received accolades and damnation mostly for her image or the messages she supposedly sends, which must be irritating for a musician so clearly devoted to perfecting her techniques. -
Now that Taylor Swift has left Nashville behind, a handful of other up-and-coming stars are showing how country crosses over with other genres — and hoping for success that does the same. -
Legerdemain, out next April, will be the first album of original songs from the pop songwriter and Broadway composer since 2009, and you can download two songs from it here. -
On his new album, the singer returns to grand arrangements that support his pungent wit and unwavering emotionalism. It's a warm and spirited outing throughout.
